topic Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!! in Arlo

Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

Paulgw64 — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 21:30:52 GMT

I bought the Arlo CCTV system with eight cameras at the beggining of December and I have a problem with the battery life in one of the cameras. In less than a month, the camera has used two sets of batteries, the original set lasted three weeks and the second set has lasted a week!

All eight cameras have the same firmware version 122688 and have the same settings which are 80% detection and record for 30 seconds. The faulty camera is one of three which are located on the front of my property, the two other cameras are still on the original batteries supplied with the camera and showing three green bars. All three cameras record approximately the same images and the same amount of time, so I know that the faulty camera is not working over-time.

I have swapped the batteries from the faulty camera into another camera and the low red battery level is consistant in both cameras, this confirms that the faulty camera has used a brand new set of batteries in less than a week and it is not a fault with the battery level indicator.

As it is not useage that is causing the battery drain, anyone have any ideas as to what is causing this problem?

Paul.

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

jguerdat — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 14:27:59 GMT

Two possibilities - bad camera or interference. Try temporarily swapping a "good" camera with the problem one and see what happens. Interference can be anything that uses the 2.4GHz band or just the position of walls/celings/wiring/ductwork, etc. Swapping the cameras will at least help point you in the right direction.

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

Paulgw64 — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 15:21:06 GMT

I took the camera back to the store where I bought the system and they replaced it with a new one.

It seems strange that one camera out of eight would use up two sets of batteries in less than a month, where the other seven are working as I would expect?

If the same problem occurs with the new camera, then it maybe the position of the camera? But I don't see how that could effect the life of the batteries?

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

TomMac — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 16:55:47 GMT

if the cam is too far from the base, it may be "pinging" the base to get access more than normal... and may be draining the batteries faster

or bad batteries or bad camera as you know.

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

Paulgw64 — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 19:21:41 GMT

The camera in question is actually the closest to the Netgear router.

I think it was just a faulty camera.....?

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

JamesC — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 19:21:42 GMT

Paulgw64,

It is possible. Please let us know if you experience the same behavior with the new camera!

JamesC

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

Pvdm — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 15:01:51 GMT

Same problem with one camera. Called customer service and now waiting three days for a resolution

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

Pvdm — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 15:02:37 GMT

Same problem with one camera. Called customer service and now waiting three days for a resolution

Paulgw64 wrote:
I bought the Arlo CCTV system with eight cameras at the beggining of December and I have a problem with the battery life in one of the cameras. In less than a month, the camera has used two sets of batteries, the original set lasted three weeks and the second set has lasted a week!

All eight cameras have the same firmware version 122688 and have the same settings which are 80% detection and record for 30 seconds. The faulty camera is one of three which are located on the front of my property, the two other cameras are still on the original batteries supplied with the camera and showing three green bars. All three cameras record approximately the same images and the same amount of time, so I know that the faulty camera is not working over-time.

I have swapped the batteries from the faulty camera into another camera and the low red battery level is consistant in both cameras, this confirms that the faulty camera has used a brand new set of batteries in less than a week and it is not a fault with the battery level indicator.

As it is not useage that is causing the battery drain, anyone have any ideas as to what is causing this problem?

Paul.

Re: Faulty Camera Killing Batteries In One Week?!!!

jguerdat — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 16:10:58 GMT

There's a ton of suggestions in these forums including swapping cameras, using a different location to try to minimize walls/ceilings/ductwork/wiring/etc. that can block signals, repositioning the base by rotating it or moving to a different location via long Ethernet cable or WiFi extender, checking for other 2.4GHz. wireless devices that could be providing interference with the camera's signal, etc.

What troubleshooting have you done? Support is going to ask you the same things and have you perform many/all of the same steps.