How to check on my home and dog while away without a subscription
Leaving a home unattended for long periods—whether for work days or extended travel—makes it impossible to catch sudden issues like loud HVAC noises, water leaks, or pet distress. Without a low-cost, reliable monitoring setup, homeowners miss critical property damage in real time and struggle to know if pets at home are safe.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1using a moisture meterDid this help you?
- 2Buying subscription-free cameras with local storage like Tapo, Reolink, Blink, or Wansview.Did this help you?
- 3Using the free tier of Wyze for live monitoring without cloud recording.Did this help you?
- 4Repurposing an old, unused smartphone with the Alfred Camera app.Did this help you?
- 5Hiring a dog walker or neighbor to physically check on the dog.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We will be traveling for long periods and I'd like to be alerted if any of our HVAC units is making a sudden loud grinding noise (as happened the other day) or leaking water (has happened to others).”source ↗
“Started a new job and I'm out of the house about ten hours a day now. My dog is older and mostly sleeps, but I keep wondering if he's okay while I'm gone and whether he needs to go out.”source ↗
“I've looked at pet cameras but don't love another monthly subscription, so for those of you who check in on your dog during the day, what setup has actually worked for you?”source ↗
Where this came up
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