8 Tips To Make Blink Camera Batteries Last Longer.

Blink cameras have one of the most powerful batteries of all smart cameras currently on the market such as Eufy, Arlo, or Wyze, and according to the company they last for two years.

Blink estimated their battery life based on 5,882 seconds of Live View, 43,200 seconds of motion-activated recording, and 4,788 seconds of Live View with two-way talk, but a lot of people are experiencing fast battery drain and asking why this happens and how they can make it last longer?

The longevity of your batteries depends on many factors such as the device settings, duration of use, and the environment like temperature and the street’s traffic, which means that you can’t enjoy the 2 years offered by the Blink cam if you’re using it on high usage mode.

In this article, I’ll show you all the factors that can affect your battery and what you can do in order to save and extend your batteries.

Why does the Blink camera use so much battery and how to save it?

The lithium non-rechargeable batteries that come with the cam have high energy density and can last longer compared to Alkaline or Li-Ion, but as we mentioned before factors like the environment and high usage can deplete your battery quickly.

In this section, we’re going to dive into explaining the cause that is killing your lithium battery and what to do in order to extend its longevity.

One: Weak Wifi signals and slow internet speed.

when your router can’t provide stable signals to the Blink system, or when your Sync module and router are too far from each other and from the cam connection issues will occur and the cam will use more battery resources to maintain the connection.

Also when the internet is slow the camera will need more time in order to upload the recorded footage to the cloud or let you access the live view.

Note: The camera needs at least 3 bars of signal strength for the Camera to Wifi.

Two: Operating temperature.

Even if the lithium batteries are weather-resistant which means they can perform in extreme temperatures, from well below zero to over 100°F, being exposed to the sun for a long time or exceeding the temperature range will deplete your batteries faster.

Three: Using Alkaline or rechargeable batteries.

These batteries do not provide sufficient current to power high drain devices like the Blink cam and they can’t resist extreme temperatures as the lithium non-rechargeable do and they have lower longevity, so if you’re using them you’ll experience frequent battery drain.

Four: Camera placement.

When the Blink cam detects motion it will automatically turn on and record clips and upload them to the cloud for you to watch them from your mobile phone, the issue is when you’re using this cam in a high traffic street it will be triggered multiple times a day which will lead it to consume a lot of battery resources.

So if you want to use the Blink camera on a popular street, be sure to power it via a micro USB cable and an adapter or buy another wired model.

Five: High usage.

There are many ways how you can adjust the settings of your cam and these settings will determine how much time your battery will last, so when you’re on a high battery usage your cam sends you a notification and you can try the following action to reduce the usage:

• Shorten the length of your motion clips: When the camera detects motion, it starts recording short clips and sends them to you via the cloud. The duration of the clips can vary from 5 to 60 seconds. The longer the clips, the more battery resources will be used.
  
  Note: You can modify the clip length from the camera settings.

• limit your use of Live View: When people own the Blink camera, they will be obsessed with accessing the Live View multiple times a day and seeing what is happening inside their house or talking to their children or spouse through it, but this behavior is not suitable if you want your battery to last longer.
  
  So don’t access live view if it’s not necessary and if something happens, don’t worry, your camera will send you a notification.

• Configure Activity Zones: This feature allows you to draw the area in which you want to be notified in order to avoid receiving ineffective notifications and excessive motion clips or false alerts.
  
  Follow the steps below to determine your activity zone:
  
  • Go to the Blink app, then tap the settings icon of the camera you want to modify.
  • Select Activity Zones, then Tap the Update Photo button to refresh your thumbnail image.
  • Tap on the square that you don’t want your camera to record (the excluded square will be with grey color).
  • Tap the Done button on the top right corner of the screen to finish the process.
    
    Note: The Activity Zones screen for Blink Indoor (gen 2), Outdoor, and XT2 cameras have a Basic and Advanced option, the Advanced mode will give you a zoomed view of the thumbnail image for more precise zone selection.

• Reduce your camera’s sensitivity setting: The Blink cam detect motion based on the heat moving across, so it will often record motions of your pets which leads to false alerts and more battery consumption (two things that you don’t want at all), so you need to go to the settings and adjust the sensitivity of your device.
  
  Note: This task requires you to guess and check to determine the best sensitivity value (from 0 to 10) for your device.
  
  Here’s how to adjust sensitivity value:
  
  • Launch the Blink app.
  • Click on the Settings icon on the device you want to change.
  • Scroll down to Sensitivity and move the slider a small distance toward H for high or toward L for low.
  • Tap Save on the top right corner of the screen.
  • Go and check if the sensitivity value you set works well for you.

• Lower the amount of arming time using a schedule: When your Blink camera is armed it will detect motions, record short clips and you will receive notifications on your device, Of course, these are the main reasons that reduce your camera battery life.
  
  Blink recommends to their users to reduce the amount of time your camera is armed when at home, or only arm your camera when no one is home or at night.
  
  You can also arm the camera based on a schedule or individually arm and disarm certain cameras within a system.

• Lower IR intensity of the camera: IR intensity means the intensity of InfraRed that allows your Blink cam to see at night or in a dark room, you can adjust the IR intensity to three-level (Low, Medium, High), the High level give you the best illumination and the Low level give you the best battery performance.
  
  Here are the steps to follow in order to configure the IR intensity:
  
  1. Open the Blink app on your mobile or tablet.
  2. Go to the settings of the cam you want to modify.
  3. Scroll down until you find the NIGHT VISION section.
  4. Now tap on Low, Med, or High to adjust the IR intensity.

Six: Track battery usage.

If you want to see the state of your battery it’s possible by going to the Blink app, then to the camera settings.

The bad thing with this option is that the Blink app can only tell you if the battery is OK or Needs Replacement, and it doesn’t give you information like battery percentage, the number of events detected. So we hope that Blink improves this feature to make it easier for users to track their usage.

Seven: Update the Blink app.

The manufacturer releases new updates for the app that runs the Blink camera to make it work faster and better than before, so make sure to update the app because the outdated design of the app may lead to more battery consumption.

Eight: Use the Solar Panel Charging Mount.

You can use the Solar Panel Charging Mount offered by Blink to forget battery issues forever, Solar Panel Mount uses power from the sun to continuously charge Blink Outdoor.

The Solar panel can be the solution if your cam is placed in high traffic areas, it comes with a 1 Preinstalled 18650 lithium-ion battery (rechargeable), all you need to do is to place the mount in direct sunlight with the included kit or with a no-drill installation.

Final words.

By following the advice shown in this article you’ll get the most out of your Blink battery and avoid all mistakes that can lead you to fast drain, so we hope that we answered all your questions.

You can read more about the Blink battery requirements in this article.