Dahua IPC-HFW4300S keeps fogging up! Any Suggestions?

[Tuckerdude]

Hello folks...as always, looking to this great group of people for some sage advice.

I have purchased and installed seven of these Dahua HFW4300S cameras and have had pretty good luck with all of them. Until today! I just installed another one and the lens keeps fogging up from the inside. It's weird because I've never had this issue with any of the others.

A couple of things to know:

1. I bought most of these cameras all together about 7-9 months ago. And most of them got installed within the first 30 days. This one I just installed today, so it's been sitting in the box until now.

2. I actually paint these cameras a dark brown color (to match the gutters and overhang), but it should not be that because I've done it with all of these cameras and never had this problem.

I thought maybe there could be an "anti-fog" glass cleaner I could apply???

Any help or ideas about how to solve this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

 

[mik]

I saw some trick of polishing windshields (inside the car) with shaving cream film to stop fogging. Haven't tried it but maybe worth trying on shower door and seeing if it works??

 

[vector18]

Are you actually going up to the camera and seeing fog inside of it, or at night do you see it foggy on your monitor and you feel that the lens is foggy? If your just seeing it on your monitor, your probably
just getting IR glare from it reflecting off of something. While it's foggy, get the camera on your phone and go up to the camera and move it around.

 

[Tuckerdude]

Hi Vector18, thanks for the response.

Yeah, it's physical fog/condensation inside the lens cover. I know what you are referring to as I've had other cameras have that problem. But this is something different that I've not seen with any of my other cameras. If I open up the lens cover, I can use a cloth and remove the fog. But after about 30 mins, it reappears. I've now done this 4 times, but the condensation keeps re-appearing. See below for a screencap:

 

[alastairstevenson]

Moisture coming down the cable?

 

[Tuckerdude]

I checked that...and no there's no moisture seeping in from the cable. The camera is located under the roof overhang so it's not directly exposed to the elements. I am starting to think that the culprit could be the pack of "desiccants" that I think is located behind the lens housing. I've read they can lose their ability to trap moisture. Anyone else heard of this??

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[Tuckerdude]

Hey folks....Just thought I would update you all in case this happens to someone else. After one full day of the camera being powered up and installed on the house, the fogging situation started to improve (see attached updated screenshot). Having looked all around for answers, it seems as though the camera has sorted out the problem on it's own. My only guess is that there was moisture inside the housing and it needed to evaporate slowly over time? No other explanation I can think of. Anyway...thanks to everyone for taking time to respond!

 

[fenderman]

Thanks for the update..have you checked it at night yet?

 

[Tuckerdude]

Yes...and it's working fine at night as well!

 

[fenderman]

Cool