Poor Battery Life new Wire-Free Doorbell

[Mick12]

Installed new wire free doorbell.  Running on battery power.

First 24 hours installed battery discharged from 99% to 77%.  After making some adjustments to the settings I recharged the battery on the second day.  

Once the battery light turned green, I re-installed into camera.  Battery read 98% when fully charged, 10 hours later the batter is at 93% with no activations or video recording.

Is this to be expected? Reason for replacing my ring video doorbell was due to very poor battery life.  

Do not see how this doorbell will make it three months between charges with its current discharge rate.

Is there any other power saving options I am missing here?

[Jeremy83]

Hi Mick,

I had the same battery problems as you did.

In short, my problem was due to the loose contact between the battery and the contact plates.

I tried to pull and bend the contact plates outwards before putting in the battery. But that didn’t work for me.

What worked for me was I added some folded paper behind the contact plates to prevent it from retreating too much when the batteries are inserted.

It’s been 5 days now and battery is only down 2%, when previously, it would be all drained in 3 days. Hope this helps!

[ozark01]

Can a larger battery pack be mounted inside the house behind the wireless doorbell using the USB charging port? A external battery could be mounted in the wall with a cover that could be removed for charging.

[dougblair]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you run wires to it doesn't that sort of bypass the whole "wire-free" thing? If you can run wires to the USB port, why not just run two wires to your doorbell power pack instead? It's probably already built into your house, or a trivial task for any electrician. Keep the original battery in place as backup for those rare cases when the mains go out.

Just my $0.02.

[ozark01]

I am an electrician since 1975 so I know how to run cable. It is a lot easier to cut in 6x6 box in a wall behind the doorbell for a big battery than it is to run a wire from point A to point B so my question is still the same....can you install a larger battery to power a wireless doorbell. I work at the coast where there is a large rental market so doorbell cameras are up and coming for people replacing existing doorbells but lots of time there is no existing doorbell and if the owner is 1000 miles away they do not have the ability to replace batteries every week or month. An answer of fact from a company rep will be appreciated.

[StephenB]

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@ozark01 wrote:

can you install a larger battery to power a wireless doorbell. 

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With the other battery-powered cameras (Ultra, and the various Pro models), this wouldn't work - the camera would shift to a higher power mode (thinking it was on AC power), and the larger battery would drain very quickly.  However, the AVD2001 isn't designed to be AC powered, so it's possible it might behave differently.

But the USB connector is on the battery itself, and it isn't accessible when the battery is inserted.  So I don't think it's physically possible to do this. 

Note I don't work for Arlo.

[JamesC]

ozark01,

No. The usb charging port on the battery for AVD2001 is only designed to be used when the battery is removed from the doorbell.

JamesC

[cobyandbees]

Is this assuming your in-wall battery could output LV and connect to the pads behind the doorbell, simulating a wired setup? I'm not an electrician but I could see something like that possibly working. Direct to the built-in batter though, no I don't think so.

[StephenB]

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@cobyandbees wrote:

Is this assuming your in-wall battery could output LV and connect to the pads behind the doorbell, simulating a wired setup? 

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He specifically asked about a battery (DC) connected to the USB charging port, and that has been answered as "no".

If the battery output could be converted to 8-24 VAC, then the chime connection could be connected to that, and in principle it ought to trickle-charge the AVD2001 battery.  I've never seen a suitable DC to AC inverter though. They generally convert 12 DC to 110  or 220 AC.  So he'd likely need to build one.

[ozark01]

Thanks for all the replies! I guess I will look at other brands to see what is possible...

[pbarham]

Wow!

I had been considering buying one of these to replace my regular doorbell, but there is NO WAY I am going to buy this product until somebody from Arlo replies to this thread with both a valid technical explanation and a solution.

The responses so far make this sound like a really badly conceived product that had no realistic testing before release!

[JamesC]

pbarham,

Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free (AVD2001) battery life will depend on environmental conditions and usage. For more information on this take a look here: How can I extend the battery life of my Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wire-Free?

If you already have an existing doorbell, you may want to take a look at the wired version, Arlo Essential Video Doorbell (AVD1001) if battery life is a concern: Arlo Essential Video Doorbell Wired FAQ

JamesC

[Caroline7]

Mine is working ok now and generally pretty happy with it. I’m charging the battery perhaps every 2-3mths now which is ok. Does the job I wanted it to. I just thought I’d post a follow up here because it seems all bad news in the comments but once you get the sensitivity settings right it’s all good.

[RFox92]

Hey, this is a follow up to my earlier post. When I had first gotten the doorbell it died immediately in <24 hours. So quickly that I knew the product was defective. After doing all my own troubleshooting and opening a support ticket(the ticket system is poor, time between responses was up to and over a month at times) as well as calling them (another waste of time) and being told to do all the things I had already done I was fed up. Got on a live chat with a rep and let them do their troubleshooting for a second and flat out told them “this product is not working, I have lost faith in the product and support at this point, I either need a refund or replacement.”

