Battery life very poor

[Daddynabit]

Charged the camera on 1/23. By 2/6 it's dead at 13%.  It is set to "optimized" power management, and has collected less than 1 minute of video the entire time (1 automatic recording and 2 quick looks). Two other cameras charged at the same time are down to 43 and 44% under similar usage. 2 to 4 weeks is much less than the 6 months advertised on the box! My older Arlo cameras with (123 type?) batteries easily run 6 mo to 1 year under similar conditions. Any way to get better performance, or better batteries?

[StephenB]

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@Daddynabit wrote:

Charged the camera on 1/23. By 2/6 it's dead at 13%.  It is set to "optimized" power management, and has collected less than 1 minute of video the entire time (1 automatic recording and 2 quick looks).

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Are you using activity zones?

[Daddynabit]

Yes. I do have activity zones activated. Should this affect battery life? Two of the three cameras have detected motion once each in the two weeks since they have been charged. The third camera hasn't reported anything. They are not running their batteries out recording motion.

[StephenB]

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@Daddynabit wrote:

Yes. I do have activity zones activated. Should this affect battery life? 

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Indirectly, yes.

Activity zones are applied in the Arlo Cloud.  Video is always streamed to the Arlo Cloud whenever motion is detected.  If the motion is in the zone, then the video is stored.  If it's not in the zone, then the video is supressed.

So if you have activity zones enabled, you have no idea how busy the cameras are (your information about the number of recordings/notifications isn't relevant).  Try turning off the zones for a while, and then see how much recording per day you get.

[Daddynabit]

OK, Thanks, will try it. Not very optimistic though. Now 16 days from last full charge. Camera 1 had  small activity zones and is at 45%, Camera 2 had modest activity zones and is dead (3%), and Camera 3 has no activity zones and is at 44%. All are looking at similar scenes.

[Daddynabit]

OK, I tried it. I removed activity zones on the remaining cameras on 2/8. This didn't affect camera 3, but it was dead a few days ago. For camera 1, as suggested, once the activity zones were off, I got more reports of activity (usually nothing that I could see)--16 over the last 9 days--but this camera lasted the longest, shutting off yesterday.

So, after a full charge, camera 2, with modest activity zones (about half the picture) reported very little and was dead within 16 days. Camera 3 had no activity zones, reported nothing and was dead within about 22 days, and Camera 1 that initially had small activity zones, but reported 16 events over 9 days once activity zones were removed, lasted 24 days.

If they ran down because they were recording too much, they weren't telling me about it.

Meanwhile, my old Arlo cameras with replaceable batteries are still going strong--on batteries I put in last June!

I use these cameras to monitor locations where I am not always present so battery life is critical. I saw the "Essential XL" cameras, but didn't need the 1 year advertised life so didn't get them. The advertised battery life of 6 months for the regular "Essential" cameras would be more than enough--if I could actually get it!

Are my cameras defective? The spotlights are disabled. I haven't used the speakers. They aren't recording much (one didn't record anything).

[StephenB]

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@Daddynabit wrote:

The advertised battery life of 6 months for the regular "Essential" cameras would be more than enough--if I could actually get it!

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FWIW, the IMO the advertised battery life is overstated (not just by Arlo).  I figure about 3 months for the XL battery, but I also seem to have more activity than you. 

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@Daddynabit wrote:

Are my cameras defective? 

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They could be.  I think there are two other possibilities. 

One is dropped wifi connections, which can drain the batteries very quickly.

The other is that there could be a camera firmware issue.  I've seen a lot of posts here about shortened battery life over the past 6 weeks or so, and I've seen some unexplained sharp drops on some of my own cameras.

[kidhack]

My camera batteries are crap and so is the doorbell.

I replaced the AAs in the doorbell 2 weeks ago and it’s already dead. How can a cameraless doorbell die that quickly. Ready to go to an RF doorbell system.

The cameras I charge all the way and then hook into solar panels and they may last 2 weeks at the most. The Arlo solar panels are a joke and so are their batteries. I’m confused why there isn’t a lawsuit for false advertising.

[jguerdat]

Or maybe your environment is the issue. Signal strength and/or quality all lead to poor battery life as well as excessive recording and live viewing (total of ~5 minutes per day for spec life). House construction can have a lot to do with signal issues as well as 2.4GHz interference.

[Daddynabit]

The wifi connection might be an issue. We have satelite internet and it's fast but laggy. Still, unless the cameras are  constantly communicating, even when they are not recording, this should not be an issue. To me the strongest evidence that it is the battery itself is the fact that the camera that records the least (nothing) has the shortest battery life.

Also, a trick: The wind here blows pretty continuously, making the branches on the trees wave back and forth. If I capture the trees, I get constant alerts. I can use activity zones to block notifications, but if the camera is sending them to the cloud anyways, then this will dramatically reduce battery life. I aimed the cameras down at the sidewalk to prevent this. This severely limits the information I can get, but hopefully will improve battery life. I'll let you know.

[Daddynabit]

Signal strength is good. All cameras within 15-30 ft of router and have no problems staying connected. It could be a factor for others, however.

[kidhack]

Not sure how that would impact the doorbell. It's literally line of sight out a window to my hub, no more than 25 feet away.