Arlo doorbell battery life

[Retired_Member]

What’s the battery life for the Arlo doorbell under normal use?

[Miller1]

Well, after 2.5 months of the 1.3 doorbell working flawlessly, it has resorted to doing everything the prior 3 were doing — batteries draining fast, intermittent illumination, not ringing the chime, etc.

I will be requesting a refund as I no longer have patience with these things. Arlo should do a complete recall on these crappy devices.

[Panther6834]

I am in complete agreement...so much so that, yesterday, while speaking with someone in Tier 2 support, I even told them so.  I won't even get the chance to find out if the v1.3 hardware fixes the excessive battery drain problem, as there is now another problem.  When Arlo pushed out the app update on April 28, they removed the ability to connect an existing chime.  This removal was NOT accidental, but purposely done.  Again, as I mentioned in my previous post, during a previous conversation with Arlo support, one person accidentally let it slip that this removal from the app was purposely done, in-effect forcing anyone, from that point forward, connecting an Arlo Doorbell (ie. new purchasers, as well as existing users who get replacements & need to connect them), to purchase an Arlo Chime.  For the past two weeks, I have been trying to get them to issue me a free Arlo Chime, knowing that THEY are the ones who caused this latest problem.  they have been dragging this out any way they can, and, at this point, I’m fed up.  So, what’s my solution?

I am giving up on the Arlo Doorbell.  While the cameras work exactly as they have claimed, the doorbell is anything but.  If you check their website, you’ll notice that they have completely scrubbed the site of any information pertaining to the expected battery life, thus they are very well-aware of the fact that this product does NOT meet their original claims.  I have already replaced the Arlo Doorbell with a Nest Hello Doorbell…which, by the way, uses the existing doorbell wiring for powering the doorbell…and it works perfectly.  Better yet, not only do I receive notifications on my phone, but, when someone presses the doorbell, the video image (with audio) is immediately displayed on the Google Home Hub in my living room.  Next up is trying to get Arlo to refund me the cost of the doorbell.  If they refuse, then, as I have already informed them, they will NOT get the v1.2 unit back, and I will sell both units, so as to partially recoup the cost of the Nest Hello.

The real question is, what can we, as a collective, do?  Truth-be-told, there are several options.  We can sit here, complaining, and doing nothing else.  Or, we can stop complaining, and just move one.  Or any number of other options.  

[Recruiter]

I installed my new Arlo Doorbell this month May and I've already installed a second pair of batteries. I do however have mine set up "when motion is detected" at the front door for now. If I change my Arlo Doorbell to only record when activated that will definitely change the life of the battery. I'm interested in all activity on my front door not only those that will ring the doorbell thus why I'm running low on battery life in only two weeks.

[Panther6834]

@Recruiter No, that is not why you only got two weeks.  The Arlo Doorbell is poorly designed, and Netgear/Arlo knows this.  If you check their website, you might notice that they have removed any mention of the expected/claimed battery life.  When released, they were claiming at least a 12-month battery life.  The fact that people are getting anywhere from a coujple weeks, to a few months, is why people are pissed.  For the longest time, my battery was diminishing at a very reasonable level...however, after the doorbell had been pressed 3x in a 2-week period, the battery depleated by 25%.

[Miller1]

So after messing with this doorbell for 5 months, and 4 different replacements, I took it back to Best Buy and they allowed for an exchange so I bought Ring. It’s the first gen so it was only $100 but it works FLAWLESSLY. Wish I would have done this earlier. Arlo cameras great, doorbell sucks.

[chanweikeng]

I tried switching to lithium batteries and that lasted a week. After covering the sensor and switching to new lithium batteries the battery life is still at 99% after a couple of weeks. I will say though my camera sensors dont pick up all the activity now though. BTW my door bell was not set to sense motion at any point . 

[lnkaye]

I have been recommending Lithium batteries for many posts in this thread. Here's my doorbell history. Bought the unit 10/28/18. Batteries at 89% when I replaced them with Lithium for cold weather performance in mid Nov. Replaced the unit with a 1.3 model due to low speaker volume. Put in the same Lithium batteries and they still are reading 99% since Nov. Why are my doorbells so energy efficient compared to those of you who are not? I'm sure that there's a reason why and Arlo should try to get the answer. It could be in settings, use of the chime, distance to base unit, etc. I have mine set up without a chime, has full bars on WiFi and if motion is detected to do nothing.

[Recruiter]

Thank you for this valuable information.

[Recruiter]

Thank you for your reply - I appreciate it.

[lnkaye]

Recruiter, you don't need to have motion detection activated since you have a camera paired with it. The camera will record everything just by being paired. Try it out and you'll see what happens.

[Panther6834]

I tried covering the doorbell's sensor a long time ago (you can even read my posts about it from last December).  For several months, it worked perfectly.  Unfortunately, there came a point (about 6-7 weeks ago) when the doorbell was pressed three times within two weeks…and the battery level dropped by 25%.  Like many others, I’ve given up on the Arlo doorbell (but the cameras are still great), and replaced it with something from a competitor.

[RChobby]

Version 1.3 doorbell, Duracell alkaline batteries, installed the first week of Feb this year: 4 months: 88% remaining battery. Ok by me so far.