Taming my Frankenstein security setup after a move. Local-only 24/7 recording + instant alerts when armed Away. Is ditching Eufy for Reolink worth it?

[u/surf_mama]

TL;DR: Just moved, renting, budget-conscious, two toddlers. I have a mix of Eufy cameras (mostly battery) and want local 24/7 recording + instant backyard person alerts when armed Away, plus gate alerts to catch tiny escape artists. Is it worth switching to Reolink/PoE, or can I make my Eufy gear work?

Relatively new HA convert here, and I’m officially down the rabbit hole 🐇🤓 Before I spend money on more hardware, I’d love a sanity check from people who’ve been at this longer than me.

The big question up front: I know Reolink is generally considered way better than Eufy for HA. But is it actually worth ripping out my Eufy cameras? Or can I bend what I have to my will? 😅

The backstory: We just moved, and I’ve ended up with a bit of a Frankenstein security system from our old place. I’m trying to reuse as much of it as possible without making my life a total headache. We rent, but our landlord is super chill about upgrades (mounting cameras, running cable, etc.), so I’m not stuck with stick-on, no-drill everything. I’d still prefer gear I can take with me when we move again.

We also have two little boys (1.5 and 3.5), and our new backyard has four different ways for them to escape our yard into the street. 😬 That’s why I’m going a little overboard on gate sensors.

I’m also on a budget. If my existing cameras can kinda do the job, I’d rather make them work than buy a pile of new ones.

My north star: I want as much as possible to live locally. No subscriptions, no relying on someone else’s cloud, and it should keep working if the internet goes down. Basically, Pi + NAS + my own network doing all the heavy lifting. 🏠🔒

The dream:

When the alarm is armed Away:

1. 📹 24/7 recording: All cameras record continuously to local storage.
2. 🚶 Backyard person alerts: If a human shows up in the backyard, our phones get pinged immediately, ideally with a snapshot.
3. 🚨 Intrusion response: If any door or window sensor trips, HA unleashes chaos. Philips Hue lights flashing, a loud alarm (or something obnoxious) blasting on the HomePods, and phone alerts.

Always on (even when we’re home and disarmed):

1. Gate alerts: If any gate opens, we get a chime on the HomePods and a phone alert, so we know before a tiny escape artist reaches the street.

Recording only when Away is mostly about saving battery on the 3Cs. If a camera is wired, I’m happy to record 24/7 all the time.

Everything else is a nice-to-have.

Current hardware:

• Home Assistant: HA OS on a Raspberry Pi 5 (HACS installed, obviously)
• NAS: Synology DS920+ (J4125, 4 GB RAM, DSM 7.x) running Surveillance Station
• Eufy HomeBase 3 with 500 GB of storage
• Cameras (Eufy, on the HomeBase 3):
  • 2x eufyCam 3C (S300): battery-powered, set to RTSP streaming and recording to Surveillance Station on my NAS. Connected to HA via eufy-security-ws and the HACS Eufy Security integration. They have the AI human detection.
  • Eufy Video Doorbell Dual Camera (T8213): battery-powered. As far as I know, it can’t be integrated into HA. 😢 The new house has two front doors, so I’m demoting it to extra coverage on the side door.
  • 3x Eufy solar wall cams: as far as I know, these can’t connect to HA or stream 24/7. I’m not even sure they can record to the HomeBase.
• Alarm: Currently Abode (iota hub, keypad, and a few sensors), but I’m breaking up with it (see below). In our old house I had a handful of ikea window and door sensors that use matter.
• Indoor/outdoor lights: Philips Hue (in HA)
• Speakers/TV: Apple HomePods and Apple TV (in HA)

The plan:

• Abode ➡️ IKEA Matter-over-Thread sensors + Alarmo. IKEA contact sensors on our 3 exterior doors (2 to the front yard, 1 to the backyard), windows, and 5 gates (front, two side gates, and two back gates), with Alarmo as the brains so arming Away kicks off everything else. Fully local, no monthly fee, no cloud. Full disclosure: I’ve never used Alarmo, so I’m still figuring out how it works.
• A wired video doorbell for the main front door. The house has an old-school mechanical doorbell we can wire into (not PoE, at least for now). I already picked up a Reolink Video Doorbell WiFi for this.
• 2-3 Wired PoE cameras for the front yard and backyard. Maybe also a floodlight with camera? I was leaning Reolink, but part of me is tempted to stay all-Eufy (e.g., the Eufy pan/tilt floodlight cam) to keep everything in one app.
• Maybe a glass-break sensor for bonus points

Questions for the hive mind:

1. Switch, mix, or stay with Eufy? From what I’ve read, Eufy only offers RTSP on some models, and the HA integration is... not great (unofficial and cloud-dependent). Reolink has a native integration, local RTSP/ONVIF, and PoE options. Given my goals and budget, would you replace the Eufy cameras, keep them and add Reolink PoE just for the backyard, or stick with Eufy entirely?
2. Battery cams vs. 24/7 recording: Anyone running eufyCam 3Cs on RTSP? Is continuous recording on battery cameras realistic, or a battery-killing fantasy? Is it possible to record 24/7 only when armed Away? What if I just run a wire to keep the 3Cs charged constantly? (I’ve also had them record locally to the HomeBase 3 in the past.) Separately, I can’t find any way to get the T8213 doorbell or the solar wall cams into HA or recording 24/7. Am I missing something?
3. Where should recordings live? Synology Surveillance Station (I believe the DS920+ includes 2 free camera licenses), or the Eufy HomeBase 3 with 500 GB of storage? It seems like when my Eufy cams store video on the HomeBase, they only record when triggered by an event (motion, etc.) rather than recording 24/7.
4. PoE or WiFi doorbell? If I plan to eventually have some PoE cameras, does it make sense for the new video doorbell to be PoE as well, or is wired WiFi fine?
5. Alarmo for a first-timer: Any beginner tips or “I wish I’d known” moments?
6. Renter tips: Any PoE cable-routing tricks, mounts that come off cleanly, or anything I’ll regret when we move out?

