# Can I leave the dash cam always on **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [August 4, 2024, 3:36am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578 "2024-08-04T03:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bennie-MJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bennie-MJ](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bennie-MJ)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 3:36am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/1 "2024-08-04T03:36:27Z")
I’ve just started using the Blackvue DR500GW dash cam. It draws power from the car battery, and it keeps running even when the engine is off. I’ve been leaving it on all day and night. Is this okay? ---
**Author:** ![davesmopar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/davesmopar/32/41750_2.png) [@davesmopar](https://community.cartalk.com/u/davesmopar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 6:07am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/2 "2024-08-04T06:07:04Z")
No disrespect, but is this going to be like your other 2 post from 8 days ago that you have not replied back to yet?? [Should I switch to electric vehicles?](https://community.cartalk.com/t/should-i-switch-to-electric-vehicles/195460) and [2018 Mazda 3 folding mirror problem?](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-mazda-3-folding-mirror-problem/195459) ---
**Author:** ![Bennie-MJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bennie-MJ](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bennie-MJ)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/3 "2024-08-04T06:10:59Z")
no sir… I just got a little time in the weekend to use social media, haven’t manage to be active yet … ---
**Author:** ![Bennie-MJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bennie-MJ](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bennie-MJ)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 6:12am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/4 "2024-08-04T06:12:21Z")
i know it’s not ideal to not replying, but I haven’t got the time to check that to even reply to you, sorry Dave ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 11:54am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/5 "2024-08-04T11:54:54Z")
If you leave the dashcam on it will drain the car’s battery. If you don’t drive the car every day for significant distances, eventually the car won’t start without a jump. As the battery gets older, this will get worse. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it on but maybe your car is vulnerable to bad drivers where it parks. ---
**Author:** ![davesmopar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/davesmopar/32/41750_2.png) [@davesmopar](https://community.cartalk.com/u/davesmopar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/6 "2024-08-04T12:19:50Z")
Maybe get a dashcam with a rechargeable battery?? ---
**Author:** ![VOLVO-V70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@VOLVO-V70](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VOLVO-V70)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:06pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/7 "2024-08-04T13:06:32Z")
> [@Bennie-MJ](#): > > I’ve been leaving it on all day and night. Is this okay? Would you leave your overhead map lights on all the time ? Of course not . The unit should have the power cord with a plug . How hard is it to pull the plug ? I can’t even see why you have to ask this question. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 1:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/8 "2024-08-04T13:13:36Z")
You could use a rechargeable battery for the dashcam and pull it for recharge in your home whenever needed. If it needs recharging once a week, then you get at least 6 nights of use in addition to continuous daytime coverage. ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 3:34pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/9 "2024-08-04T15:34:37Z")
I have the Rove R2-4K Dash Cam installed in my vehicles and they are plugged into the accessory connections that are powered off when the vehicles are powered off. These units have an accessory Hardwire Kit also acts as a voltage monitor to prevent the battery from draining too far. When I first bought these units, I plugged one of the cameras into my Battery Jumper Pack (the USB-C plug…) that I have used twice to jump-start our cars and in three days the Rove Dash Cam ran it down. > **[FAQ Page - ROVE Dash Cam](https://www.rovedashcam.com/pages/faq?hcUrl=%2Fen-US%2Fwhy-do-i-need-hardwire-kit-for-24-hour-%2824-hr%29-parking-mode-520602)** > > Welcome to the ROVE Dash Cam FAQ page! Here, we've compiled answers to commonly asked questions about our cutting-edge dash cam products. Whether you're curious about installation, features, or troubleshooting, you'll find helpful information to... I have not bought the hardware kit as I do not need 24-hour surveillance on my vehicles, however, when I am in a parking lot, I have on occasion plugged the camera into one of the fulltime powered reciprocals, but alas, the camera only points towards the front of the vehicle… So, if I had done this a couple of months ago when my car was clipped in the right rear side of the bumper it would not have helped, except the “G” Sensor would have been triggered and recorded the time and place of the impact… But in retrospect, that would have been bad… Since I had been out shopping that day at three different locations, two adjacent towns and on a military base, I did not know which jurisdiction to report this and the insurance company agreed and filed it under my Uninsured/Under Insured Coverage which has a $200 deductible verses my Collision Coverage which is $500… So, if you feel you need your cameral running 24-hours, then see about getting an accessory battery level monitor to prevent your camera from draining your battery… By the way, have you even tested and viewed the imagery from your nighttime recordings… Perhaps the ambient lighting is insufficient to even record more than a shadowy figure. If you have not go out and test it tonight with you walking around your vehicle and see if it is even worth the effort… ---
