I have had my Video Doorbell 3 Plus for approximately 18 months now. I have it hardwired and it works fine during the warmer months of the year. However, during the winter months, it will not charge from the doorbell wiring and I need to remove the battery and charge it via the USB cable. I researched this previously and I saw that it is a known issue that the batteries in hardwired units may not charge in cold areas. (FYI, I live in south-central PA and it’s not THAT cold here.)
So during the colder months of the year when the doorbell will not charge, I do not get alerts to inform me when the battery is low. The app will not display battery alerts because the device is hardwired. Instead, it takes a day or so to realize that I haven’t been seeing any motion alerts because the battery is dead.
Is there any way to receive battery alerts on a hardwired unit? Also, is there any way to ensure the doorbell charges all year round?? I mean, if you live in Wisconsin, northern Maine, or anywhere north of me, do your hardwired doorbells also not charge during the colder 6 months of the year?
I agree that it would be nice if hardwired devices still sent low battery alerts. I ran into the same issue with my doorbell. I was aware that the battery was getting low by monitoring in the app, but a notification would’ve been nice as well. As soon as I disconnected it from the transformer and it reverted to battery the low battery notification immediately came through. I’d think it’d just be a coding fix that could keep the low battery detection enabled while the unit is hardwired, but maybe it’s more complicated.
Unfortunately there really isn’t a way to ensure the doorbell charges all year round other than taking it inside and recharging it after it warms up. The lithium ion batteries cannot be charged at temperatures 32 and below without causing damage to them and possibly making them unsafe/unstable once they warm up again. To work around the lack of charging during the winter I tweak the settings on my doorbell to be less battery intensive during the winter months. Not the most graceful solution, but it prevents me from having to disconnect the doorbell and bringing it inside to charge multiple times during the winter. (I have the Video Doorbell 2020 version so I can’t just swap out a battery pack)
