Arlo Essential Battery Life

[ArloMeerket]

I have noticed that my Arlo battery is displaying different percentage readings over the past few days. On Monday evening it showed it had 43% charge left by midday on Tuesday it was displaying it had 59% left. On Wednesday morning it displayed 36% and again by Wednesday evening it displayed 61%. Can anyone explain why this is happening? 

[jguerdat]

Temperature changes can cause this but I wouldn't expect such large swings, just a few percent. Is it safe to assume you don't have a solar panel attached? Have you tried restarting the camera? Is this using the app? Have you also checked using the web client?

[ArloMeerket]

Hi, in answer to your suggestions...

There is no solar panel attached, 

This is using the App

I have both restarted and reinstalled the camera.

I am not sure what you meant by suggestion I check by using the web client. Could you provide more information on how I would do this please?

[jguerdat]

http://my.arlo.com

[ArloMeerket]

Oh, yes I have access to the account via my laptop. Guess this will have to be one for Arlo tech support to look at? It might be a faulty battery pack

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@ArloMeerket wrote:
Oh, yes I have access to the account via my laptop. Guess this will have to be one for Arlo tech support to look at? It might be a faulty battery pack

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I believe @jguerdat is suggesting that you see if the laptop is showing you the same variation in charging level as the phone app.

It could be a faulty camera, so if the camera is new enough you could just exchange it with the seller.  Otherwise, it would be good to contact support.

[ArloMeerket]

Thanks Stephen for your comment and tips.

The laptop is showing the exact same usage figure as my App, so I will observe over the next few weeks or months to see how quickly the battery runs down from its current reading of 95% to 13%. It was 100% on the 6th April.  I had even moved the router closer to the camera as I was told that distance could sometimes affect battery usage. Although not sure how true that 'tip' was. If still using too much battery power then its back to Amazon for a replacement as this camera has to be faulty and therefore 'Not Fit for Purpose'.  

[StephenB]

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@ArloMeerket wrote:

I had even moved the router closer to the camera as I was told that distance could sometimes affect battery usage. Although not sure how true that 'tip' was. .  

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It can definitely affect battery life if the connection is marginal.  Every time the camera loses its connection, it will start looking for the router (or base station) - and that will drain power.  

The other thing that drains power is (obviously) capturing/streaming video.  What isn't so obvious is that activity zones and smart notifications both mask the actual amount of capturing/streaming that's being done.  In both cases, all the video is streamed to the cloud, and the cloud supresses video that if is unwanted. So you might try turning that stuff off, and get some idea of how many seconds of video each day are actually being streamed.