Described herein are embodiments related to defect detection in memory components of memory systems with time-varying bit error rate. A processing device performs an error recovery flow (ERF) to recover a unit of data comprising data and a write timestamp indicating when the unit of data was written. The processing device determines whether to perform a defect detection operation to detect a defect in the memory component using a bit error rate (BER), corresponding to the read operation, and the write timestamp in the unit of data. The processing device initiates the defect detection operation responsive to the BER condition not being expected for the calculated W2R (based on the write timestamp). The processing device can use an ERF condition and the write timestamp to determine whether to perform the defect detection operation. The processing device initiates the defect detection operation responsive to the ERF condition not being expected the calculated W2R (based on the write timestamp).