We’ve talked about mounting your smart doorbell with tape and even using a screw-and-tape-free no-drill doorbell mount. We’ve also talked about using similar tape tricks and a host of clever mounts to attach smart home cameras without drilling.
But what if you’re dealing with a situation where drilling holes for anchors or hardcore double-sided tape isn’t the right solution?
Let’s say you want to temporarily put one of your battery-powered smart cameras in your crawl space to figure out which friendly neighborhood animal keeps sneaking in there (and, for that matter, how they are getting in)?
Or maybe you want to mount a smart camera on a tree in your backyard because it has a perfect view of your deck and back door, but you would prefer not to mar up your lovely tree with a screw-mount right into the bark.
The solution is pretty clever. You can use flexible camera mounts for your smart home security cameras. Most smart home cameras feature a basic 1/4-20 screw mount. That’s the common standard for camera tripod mounts which means you can find quite an array of accessories that work for both regular ol’ cameras and smart home security cameras.
But there’s no need to put a premium flexible camera mount like the Joby Gorillapod to work at the task, that would be a bit expensive. Instead, you’ll find a bunch of inexpensive snake and octopus-like mounts on the market designed specifically for lightweight smart home security cameras.
This two-pack of flexible tripods is inexpensive and more than sturdy enough to hold smaller cameras like those from Blink or Arlo.
For larger cameras, you might consider a single-wire design, where a stiffer and wider single flexible arm offers a sturdier base for bigger cameras like those from Ring and Nest.
The flexibility of the wire mount means it’s incredibly easy to wrap around oddly-shaped surfaces that it would be difficult to stick adhesive tape or otherwise securely mount the camera.
Stairway ballisters, flag poles, pipes, railing, the cross-beam supports in a gazebo, wrapped around the neck of an outdoor light and hidden behind the shade, if there’s something you could grasp with your hand, then you can likely wrap the wire around it and secure your smart home security camera there.
There’s really no limit to where you can make use of a flexible mount. Out of town for the weekend and want to ensure your cat is visiting the food and water dish in the kitchen? Grab one of your cameras and wrap the mount around the leg of a chair to get a cat-level view of their feeding station.
If you think, “I’d like to keep an eye on that with a smart security camera,” there’s likely a spot nearby for a flexi-mount.
