Arlo Pro 4 Camera Recalled for Bad Design?

[FormerArloFan]

Was the Pro 4 ever recalled by Arlo for bad design? Like the camera goes dead and multiple charged batteries will not power it up? Or any trade-in promotion? Why is it no longer in production? Mine died just out of warranty, paid a large sum of money for a product that didn't last. I still have functioning Essential Wired Video Doorbell and Essential Spotlight Camera bought years before. I will not purchase any more Arlo products unless I get a truthful answer.

[StephenB]

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@FormerArloFan wrote:

 Why is it no longer in production? 

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Because the Pro 5s has similar specs, and keeping both would be redundant.

[FormerArloFan]

Thanks, but that was only one question answered, which I figured would be the answer. How about the bad design issue? Seems I am not the only one who had a Pro 4 go completely unresponsive way too prematurely. As I stated, my old doorbell and spotlight cam are still going strong, and they were inexpensive. The Pro 4 was very expensive.

[StephenB]

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@FormerArloFan wrote:

How about the bad design issue? Seems I am not the only one who had a Pro 4 go completely unresponsive way too prematurely. 

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Arlo certainly didn't recall the camera.  The only Arlo recall I know of was back in 2017 for an outdoor power adapter.

There have been failures reported here from all camera models (not surprising, given the volumes).  I've never seen any reliability data comparing camera designs.  My impression is that the Pro 4 failure rate is about the same as Pro 3.  

The fully sealed cameras do have an advantage when it comes to moisture penetration.  But I do like having a replaceable battery.

How did yours fail???

[ralfyguy1]

I have 2 Essential XL cameras and they are the only ones with moisture intrusion problems...

[FormerArloFan]

See below

[FormerArloFan]

My Pro 4 just went offline one day for no apparent reason. It had never been outdoors, had it sitting on an interior windowsill looking out. Had the magnetic charger cord attached to it with power to it continuously. Had it taped down on the sill so it would not fall and get damaged.

When it went offline, reseated the battery but no luck. Tried the factory reset button according to Arlo online support documents, no response. Bought a new battery, the charging light on the camera never lit up, but I have a TrippLite USB voltage/current adapter that showed current flowing to the camera for a  few hours until the current read zero, which I assumed is full charge.

But still no camera response, no factory reset response. The contact pins on tye camera for connecting to the battery appear perfect.

The only life I get From the camera is that the tiny LED on the right front of the camera is lit extremely dimly when a battery is attached, that you can only really see in the dark.

So, seems the POS camera is toast.

That experience makes me not trust any of the Arlo cameras currently available, I will not be purchasing any Arlo product again.

[StephenB]

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@FormerArloFan wrote:

That experience makes me not trust any of the Arlo cameras currently available, I will not be purchasing any Arlo product again.

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I get that.  But at the end of the day, this is one camera that failed out of millions sold. 

All electronics will eventually fail, and some will fail early on - components aren't 100% reliable.  You'd need a lot more failures and careful analysis to sort out whether the failures out there are due to bad design.