Long story short as soon as I charged and installed the new camera doorbell I was anxious. But it’s been nearly a month since and I’ve only lost 10% charge.

I cannot speak to everyone here but the product now works as advertised and I’m ecstatic for easy wire-free solutions for home security. Advocate for yourself and reach out through avenue available. But I am now happy

[606Chicago312]

My battery only last a month a most.

[dougblair]

Hello 606Chicago312. I'm more in 224Chicago847 :-), but I also have an AVD2001.

In addition to the bad contact issue solved by the folded paper cited above, the biggest thing I have noticed affecting battery life is the motion sensitivity setting.  You can use that setting on the camera controls to determine what motion to sense in the first place, but that is just to test the device. When the AVD2001 (or any either camera) is operating, the motion sensitivity is controlled by a setting for that camera in the MODE the system is in, NOT by the setting in the device controls for the camera.

For example, when you install the camera, go to the device panel on the mobile app or web page, pick your camera and click the GEAR for settings. Under Device Utilities you will find a Motion Detection Test. Set it in the middle (about 50) and walk around in front of the camera. You will see LED lights on when the camera senses motion, Try different settings to get an idea of the range (distance and width) where the camera's infrared sensor is aware of you. It is important to remember that this is a doorbell, not a surveillance camera, and you really don't want the doorbell to trigger when someone is 10 yards or meters away. You want the doorbell to start its "breathing" light when someone approaches the door, so the person will know to ring the bell. Triggering motion detection when someone is at the outer end of your sidewalk or front yard is a job for another camera up on the roof or in a tree somewhere. In my case the motion setting that works is about 40. Setting it to 80 or 90 results in a lot of false triggers for leaves and vehicles and squirrels.

Once you know the motion sensitivity setting for this doorbell you need use that number in the operating MODEs for your system. For most people you will have an ARMED and DISARMED mode, but you probably want at least one more because you will want the doorbells to still work even when all the cameras are turned off.  Many people set up a system controlled by home and away, armed and disarmed, and a schedule for more or less secure times. For each MODE that you use click on the PENCIL to define the mode. You will see a rule for each camera used in the mode (for example: "If Motion on DOORBELL..."). Click the PENCIL for this rule to edit it. On the next panel the top section is usually "If morion is detected" and there is yet another PENCIL to click. This is where you enter the motion sensitivity you figured out above!

You will need to set the doorbell motion sensitivity for every MODE that includes the doorbell.  They should probably be the same number, and the number will probably be lower than the default setting.

I can't say if you'll get 6 months of battery life yet, as mine is a recent installation. So far it looks like it will go at least 2 1/2 months, but my experiment did include a few days with high sensitivity at the start, so I can t be exact.

Hope this helps!

Doug

[Niki-S]

My doorbell battery is only lasting a couple of weeks, it’s been fully charged twice now. I changed the parameters so it doesn’t record unnecessarily. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?
Thank you for the advice

[StephenB]

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@Niki-S wrote:
I changed the parameters so it doesn’t record unnecessarily. 

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What did you change?  Note that Activity zones won't improve battery life.

[Niki-S]

It was the activity zones
What can I do to help the battery

[StephenB]

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@Niki-S wrote:
It was the activity zones
What can I do to help the battery

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Reduce the motion sensitivity in the mode is about all you can do.  https://kb.arlo.com/42/What-are-modes-and-rules-and-how-does-Arlo-use-them

Activity zones are processed in the cloud, so they don't reduce the amount of camera activity.  Recordings are just dropped if they are outside the zone.

[blb193]

I am having the same issue. At first my doorbell cameras would last. I have two, one at the front of my house, and one at the rear since most people come to my back door due to how my house is set up (Garage and driveway swing around to the back). Now, BOTH cameras do not last even 24hrs. I changed them out yesterday only to wake up to low battery alerts on both. The front is connected to the wires of the old doorbell which is supposed to keep it charged which it was doing at first but no longer maintains a charge even on the wired one. The lack of customer service with Arlo, particularly after they have gotten so huge is also concerning at this point as well. It should not be this difficult to get in contact with someone and you shouldn't have to look through Internet forums for answers.

[JamesC]

blb193,

What is the signal strength showing for the doorbells? Are you using any smart features like Activity Zones? How much activity is the doorbell seeing?

JamesC

[Mgmcdon]

Re my Arlo doorbell I’m getting less than 12 hours before it’s shutting itself down due to no battery life from a full charge. I believe it could be subscription related so how do I disable the constant recording?

[StephenB]

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@Mgmcdon wrote:

Re my Arlo doorbell I’m getting less than 12 hours before it’s shutting itself down due to no battery life from a full charge. I believe it could be subscription related so how do I disable the constant recording?

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Constant recording isn't subscription related.

Go into the mode for the doorbell, and try reducing the motion sensitivity there.

• https://kb.arlo.com/41/How-do-I-change-the-motion-sensitivity-on-my-Arlo-camera

If there is wiring for a doorbell at that location, you could also consider powering the camera (getting a suitable transformer, etc).