Blink Outdoor (3rd Gen) + Solar Panel Charging Mount – wireless, HD smart security camera, solar-powered, motion detection – Add-on camera (Sync Module required)

Worked fine and now battery lasts less than a month. Not easy to find customer support. Hoping this review will get attention.blink sent out a new system. No questions asked. Thanks Blink

Bought this item in Nov of 2022. AA batteries do not last long although it should only be for backup since the solar panel + built in battery should provide primary power. I get the low battery warning in less than a month after I changed them. I used to blame the cloudy weather but with 2 summers already, the performance did not change. I read on some reviews that the cable from the solar module to the camera might be defective. I guess that's the case here. Waste of money!Updated:I was surprised that customer service contacted me after this review to ask details of the issue I was having. As it was almost 2years since I bought the product, I don't expect any sort of warranty anymore. Then I received an email regarding an RMA. If at all, a new cable would suffice but a new set was sent to me. I just installed the new system hoping I won't emcounter the same issue. But just for the customer service, I'm giving this a 5star!

The solar powered camera is a great idea - and why I bought this camera and solar panel combination. I got it to replace a camera I have had for quite a while. The old camera was under a tree canopy so I had to locate the new solar camera where it can collect the suns rays. The mounting bracket is fairly large and it took me awhile to create a suitable place to mount it with screws as are provided - all I had were metal posts in the desired spot.On set up I found this camera very difficult to plug into the solar portion - seems weird but the cord is short so you can't see and the plug is difficult to line up properly with the port to be able to advance it. Then I had trouble getting the camera to work reliably. It is a little further from my house and WIFI source d/t being in a new location but I have an interior camera 15 feet or more farther away in a shed which works reliably and very well. I have contacted tech support but I email earlier in the day and they email at night (when it is dark and I don't go where this cameral is in the dark - it's up a steep hill). So 1 message a day, unless I miss that I have gotten an email for a day or two so this has been drawn out. They have me trying various things and I'll let you know how it turns out. This new camera does not seem to connect to the WIFI very well, often I cannot connect to access the settings, randomly it stops working and just when I think it's never going to work again, I'll get a few more events from it, and this is true even when I have brought it inside my house to troubleshoot. It just does not seem to have the sensitivity of all my other cameras. IDK - still trying but since it took me a few weeks to set up I am outside the 30 days, right now I cannot recommend this camera.Update from a few days ago - still back and forth with tech support - try this, try that (granted them access, uninstall & reinstall making sure the red light is on, take the batteries out for 30 sec, move sync module to withing 5 ft. of WIFI device - it always had/has been, lengthen the time the clip records, on and on) - I did all that and it still is not working correctly; and they are not really helping me. I even put my old camera back up there - about 5 ft. away with another camera being 15 plus feet away that works & I put batteries in the old camera and it is picking up cars driving by and people walking buy but the New Camera does NOT. I have taken away another star - the thing does not pick up anything more than 3 feet away and they don't care. I'm seemingly stuck with this lemon, and I plan to never buy BLINK devices again.

I am writing this review even though this Gen 3 camera has been superseded by the Gen 4 camera, as there is no (genuine) solar unit available for Gen 4 cameras (yet). Since the battery life for both Gen 3 and Gen 4 cameras is about the same (claimed to be 2 years, for me 8 months without the solar mount), I believe the solar/Gen 3 camera combo is still worth considering and is still available on Amazon. I thought I would share my experience with this product.In April 2023, I purchased two solar panel/camera sets to monitor the perimeter of my house. One of them has been working flawlessly—no battery changes needed for the first 16 months and still going. However, I’ve had to replace the battery on the other set twice now. The first time was in January 2024. I contacted customer support because of the discrepancy between the two cameras. They asked me to reset the camera and install fresh batteries, and I even recharged the solar battery (18650) using my charger specifically for 18650 batteries.After 8 months, the camera ran out of battery again, lasting about the same time as before. When I put new batteries in, the camera died again two days later! This happened the first time as well. I contacted support again; they accessed my system and concluded that the solar unit was defective. They sent me a new one. Previously, this camera unit showed a “Battery OK” status under “Details” in the settings, but with the new solar unit, the camera shows “External Power Status Good” instead—perhaps now recognizing the solar panel/battery mount.I took apart the old solar mount - see pics. The solar panel generated about 5.3V under the intense light, with resulting output voltage from the board to the camera oscillating between 0.6V and 1.9V - not sure this is normal. The 18650 battery in the solar mount is healthy with its capacity of ~3000mAh.While Blink customer support has been superb—kindly replacing the solar module 16 months after purchase—my experience with the Blink solar panel has not been entirely pleasant. However, when it works, it works great.