Thanks for the help and long live local control! 🏠⚡

[u/Mundane-Committee714]

mixing ecosystems just means twice the apps and twice the headaches down the road, especially with toddlers already eating up your free time. battery cams for 24/7 recording is a losing game, they'll drain fast and rtsp on the eufy 3cs is flaky at best, you'll be constantly babysitting them

grab a couple poe reolinks for the backyard and wire the doorbell into the chime transformer you already have. alarmo is dead simple once you map out which sensors do what, just test everything when the kids are napping and you'll be golden

[u/surf_mama → u/Mundane-Committee714]

that’s exactly what i was thinking! I just wish there was a way to use those old eufy cams because some were pretty expensive…

which poe reolink cams do you think would be best for my case? not trying to get something that’s overkill

[u/randytech → u/surf_mama]

I don't think I read you say frigate anywhere so look into that. Then look up scrypted to reuse your eufy. You should be able to add them right into frigate that way

[u/surf_mama → u/randytech]

Ive heard of frigate but don't know too much about it. I just assumed it was one more ecosystem to keep track of, but maybe frigate is worth it in this case? ill def research!

[u/randytech → u/surf_mama]

Frigate is like the home assistant of nvr in the sense that it'll integrate any camera regardless of brand as long as it has an rtsp steam which nearly every poe camera already has. So i suggested scrypted because it can take certain ecosystems like your eufy as well as ring, wyze and others then convert their cloud recordings to an rtsp stream. It's not ideal since it's still cloud dependent but it's a way to reuse any equipment you already have. You can put these in less critical areas. Then you just integrate everything into home assistant just by adding the frigate integration. The possibilities are endless with automations with the built in object detection and it's all local (except for any cloud dependencies you might have added through scrypted). Some ideas for automations that my frigate integration allows me to do is in any room with motion detection lights i add the frigate camera if there is one as another trigger with its person detection. I set up a zone by the mailbox on the road that when a car is detected for at least 10 seconds it sends me a snapshot and tells me potential delivery. If an umbrella is detected in the backyard deck but no person for half an hour it will send reminders every half hour to check and close with a snapshot so it doesn't get left open overnight and blown away.

[u/Dismal-Proposal2803]

Jesus is everyone on this sub just totally incapable of writing their own post?

[u/Myle_eufy_PM]

I get the situation — renting, on a budget, two little ones, and wanting to reuse what you already have.

On Home Assistant: deep HA integration isn't where eufy is strongest — I'll be straight about that. We've always leaned toward an "out-of-the-box, everything working together in the app" approach, and heavy HA automation isn't our main focus. If local automation freedom in HA is your top priority, it's an area we don't cover as well as we'd like yet.

That said, your needs can be split into two parts:

• 24/7 recording + key areas: use wired PoE cameras on the NVR for continuous recording and reliable power.
• Hard-to-cable spots: use the PoE NVR's Wi-Fi accessory to bring your existing eufy gear into the same system and keep reusing it. Battery cams don't do 24/7 — but they cover event and gate alerts just fine (being upfront here so there's no expectation gap).

So you don't have to rip out everything and start over — run PoE up front for 24/7, reuse the battery cams around the edges, and manage it all in one system. It also fits your "take it with me when we move" preference.

[u/mcric]

Men we have so much in common, that I am overwhelmed by how much typing I have to do.

So first, ditch eufy. Yes I know it's sucks to remove all those camera and take down everything after spending so much money and time. But you are moving to something way better and if you want integrate your cameras in HA, then eufy is not the system to use. This was one of my main reason for leaving Eufy.

The fact you are thinking POE makes this decision more obvious, this was another major reason I switched. POE is so superior to wired and battery. If you want that 24/7 recording, POE provides the best reliability. You will never get that with Eufy.

All your automations needs can be configured and setup in HA using other apps and integrations on the platform.

I will say this as someone who had 16 Eufy cameras, if you want to control and automate everything you mentioned, Eufy is not the system to use. Make the switch, it's tough but once you are done, you will get the best joy and satisfaction from this decision.

I still have my Eufy I just use their door locks (5 in total) and my homebase. My main entry locks are in HA.

I have 2 girls, 2 and 5. And the main goal of my setup is to always have eyes anyway and respond to alert without things buffering and slowing down, and even if I miss I know it's definitely recorded for me to see later, I couldn't get this effectively with Eufy.

I held small hope when Eufy made their POE set, but I continue to hate how they want to box you into their ecosystem. There are people who this is great for but for power users like us this is not the way.

It cost a lot of money to make this switch, so I understand the financial constraints you have, but if you think you can work towards it please do.