Battery stands less than one week when it's suppose to last six months

[Victorien]

I charged the cameras twice. Every time the camera last only few days.  The camera is directly connected to the Arlo Hub. The camera is connected to a Solar Panel. The camera shot around 30 clips of 20 seconds per days.

I could understand that the camera doesn't stand for six month, but less than one week is unbelievable. I want to send you back the product and get a refund.

[Victorien]

The camera is up-to-date

[StephenB]

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@Victorien wrote:

The camera shot around 30 clips of 20 seconds per days.

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If you have activity zones enabled, try disabling them, and then see about how many seconds of video is being recorded per day.

[Victorien]

Probably the full day. There is activity in the top of the camera view. 

[StephenB]

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@Victorien wrote:

Probably the full day. There is activity in the top of the camera view. 

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Well, the activity zones are applied in the Arlo Cloud. Whenever motion is detected, the video is streamed to the cloud, and it will supress the recording if it is out of the zone. So enabling activity zones masks the actual power load needed by the camera. 

Options are to

1. adjust the camera position to reduce the unwanted motion in the field of view
2. reduce the motion sensitivity

In my experience, starting with option 1 generally works out better.

[Victorien]

Thanks you for the tips. It helps but at this rate, it will not stand six month anyway. One month maybe.

I always predict that the manufacturer lied about the performance of the battery, but it this cases it's 6x less than the manufacturer predictions. The camera stand couple of month only if there is any activities at all.

[StephenB]

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@Victorien wrote:

Thanks you for the tips. It helps but at this rate, it will not stand six month anyway. One month maybe.

I always predict that the manufacturer lied about the performance of the battery, but it this cases it's 6x less than the manufacturer predictions. The camera stand couple of month only if there is any activities at all.

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https://kb.arlo.com/1202753/How-long-do-Arlo-camera-batteries-last has some caveats.  Low temps will reduce battery life with any battery - that's the way the chemistry works out.  Any network issues (connection drops) will also increase battery drain

Not sure if they are still using 5 minutes of recording per day as the analytic.  Though you are apparently over 10 minutes per day (since your activity zones are supressing some recordings)

[Victorien]

Following our documentation, the setup respect the ideal situation. I gave up and I sent back my Arlo Essential.

However, I use an Arlo 4 now. I see a huge improvement. Moreover, I put tape on it to cover the activity zone which don't need to be recorded. The efficiency of the battery is really better now. After one week, I still have 100% of battery (I have solar panel connected)

[StephenB]

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@Victorien wrote:

Moreover, I put tape on it to cover the activity zone which don't need to be recorded. 

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Interesting idea.  I don't think that will help battery life, but it should reduce unwanted recordings.