**Author:** ![TwinTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TwinTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TwinTurbo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/10 "2024-08-04T16:03:04Z")
The other concern is the lifetime of the memory card. If your dashcam is anything like mine, it constantly writes to the memory card while powered on. Although I sprung for the extended lifetime memory card, it has a finite lifetime and is being consumed during those hours the car sits unused but powered on. My dashcam has a parked monitor feature that causes the unit to go to sleep and consume very little power in that mode. If the car is disturbed, the unit wakes up and begins recording. See if yours has that feature… ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/11 "2024-08-04T16:40:35Z")
> [@TwinTurbo](#): > > If the car is disturbed, the unit wakes up and begins recording. All Quality MicroSD Cards come with a Lifetime Warranty and over the decades that I have been using them, I have had only two failures and both were replaced free… Next, a question about your Dashcam’s Sleep feature. You wrote, “If the car is disturbed, the unit wakes up and begins recording.” But if the vehicle is bumped in a parking lot, that would not record the actual impact and would only record a vehicle pulling away from the scene of the “accident”. I would guess that a video of a vehicle leaving the “scene of the crime” would not constitute “Prima facie evidence” that they caused the damage, only that they were present at some time around the time of the mishap since your Camera is not certified or calibrated to meet any legal standard… So I would image the only proof would be a non-stop, continuous video of the mishap. ---
**Author:** ![shanonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@shanonia](https://community.cartalk.com/u/shanonia)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/12 "2024-08-04T16:57:16Z")
How many milliamps/hour does it draw? That may be in the specs. Or it can be measured. It may be very small compared to the capacity of the battery. Someone here with a better handle on electronics may be able to advise you. I see people idling their cars so their cell phones will charge. My experience is running the car is not necessary for that. ---
**Author:** ![TwinTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TwinTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TwinTurbo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/13 "2024-08-04T17:56:20Z")
> [@LoudThunder](#): > > All Quality MicroSD Cards come with a Lifetime Warranty Oh really? I guess Sandisk or many of the others I bought don’t meet your definition of quality then. Limited 2 year warranty…I would suggest any company offering a lifetime, free replacement warranty on a product that has an advertised lifetime is charging appropriately for that. > **[32GB SanDisk High Endurance microSD™ Card | Western Digital](https://www.westerndigital.com/products/memory-cards/sandisk-high-endurance-uhs-i-microsd?sku=SDSQQNR-032G-GN6IA)** > > Enjoy worry free shoots with the weather, shock, x-ray, and water resistant design of the SanDisk High Endurance microSD Card. Take your creativity to new heights today. Leave yours running if you’re paranoid about it holding up in court. Frankly, video of the car pulling away is good enough for me. People without rear cameras post vids of view from front camera as they are rear ended. Then get video of their plates as they race off. I suppose that’s equally useless in your mind… ---
**Author:** ![bing](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/bing/32/4619_2.png) [@bing](https://community.cartalk.com/u/bing)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/14 "2024-08-04T17:59:51Z")
Sure if you like dead batteries, leave it on all the time. When you wire new devices in, you can choose whether you want an always hot circuit or one off when the switch is off. Normally you want everything shut off when the car is off. Now I remember the radio on my 59 VW was hot all the time and you had to remember to shut the thing off. Never understood why the Germans did this. ---
