New Arlo Pro 5s cameras horrible battery drain!

[chargers]

Decided to replace my Arlo Pro cameras due to EOL with new Pro 5S 2ks and pay for a subscription in order to add more cameras on, since was very happy with my old cameras for the past 5 years. 

I've connected them to my old VMB4000 base station.  Background on setup, three of my old cameras would hold a charge for about 2 months and two would need charging monthly due to a lot of recording and activity in range (lots of recording from the street traffic or us outdoors) on those.  I was hoping to get a little better battery life out of a new product.

After syncing and updating to the latest firmware I mounted the new Pro 5s ones in same spots as old cameras and battery drain on three of them absolutely horrible!  Dying in 3 days, have charged 3 times already.  Other two are at 96% after being put up for 9 days with activity being recorded here and there.  Replaced one battery at 6pm last night and by the morning it was at 68%, with no activity being recorded since I reduced the motion sensitivity.  But that one has stayed at 68% all day while going off 20 times during the day.  Weird they seem to drain super fast through the night even when not being set off and very little drain during the day when going off.

The three with the crazy battery drain are mounted on brick exterior walls while the other two are mounted on vinyl siding if that matters, same as my old Pro cameras which I never had problems with.  The one farthest away from the base station on vinyl siding is actually holding a good charge.  My old cameras had no issues in any of these locations. 

I tried removing one of the fast drain ones from the base station and connecting it to WIFI vs the base station, but could not get it to connect.  Not sure if WIFI connection would help?  I have Xfinity and do not have separate 2.4 and 5 set up, it automatically picks the best one for WIFI traffic and do not want to turn off and have to reconnect 20 devices (family would start yelling WIFI is out immediately) or so if that would not help anyway?  Not sure if I could even have some cameras WIFI and some on the base station?

I've left them all at the default settings for now to see how they perform.  I have played with turning off the spotlight off and going to night vision, but that resulted in nothing but light/dark flashing videos which was horrible.

Also the 2 that are not draining fast do have a light source at night (landscape lights) vs the fast draining ones that do not.  

Does the 5S not go through brick exterior walls as well as the original Pro?  And why would they drain so fast though the night with no activity and not much during the day when there is activity?  Would a newer SmartHub be better suited for the Pro 5S?

I have not mounted the new extra ones I bought yet, I may try to swap those in to see if I was sent a bad batch of cameras. 

I'm at a loss and ready to trash the 5S cameras and put up the old ones back up, they were so much better.  We can't even go out of town for a few days without stressing about them dying.

[chargers]

An update on my troubleshooting.

I moved swapped some cameras locations one fast dying camera with one holding a charge.  Kept them both connected to base station.  The one fast dying one has continued dying fast in the location that was holding a charge with the other camera.  And the one holding a charge has continued holding a charge in its swapped location.  

I also pulled another new camera out of the box, an additional one I have not mounted yet, and swapped that for one of the others that was dying fast, but connected to WiFi vs the base station.  The new camera seems to be holding a charge.

Brought that one that was dying fast into the house and put a fully charged battery in it and faced it against a wall in a room with little activity, very strong WiFi signal as now inside the house, and not cold either.  It is not dying as fast as when outside (down 20% in 5 days), but still really fast for not having any activity (replacement one outside with lots of activity is only down 4%).  Also, once it is dark in the house it clicks all night long with no activity.

I plan to put it up again outside after connecting it to WiFi to see if that makes any difference.

I have spent way to much time on this!!!

Currently thinking either some cameras or batteries are defective as they are all on the same firmware 1.040.27.10_105_2477521.

[jguerdat]

Since you have a warranty, use it. Use the app and go to Settings, Support to select your camera. Scroll down to Contacts to talk to official support for a possible RMA. If the system is still within the store's return policy, you could swap at the store.

[Minburn57]

"I have spent way to much time on this!!!"

I have heard that refrain 'many' times over the years . . . . My system goes back to 2016 and needing another cam now, checking into newer cams with focus on 'battery life' as up here (northwest edge of Canadian prairie) my old Arlos with 4 x CR123A would last several months even at -20 - -40 deg Celsius in the winter.

I would seriously consider purchasing an older cam if these newer ones can't approach decent battery life.  It was challenging enough every so many months climbing up extension ladders . . . 

[BrookeN]

Here is some steps that can extend the battery life:

https://kb.arlo.com/291/How-can-I-extend-Arlo-camera-battery-life

 

[chargers]

Update, after weeks of playing around moving cameras around.  Seems the solution is that the Arlo Pro 5S cameras are just not compatible with my old VMB4000 base station.

After a couple of weeks with 2 of them working fine connected to the base station, ones battery just randomly started dying fast one night.

I have given up on having any of them connected to the base station and have just gone WiFi connections on all of them and they seem to be operating fine and no super fast battery drain anymore.

[jguerdat]

Your base may be the issue. First, move it away from your router as much as practical. Also, check for other wireless devices near the base that use the 2.4GHz band which may be interfering with the signal.