Battery Life on Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell is AWFUL!

[OandM]

I got my doorbell in January and I have had to change my battery at minimum once a month!  Before I got this doorbell, I read that it each charge should last for 3 months.  I only have "packages" set for activity and have turned off all notifications.  This is beyond frustrating.  In addition, each time I charge the battery it literally takes all day (like 8 hours of charging time) only to get to 99%.  I have to unplug it and plug it back in to finally get 100% charge.  I must have a defective battery because this does not seem normal.

[jguerdat]

Since the doorbell has a straight-on view of the yard and street and can't be changed, the best thing to do is to set an activity zone eliminating as much of those areas as possible as well as reducing the motion sensitivity in your modes and rules while still getting what you need. I happen to use 45 for mine but your environment may need something else.

The likely scenario is that your doorbell is recording all activity due to the sensitivity setting. The zone will get rid of extraneous recordings but that's done at the server level - everything is still recorded and passed on for analysis which would then discard unwanted videos outside the zone. That won't help battery life since everything is still recorded but you'll be bugged less. The sensitivity setting is the part that will reduce the number of recordings which will improve the battery life. Arlo rates battery life as <5 minutes per day of total recording and live viewing time.

[OandM]

I have reduced the sensitivity and activity on my camera. The battery life seems to be getting worse and worse by the month. I’ve had this camera since February 2023, and battery life has lasted from 24 days to 18 days to now only 14 days before I have to change it again. The battery seems to be faulty. I can’t believe I’m recharging it within 15 days of last charging it. My activity zone is not directly facing the street. It’s on an angle, so it should and is not record everything.  

[StephenB]

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@OandM wrote:

 My activity zone is not directly facing the street. It’s on an angle, so it should and is not record everything.  

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Unfortunately, not relevant.

Whenever motion is detected (whether it is in-zone or not), video is streamed to the Arlo Cloud.  The Cloud determines if the motion is in-zone or not, and then supresses both recordings and notifications if the motion is out-of-zone.   The doorbell acts exactly the same way, whether activity zones are enabled or not.  So Activity Zones do NOT improve battery life.  All they can do is reduce unwanted notifications and recordings.

The challenge with the doorbells is that they cannot be aimed.  So reducing motion sensitivity and recording length is all you can do.  The other option (which might not be practical) is to get low-voltage AC power to the doorbell.