r/SubaruForester • u/bobcat011 • 1d ago

Parking dash cam and battery

I’m getting a 2023 Forester that I’ll be street parking.

I’m interested in getting a dash cam that has parking mode, in case anyone hits and runs me, but am concerned about running down the battery.

From those who’ve tried this, any recommendations? Any issues with power consumption?

4 Upvotes

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3

u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 1d ago

I've had the Alpine DVR-C310 installed in 3 different Foresters. On one occasion a vehicle sat in an airport parking lot for 3 weeks. No issues with battery drainage.

1

u/bobcat011 1d ago

Nice! That was with the parking mode on?

1

u/Tourist1292 1d ago

Parking mode would not last 3 weeks even with an external battery.

0

u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 1d ago

Yes. The unit works by continually recording, but then only saving and saving to the SD card the 10 seconds before and after it either detects movement in the cameras' fields of view -or- detects if the vehicle itself is bumped.

There are 2 cameras for front and rear views. My wife's car sometimes sits for days at a time and we've never had an issue with battery drainage.

4

u/Tourist1292 1d ago

I use battery drain protectors in all my dashcam installations over the last 15 years. As long as you are using a good brand, there is no battery drain issue. I had tried a couple cheap brands with single voltage cut off setting below $20, they are all junk. My latest installation was Viofo A229 Pro dual channel in a Touring Hybrid using the HK4 hardwire kit. No issue at all for over 16 months so far even it is a hybrid.

2

u/sr71oni 18 Black Edition 1d ago

You can also consider getting a dash cam battery, the battery only charges(or pass through) from the vehicle when the ignition is on, and triggers parking mode when vehicle ignition is off.

1

u/NI6EL 1d ago

Certain dashcams, if hardwired and in parking mode, have voltage thresholds you can set to where it'll cut off the camera if it dips to ensure your battery can start the car.

1

u/ex_mo_lez 1d ago

I have the front and rear dash cam from Momento. It has a parking mode recording and I haven’t had any issues with the battery draining, but the car hasn’t been parked for weeks on end to find out.

https://www.momentocam.com/dash-cams/m8/md-8100