Arlo Battery Life - Roughly a week ever since the original energizers died.

[JoBro]

I have the 4 camera Arlo kit, and after the energizer batteries died, which was a good 6 months, I've been having difficulty finding replacement batteries which last more than a week, and don't cost me a fortune...

I've tried the Panasonic Pro and some other brand off ebay... if i goto the local shops, the batteries are $10 each and i'm not prepaired to pay $40 a camera, if the batteries are only going to last a week.

The funny thing is, that out of all 4 of my camera, only 1 is set to be active and monitor the front door for motion, the other 3 are inactive as such, and used on an adhoc basis to check things when required...

Its these 3 inactive camera's where the batteries keep dying after a week, where as the front door camera is still using the original energizer batteries and is the most active camera of the lot.

I've looked at the motion sensativity settings of the other camera's, but this option is not applicable if the camera is not configured to be alarmed...

Any ideas what batteries i can buy which won't break the bank, and last more than a week?

[TomMac]

My last batch of 123 primary cells cost about $1.43 each at BatteryJunction ( online )

All the major brands are so close in spec you shouldn't see any difference  ( panasonic, energizer, duracell, etc )

[JoBro]

Yeah well I've gone through about 30 batteries so far, each group of 4 lasting no longer than a week or so... So whilst I think the Arlo solution is a great peice of kit, I can't recommend it to anyone with the ongoing issue of batteries after the energizers that come with the unit die.

Its just crazy that the camera with the most activity on a daily basis, is still going strong on the original energizers, and the others which aren't configured to be active and only used once in a blue moon via me personally accessing them through the app died, and so far have had at least 3-4 changes of batteries.

Why would cameras which arent active, be the ones using the most juice?

[jguerdat]

The most likely cause would be poor WiFi connection between the base and cameras.  This could be due to distance, walls, etc. blocking signal or other wireless devices on the 2.4GHz band interfering with the signal.  One way to test is to swap the cameras around, using the known good one in a suspect location and monitor battery life on both cameras.  If the issue follows the camera, it may need to be replaced. If it stays with the location, you'll need to work out where a better location for the camera and/or base would be to allow for better connections and, hence, better battery life.

[JoBro]

i have the Arlo base station next to my Netgear Nighthawk x8 R8500, although there is about a meter's distance between the two... the cameras are no more than about 6-8 meter's at the most away from the base station, with a single studed wall in between, although the camera that is constantly chewing through batteries is sitting on top of a cupbard in the kitchen, which is about 4 meter's away from the base station.

I'll try swapping the camera's around and see if that makes any difference, but seems silly in my opinion.

[JoBro]

Havnt had a chance to swap the camera's around at this stage, as I've been flat out, and I need to order replacement batteries for all the cameras now, as they have finally all run out.

[hokeysmoke]

For what it's worth, I've been using Arlo wireless cameras since they first started shipping (I currently have 5 of them active on my perimeter), and have never had to replace batteries in less than 3 months.  I have used Energizer, Panasonic, Tenergy, and Ultrafire brands, and I also try to make sure they are purchased from a reputable company as many can be counterfeited.  Blister packs are safer than buying them loose, as they are less likely to be used rather than new.  That being said, the battery metering system in the cameras is not accurate, sometimes saying I need replacements earlier than I do (open and close the battery door if this happens) and sometimes "instantly" switching from 4 bars to 1 bar after 5 months of operation.  I try to balance my WiFi strength so that all cameras have at least two bars of signal.

[TomMac]

Will agree the battery meter system needs "tweaking ".  While batteries for me do last a good while, I've seen the battery level drop like a rock at times. Like the meter reads from 100% to 80 fine.....and then Boom, time to change

(doesn't effect much as I know near 4 months I'm usu due for a change out)

[Sameddy2011]

Cameras are good Batteries live are no good.

I also have four of these cameras, and they work for months.

now the batteries are dead.

for such an expensive device, they should have other ways in charging the battery.

Will be shopping around for something different.

[JamesC]

Sameddy2011,

Arlo Wire-Free camera last for about four to six months with normal usage, which is about five minutes of recordings a day.

For more information on how to maximize battery life, see here: How can I extend my Arlo Wire-Free, Arlo Pro Wire-Free, or Arlo Go camera’s battery life?

JamesC

[Devan]

I purchased the 2 wirefree plus base and added an additional Pro that comes with rechargeable battery. I have only had the system running for 4 days now and if the battery usage is correct, 2 of them will be dead in 15 days. The Arlo Pro's current usage puts it as dying in 1.5 months, but I see people saying the meter may be wrong. I hope so, because I do not want to change batteries every 2-3 weeks.

I haven't even ran them 24/7. My current schedule is set to about half the day. According to James here they consider the average to be 30 10 second recordings per day. I don't know how they came up with that being average. Nowhere in the advertisments did it say only use these when no motion will ever be triggered except bad guys.

When I purchased these I though (oh, 4-6 months, I wil probably only get 3 months where I am putting them) I had no idea it would be 2-3 weeks.

