topic Battery life in Arlo

Battery life

Bubb — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 23:06:48 GMT

Just installed this camera about 5 days ago. It's mounted outside under the eave in a relatively mild climate. Set to motion detection at night, with night vision, of course. The battery life today stands at 34% - what the heck? At this rate, I'm going to be replacing batteries every 2 weeks, it appears. Is this normal? If it is, this thing is going back for a refund ASAP.

Re: Battery life

TomMac — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 23:46:35 GMT

Doesn't sound normal at all ....

But I would ask for more info...

1) what type of batteries . oem or rechargeables?

2) signal strength to the camera

3) how much usage on the camera

4) if more than one camera , is drain the same? ( if you do have more than one camera and only one is doing this, swap locations to see if problem follows the camera )

Re: Battery life

Bubb — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 23:57:35 GMT

1) what type of batteries . oem or rechargeables?

Originals. Came with it when bought 5 days ago. Showed 100% charged when first connected.

2) signal strength to the camera

Not sure how you tell, but it's right outside the window from where the router/bridge is located and we have a very strong wifi signal.

3) how much usage on the camera

As described previously. Set to motion sensing at night. Little to no activity so far.

4) if more than one camera , is drain the same?

Only one camera. Wanted to test the quality before buying any more. Not impressed so far.

Re: Battery life

TomMac — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 00:06:44 GMT

As to #2;

On the live view page ( where you see the camera screen ) there is a signal bar ( looks like radar icon ) that shows how good recetion is to the camera from the base.

Your home wifi has no effect on the camera as the base sets up it's own wifi system to talk to the camera only... if there is a weak signal to the camera from the base it can increase battery usage.

But in the end, something doesn't sound right... I would also try and reach out to Netgear Support

Re: Battery life

steve_t — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 02:33:26 GMT

What temperature is the camera exposed to?

Re: Battery life

demetreb — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 04:03:18 GMT

Actally this is very typical. Do a "battery drain" search and you will see there are many others complaining of high battery consumption.
Netgear has even had some software updates to rectify this, however with every new update or bug fix some other issue arises.
My batteries, in a room that gets ZERO recordings , just went from 89% to "red battery" symbol over night.
My furthest camera that is outside front door records 12x a day and lasts longer than any other camera of the 4 i have. By my experience, the cameras closest to the base station drain quicker. Not sure as to why.
My backdoor outside camera (3ft from base station) records for no reason night or day. Took it down to 12% sensitivity and i can sometimes get 2weeks out of it and sometimes a month before batteries drain.

Re: Battery life

TomMac — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 14:36:46 GMT

It may happen more often than Netgear would like, And, yes there was a sw bug that cause problems with battery drain, but that was fixed

But it isn't normal.

As I said, contact Support and put in a trouble ticket to work thru the problem

My cameras run almost 4 months on best video with OEM cells... so do many others... otherwise everyone would be screaming.