Reasons to Hardwire Your Dash Cam

January 28, 2022

Dashcams have become extremely popular nowadays thanks to the high level of usability and accessibility they bring into our driving experience. Now, almost everyone has a tiny little device mounted on their dashboards that records everything happening along the road trip.

However, it isn’t so simple to access such complex technology and install it in your vehicle. People can equip their automobiles with this device using different methods, but as usual, there is one that is far more effective than the rest.

And today, we will be focusing on that method of installing a dashcam in your car.

Hardwiring a dashcam is effective and complicated if you don’t know what you are doing. But before you decide whether to hardwire the dashcam into your car or not, you should fully understand what hardwiring actually means.

A dashcam is a camera device usually mounted on the dashboard or the front windshield to record video footage of the events that unfold during the drive. Hardwiring is the process of connecting the dashcam to the car’s fuse box directly.

The fuse boxes that are installed into vehicles are created to protect the electrical circuits and make sure that no damage is caused to the device. And so, the car carries less risk of factors within the automobile short-circuiting because of impacted electrical currents.

Meaning hardwiring the dashcam directly into the car’s fuse box will not only provide the required electrical charge to power it but will also protect it under harsh conditions from short-circuiting and breaking down completely.

Why Hardwiring Is a Good Idea?

By connecting the dashcam to the car’s fuse box, you are now capable of operating the camera at all times, even when the car is turned off. Furthermore, the fuse box is the perfect source of constant electrical power, so there is no need to constantly worry about whether you charged the dashcam or not.

However, this constant battery use could drain it out, especially when the car is turned off. The hardwire method also addresses this issue by not allowing the dash cam to drain the car’s battery too heavily.

And lastly, some advanced dash cams come with a feature called Parking Mode which can only be used when the device is receiving constant electrical charge so that it can function even when the car is turned off.

Using the hardwire method will allow you to access this valuable function of the dash cams.

In short, if you want to access and use all the features and functions of the dashcams while protecting both the device and your vehicle, it is essential that you use the hardwiring method to install the dashcam into your car.

Does this Method Drain the Car Battery?

Since the dash cam will be wired directly to the car’s fuse box to use the standby mode and its parking mode feature, the answer to this question is yes, hardwiring the dashcam will drain the car battery.

However, a more accurate answer is that it entirely depends on how you hardwire the dashcam to the car’s fuse box. Basic hardwiring kits have an option where they use only two wires.

These two wires serve the primary function of turning the dashcam on and off once they are connected with the fuse box. In this case, the dashcam will not be draining any electrical charge from the car battery once the vehicle has been turned off.

But this also means that you won’t be able to use the parking mode function of the dashcam.

The dash cams that are meant to be hardwired so that you can use the standby and parking mode typically have three wires and work a little differently.

This dashcam will begin recording at once any time it detects a movement inside a set diameter around the car, even when the vehicle is turned off.

Therefore, when your dashcam is draining the car battery to use the parking mode, you should add a device that monitors and restricts the battery voltage being drained by the dashcam to keep it from becoming dead.

How Hard is it to Hardwire a Dash Cam?

The process of hardwiring a dash cam to your vehicle is not an easy task. In fact, it is pretty complicated and challenging to pull off. However, the internet contains many information and guides that provide step-by-step instructions.

Using these guides, anyone can seamlessly hardwire a dash cam to the car’s fuse box pretty quickly. All you have to make sure is that you follow each and every instruction to the dot and ensure that you have all the necessary tools before you begin the installation process.

Without any interruptions, hardwiring a dash cam can be completed in roughly 60-90 minutes.

Hiding the Wires

The biggest concern of people when evaluating the hardwire method is the aesthetics of the process. No one denies that if you perform the installation process sloppily, the wires will look extremely messy, and the dashcam will become an ugly addition to your car.

Nobody wants that! Luckily, you can easily hide all the wires by running them neatly against the corners and through the headlining. Most vehicles have a slit that can be found on the top of the A-pillar, which you can use to slide the thin wires into.

Keep in mind that not all cars have this space, and you should check your vehicle before you begin the process. Another trick to hide the wires is by running them through the weather strippings installed on the car’s door frame. If you follow the wire hiding steps correctly, these pesky little things will be virtually invisible!

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