**Author:** ![LoudThunder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/loudthunder/32/27769_2.png) [@LoudThunder](https://community.cartalk.com/u/LoudThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/15 "2024-08-04T19:36:29Z")
> [@TwinTurbo](#): > > Oh really? I guess Sandisk or many of the others I bought don’t meet your definition of quality then. Limited 2 year warranty…I would suggest any company offering a lifetime, free replacement warranty on a product that has an advertised lifetime is charging appropriately for that. **I am sorry, I should have written, “All Quality MicroSD Cards come with a Lifetime Warranty” _if bought from quality suppliers who sell products intended for sale in the US…_ Items bought on eBay and Amazon may have been procured from overseas sources intended for sale overseas…** **SanDisk, as well as other makers offer different warranties based on the intended point of sale, there are US Warranties and Overseas Warranties…** **So, if your MicroSD Card came up short on the warranty scale, I would have asked why…** **For my Dash Cams, I bought the SanDisk - Ultra PLUS 256GB microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card from Best Buy for $32.99 and they also come with the Limited Lifetime Warranty.** **And you are right, I probably paid more for my cards than you did, but mine still work and some have been working for decades… the two that failed were in items that had external damage, an MP3 Player that was driven over, but the card had no visible damage but no longer worked and it was replaced free and the other was in a quadcopter drone that crashed and fell a couple of hundred feet onto pavement and it also stopped working and it was also replaced free.** **So, where are you buying yours?** **PS: Prior to the Pandemic, I was teaching a computer class at my local library and they had laptops and I bought a dozen Western Digital 2-GB SD Memory Cards from eBay. Two of them did not work, I contacted the seller and he asked me to submit them for warranty replacement first… I went on line to Western Digital’s Warranty Site and discovered that what I had were Counterfeit SD Cards and after contacting the seller, he offered to send me another pack of 12 or refund my money. I took the extra dozen and nine of them worked… Those Counterfeit ones really looked like the real thing, but not perfectly…** ---
**Author:** ![George\_San\_Jose1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e5b9ba/32.png) [@George\_San\_Jose1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/George_San_Jose1)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 7:46pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/16 "2024-08-04T19:46:52Z")
> [@shanonia](#): > > How many milliamps/hour does it draw? That may be in the specs. Or it can be measured. It may be very small compared to the capacity of the battery That’s the key info. Car radios often remain powered on , even when the radio is switched off and the car is completely off, just enough to retain their programming memory. And they don’t drain the battery. But the radio is designed to not drain the battery. The answer to your question depends on the design (quiescent current) of the camera spec. ---
**Author:** ![TwinTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TwinTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TwinTurbo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/17 "2024-08-05T14:53:22Z")
> [@LoudThunder](#): > > For my Dash Cams, I bought the SanDisk - Ultra PLUS 256GB microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card from Best Buy for $32.99 and they also come with the Limited Lifetime Warranty. > > So, where are you buying yours? So you got the same warranty I did. It’s limited not guaranteed lifetime replacement as you alluded to earlier. It makes sense to me, the company is global and lists its warranty on the site I provided as an example. I bought a much larger storage card from the same company for around the same price you paid. I bought it as a bundle off Amazon. All name brand products in their original packaging, same as you’d find in any retail brick and mortar store. I’ve never had any issues with knock-offs or counterfeit products on Amazon but I don’t buy the cheapest stuff available from sketchy vendors either. None of my microSD cards have failed either but I’m also not poking the nest. Been in electrical engineering for 45+ years, I fully understand the failure mechanisms of memory write cycles. Nobody is going to guarantee their parts forever, that would be foolish unless you have already extracted the cost of the replacements in the original pricing. I have an old Dell computer where the Nichicon caps failed. A lot of discussion online about a rash of counterfeit caps back then. Any manufacturer can be victim of this, especially if they get desperate and go to the grey market for parts or buy from questionable brokers versus reputable distributors… ---
**Author:** ![Robert-Gift](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/robert-gift/32/356_2.png) [@Robert-Gift](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Robert-Gift)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/18 "2024-08-07T18:26:05Z")
How much power does the dashcam use? Your battery has a huge capacity. If the dash cam is only a trickle of power the battery may last days before draining enough to prevent starting. Does the screen turn off? That will use less power and be less conspicuous to theives. ---
**Author:** ![Bennie-MJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Bennie-MJ](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Bennie-MJ)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 5:15am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/19 "2024-08-10T05:15:35Z")
well I’ll stick with the type I bought for now… ---
**Author:** ![VOLVO-V70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@VOLVO-V70](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VOLVO-V70)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 1:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-i-leave-the-dash-cam-always-on/195578/20 "2024-08-10T13:44:51Z")
> [@Bennie-MJ](#): > > well I’ll stick with the type I bought for now… OK , but are you going to leave it on or unplug it when the car is parked ?