Rapid Battery Drain on 3 Arlo cameras

[lufcsak]

Hi, I have had an Arlo 3 camera system for around a year now. Last year there was a firmware update which caused each of my 3 cameras to lose battery power from around 50% to 5-0% immediately with no more actual usage of the cameras. This was a common problem for many users & in my set up it went in camera order, front camera drops battery power, then a few days later side camera then you guessed it rear camera after that. Arlo were pretty useless blaming my broadband but I did what they told me to do ( can't remember now) with some settings, went out & bought new batteries which are bloody expensive and after they admitted there was a problem a new firmware issue was released & I hadn't had any more problems until last week.

Last week issue returned, front camera went from around 48% to 14% then died in hours, then 3 days later side camera dropped from around 55% to 15% then 4 days later rear camera went from 52% to 2% overnight with no activations. Anybody else having this rapid battery drain again & has there been a firmware update recently?   

My current firmware is 1.12.0.1_27940, base station hardware is VMB3010r2.

Thanks in advance.

[jguerdat]

If you open and close the battery doors and reboot the base, what do the battery levels show?

[lufcsak]

I don’t know as the cameras are not easily accessible, I will have to change the batteries tomorrow so before changing them I will open the battery doors & reboot the base station first. I’ll need to get the ladders out to do this which is one of the reasons I’m really annoyed as well as the cost although I have now bought 12 rechargeable batteries so it will just be inconvenience of changing them from now on.

[lufcsak]

Tried opening & closing battery compartment then rebooting base station but battery levels showed the same. All 3 cameras have rechargeable batteries in them now, will see how they go but I have little confidence in the system so will start looking for an alternative system.

[Minburn57]

I'm having battery issues myself of late as well.  The past short while, notifications of low battery, cameras going offline until batteries replaced . . . . and none of these with older batteries and the same batteries working fine in other equipment.

Something is 'up' with this . . . . 

[Minburn57]

By the way, I've had this system several years now and never had the battery issue quite so bad as of the recent past.

[Minburn57]

Another day, come home late from work, cam not connected to base.

Remove and add in again, low battery warning.

That is two cams in the last week or so with fresh batteries from two differnt suppliers running low on battery charge.

What the f?  Several years of ownership and I don't think this system has ever run problem free for more than a month or so.  And now this . . which is new and disturbingly come in around the same point in time.  Jesus . . . .

[Minburn57]

By the way, and some may find this remarkable, but we're just off another winter . . . a fairly cold one (up here it gets to - 40 deg C) and through 3 winters now I've found that I get best performance 'and' battery life with Duracell CR123A's in 'the winter'!

And mild weather comes in, and problems with battery life, base station 'offline', camera disconnecting from system . . . .

I have a few bucks into this but when times comes that its simply done, I'd 'never' purchase this system and for the past couple years provided hesitant recommendation to folks and explain the chronic issues over the years i have and they lose interest quickly . . .

[JessicaP]

Hi @Minburn57,

Have you tried what jguerdat mentioned with trying to open and close the battery doors and rebooting the Base Station to see if that helps? You can also read this article to learn how to extend your Arlo camera batteries: How can I extend my Arlo camera's battery life?

[Minburn57]

Yeseterday, another cam with no warning suddenly needing batteries . . . what the hell?

So in about 10 minutes, all will have fresh batteries and we'll see what the hell happens.

By the way, unrelated (or not?) but what's with the incredibly lag of both iphone and ipad to the station i.e. not connected to station then a couple minutes later connected?  That would be two completely separate networks having issues.

Arlo . . . . again, I don't think I've ever had a month or two of simply no issues.  I just don't post for all the issues over the years . . . simply wait and sooner than later most remedy themselves.  Hardly the performance of serious security systems.

[lufcsak]

I tried the open/close & reboot & it didn’t work for me. There is obviously a problem with the system if all of a sudden all cameras running off it suddenly have rapid battery drain when they have been working perfectly for months. I would put it down to another dodgy firmware issue like last time, why does it need updating anyway as it’s not like I gain extra functions with the basic Arlo system?Reading through the “extending battery life” post I’ve had the same problem using different good branded batteries, never had problems in cold weather & how are you supposed to keep the base station away from WiFi routers when the leads not very long?

[jguerdat]

Ethernet cables are cheap and even be purchased locally at home improvement stores. You can also use WiFi or powerline extenders to move the base away from the router and more centrally located relative to the cameras.

[Sandif16105]

Mine started last year. I use rechargeable and I noticed it is happening on cameras that are not even activated. It put brand new batteries in, charged them up and they drained completely within 2 weeks. I found a thread from last year through the Internet where this was a known problem (1000+) posts and Netgear was working on a solution. It was closed because it had been resolved and you could not get to the solution which sucked. You should be able to get to the solution!!!!

[kevin_in_az]

Yep, I just installed new batteries on all 5 of my cameras in MArch and now ALL OF THEM need to be repalced, at 5% or lower.  This is a shi++y product

[Gstennett]

Same issue here. Fully charged just yesterday. Woke up to check, system completely locked up. Restarted, and all batteries drained. 1 camera was fully charged last yesterday. Seems like it crashes the base too as it shows offline. Once rebooted cameras will connect but batteries read low or dead. Tried rebooting, batteries definetly drained as I checked with multimeter.

[ricktech]

I am using AGM 6v batteries 12AH they normally last six months or more and all five of those batteries died last month.  Something was done by ARLO that killed them all.  https://www.bing.com/shop?q=agm+6v+agm+batteries&FORM=SHOPPA&originIGUID=6388C27D9FBE4E6192B08A700F1...