I hope it's wrong because, after 4 days, it's not looking very good.

[Quailrunner]

Your usage, sorry to say, sounds way above average.  You will not, by y reading, find *any* wireless system that will support that level of use without running down the batteries quickly.  If I understand you correctly, you are turning the cameras fully on (to record?) for half the day.  You need wired cameras to do this.

[Devan]

No, I am not recording for 12 hours. I have a schedule to only record movement from 4pm to 6am (14 hours). During this time 4 of the hours are somewhat busy because children are up and running around and 2 cams are triggered probably 12 times throughout the night from random house movement with 6 people.

I in no way expected to record 12 hours straight. I had also debated on having the driveway cam on motion detect 24 hours a day, but I have not done this yet.

With all that said, I will say I am happier with the battery life on the cams at this time. It's like they dropped 30% the first 3 days, but have only used about 1% per day since then. I guess this goes back to the battery meter not reading well.

I will give another update in 30days I think.

[NETthisGEAR]

I find that a lot of people are unaware that there are indeed rechargeablee batteries available for the Arlo. The get the best battery life possible I recommend contacting support at www.support.netgear.com. The average battery life is 4-6 months, with normal use.

Arlo rechargeable battery links:

Here is an Amazon link to the Tenergy Batteries with charging station recommended by NETGEAR

Here is an Amazon link to just the Tenergy batteries

[salm]

The battery life is terrble and I wouldn't reccomend this product to anyone who doesn't have an endless supply of free batteries

[jguerdat]

What have you done to try to nail down the battery usage?  For instance, how many total minutes per day of recording and live view are you doing on average?  How far away from the base are the cameras and what's in the path of the signals?  Do you have any other devices that use the 2.4GHz band that could be causing interference? Have you tried moving the base to a more favorable location for connection to the cameras?

[Quailrunner]

I agree - more information is needed to understand your situation.  My cameras (3 battery, one Pro with a rechargeable pack) do not run down quickly at all.  Usage is moderate (except on the Pro, which is triggered by trees moving in the wind multiple times per day - I still only recharge it about once every three months).

[Wayne8]

I also find that the battery life in the app gets erratic with sharp drops and low battery level even with fresh batteries. But I use rechargable 123's and I found that if there is just one weak battery among the four, the app will show low and falling battery power, send warning messages, then eventually cut off the camera for lack of battery. When that happens I put all four in the recharger. Inevitably just one battery is very low. I have then replaced that weak battery with a good one and the app shows high battery level again. So the system is sensitive to just one bad battery even if the others are fine.

[Mychal]

I wish I had never purchased this HORRIBLE system, battery life is very short no matter how you set up your cameras. My cameras are using Watson rechargeable batteries and sometimes I use Tenergy and they only last a few days. You will pay more money for the batteries in serval months than for the entire Arlo system!

[Devan]

I will admit I dropped a lot in the first month on rechargers and batteries.

These are not made for high traffic environments. They are probably best for security only in low traffic areas. We get about 1 week on Arlo Pro in high traffic and Arlo regular in mid-high traffic.

[jguerdat]

---

Mychal wrote:
I wish I had never purchased this HORRIBLE system, battery life is very short no matter how you set up your cameras. My cameras are using Watson rechargeable batteries and sometimes I use Tenergy and they only last a few days. You will pay more money for the batteries in serval months than for the entire Arlo system!

---

Mine last months so it's something about your installation and/or usage.  As noted above, lots of recordings and/or live views will deplete batteries quickly. Positioning and usage are very important for ANY battery-operated device, including Arlo.

You haven't given us any information to work with so I can't be specific.  If you want to share videos or screenshots for suggestions, we should be able to (mostly) work through the issues.  Also, use of proper 3.7v rechargeables is highly recommended so you don't spend a fortune in batteries, at least more than once.

[steveken]

I just installed 4 brand new batteries YESTERDAY!!! It has only done 3 recordings yesterday and 6 recordings today. Each 17 to 20 seconds each. The batteries are now showing 17%!!!!! I PUT THEM IN YESTERDAY!!!! Full bars on the wifi signal, very little traffice, from full to 17% in 1 day???? The other batteries that we put in there that came with it lasted a couple months. I really hate these cameras. 

[jguerdat]

A frequent issue is pushing the batteries down into their slots instead of just placing them and letting the battery door do the pushing. Remove the batteries, gently replace them and close the door. Is the display different?

[steveken]

No offense, but that doesn't make any sense. Contact with the battery is contact. Pushing it in hard or just barely placing it in should make zero difference as it is an electrical connection, not based on force. Besides, I did just place them in there. I don't remember pushing them in at all.

[jguerdat]

The issue is thaat, due to production tolerances, some batteries are somewhat larger than others, causing the batteries to stick in their slots. That prevents them from being able to contact the metal on the battery door. Since the batteries are really two sets of 2, front and rear, which the camera alternates between, that leads to one set being the only one used with short life.