Nest Cam and Doorbell batteries not charging in cold weather

Google’s acquisition of the Nest brand back in 2014 prompted a rebrand of most of the Nest products, but it also spawned new product releases as well. One of these was the battery-powered Nest Doorbell which provided a solution for those that either lived in rental properties or were simply not inclined to do some electrical wiring which the original wired Nest Doorbell required.

As it turns out, at the beginning of the year when the temperatures started to drop significantly, the reports of Nest Doorbells and Nest Cameras suffering from battery drain and charging issues started to roll in via the Google support forum. What’s worse is that the issue was occurring even if the camera was wired to the home’s electricity, which is supposed to provide trickle charging that is enough to support 24/7 video stream.

Google has since then provided an explanation for this via a support article as spotted by 9to5Google. Google explains that although the devices will work in temperatures as low as -4°F (-20°C), the actual minimum charging temperature is 32°F (0°C). What’s more, is that it warns that at lower temperatures, the battery can still power the device but won’t charge and will drain quicker than usual.

The batteries in Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery) have the following minimum temperature requirements:

* Minimum operating temperature: -4°F (-20°C)
* Minimum charging temperature: 32°F (0°C)

At temperatures between -4°F (-20°C) and 32°F (0°C), the battery can still power your device, but it won’t charge. It may also drain more quickly than usual. At temperatures close to -4°F (-20°C), your battery may have less than half the life that it has in warm weather.

Note: The battery can still be charged at 104°F (40°C), the hottest operating temperature for Nest Cam (battery) and Nest Doorbell (battery).

Google Nest Help

The workaround provided for this is to simply bring the device indoors for it to warm up and charge accordingly, which is not a great solution as it can take a while for these devices to fully charge. You will be able to check if your device is suffering from this by checking its status on the Home app. If the status shows “Charging paused” or “Charging slowly“, then you should probably charge it indoors. 9to5Google notes that Google announced it will release a new version of the Nest Doorbell sometime this year that will be wired and support 24/7 continuous video history.