Rechargeable batteries for use with Arlo cameras

[Coltsbro84]

I am looking for the best rechargeable CR123 batteries that I can find, for use with my Netgear Arlo four cam system. I bought the green stripe Tenergy that claim to have 750mah power. Six batteries with a charger run about $25. I'm not happy with these batteries, because when fully charged (only takes about an hour to charge with a 500mah charger, from what I understand, it exerts as much energy as it stores, so I'm thinking that these batteries are more like 200mah) but back to the story, when fully charged, these batteries only show the camera as being half charged, with a day's use putting it into the low battery icon, and only lasting about a week.

I have since then ordered four Nitecore batteries, rated at 3.7 volts and 650mah. Now the volts are 0.5 higher than what's to be used with the camera, I'm hoping that this does not affect the camera. 650mah is probably true from the reviews and the steep price tag they are asking of around $10 per battery. I'm hoping that they are quality batteries and worth it, and I purchased a Nitecore charger to go with it. I'll be able to test them out here in a few days and get back with everyone on performance.

I just want to know, has anyone tried the rechargeable batteries that I have mentioned? Or do you have other suggestions?


Tenergy (link here: http://www.amazon.com/Kits-RCR123A-LiFePO4-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B001EYHO9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&a...

Nitecore (link here: : http://www.amazon.com/Nitecore-RCR123A-Protected-Rechargeable-Battery-Black/dp/B00D2OCQB2/ref=pd_sim...

Nitecore charger here http://www.amazon.com/Nitecore-IntelliCharger-i4-Battery-Charger/dp/B005UAI372/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&am...

[TomMac]

They look the same... 

Good read on them here; http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?332960-Test-Review-of-EagleTac-16340-750mAh-(Blac...

[MJDATL]

Had some rechargables...and they were working fine...until Atlanta went sub mid-30's temps. Are Eagletech/premium brand owners experiencing any issues? Netgear site states 14 degrees min. operating temp...but wondered if this was rechargeable battery specific, or if people who still used disposable batteries were experiencing similar issues with Arlo. If Eagletechs fix this issue, I will toss my current rechargeables. If not, time to eBay Arlo.

[ctrack]

Tshrimp,
Thanks for the heads up on the Olights from Batteryjunction. Just ordered 2 sets to give them a try. Will let y'all know how it goes.

[Ippikiokami]

Off topic but does anyone know if the arlos on a nighthawk save more batteries

[RobertRosal]

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MJDATL wrote:
Had some rechargables...and they were working fine...until Atlanta went sub mid-30's temps. Are Eagletech/premium brand owners experiencing any issues? Netgear site states 14 degrees min. operating temp...but wondered if this was rechargeable battery specific, or if people who still used disposable batteries were experiencing similar issues with Arlo. If Eagletechs fix this issue, I will toss my current rechargeables. If not, time to eBay Arlo.

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My camera with EagleTac's have seen many days in the 30's and I haven't experienced any issues.

[Ippikiokami]

Im in Atl woth eagletacs and had no issue

[ctrack]

Had a set of Tangsfire 1000 in for two or three nights of high 20s and several nights at low 30s with rain. No problems. However that's a bit above 14 degrees.

[jguerdat]

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MJDATL wrote:
Had some rechargables...and they were working fine...until Atlanta went sub mid-30's temps. Are Eagletech/premium brand owners experiencing any issues? Netgear site states 14 degrees min. operating temp...but wondered if this was rechargeable battery specific, or if people who still used disposable batteries were experiencing similar issues with Arlo. If Eagletechs fix this issue, I will toss my current rechargeables. If not, time to eBay Arlo.

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I didn't have that sort of problem with the cheapy GTLs in sub-freezing temps last winter.  I'd guess you just had a bad batch or they were truly cheaply made.  The more premium batteries shouldn't have the issue, either.  My current EagleTacs and and less expensive Tangsfire are working fine this winter in 10F weather.

[Drc225811]

I'm in Chicago and have been through subzero temps for 3 weeks now. Cameras are still working good, batteries seem to drain a bit faster though.

[ctrack]

Drc225811,

Which batteries were you using?

[Yell9808]

Lithium

[TomMac]

I think he meant brand specific... OEM are lithium based, rechargeable are li-ion @ 3.7v

[Drc225811]

I was using the Panisonic brand that came with the camera. I just purcheased the rechargeable Eagletac 750 and I'm going to try them out.

[ctrack]

Thanks for the info.  I've been using the Tangsfire and Ultrafire 1000s. All have worked much better than I expected, both in cold and average temps.  I get longer life from the nonrechargeables lithium and I keep one of 4 cameras on nonrechargeables. Since I have been traveling a bit I usually recharge the batteries at about 4 weeks to ensure that they don't quit while I'm gone. I have yet to run any of the rechargeable batteries to discharged state.  So I know I get 4 weeks at minimum. However, they really don't get heavy use.  

Question: Did Netgear delete the "low battery" message?  I can't find it on the app. If they did, that's a real problem.....

[ant]

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ctrack wrote:
...

Question: Did Netgear delete the "low battery" message?  I can't find it on the app. If they did, that's a real problem.....

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I noticed I don't get e-mail notifications of low and change batteries ever since Netgear did its major Arlo upgrade. This is a known issue as shown in my https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Wire-Free-camera/No-e-mail-notifications-about-low-batteries/m... forum thread. I did notice its iOS app showing "change battery" on a camera with green screen overlay and orange color (not red?) battery icon a few days ago. 😞

[ctrack]

Thanks. Looks like Netgear is working on it. However, the indications are that it's built in to the APP, not as a option within the "settings" (as before) I think. I liked the old way where you knew it was an option. I want to make sure I get those messages because just looking at the battery indicator is a bit of a guess!

[TomMac]

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ctrack wrote:

T I've been using the Tangsfire and Ultrafire 1000s. All have worked much better than I expected, both in cold and average temps. snip

Since I have been traveling a bit I usually recharge the batteries at about 4 weeks to ensure that they don't quit while I'm gone.

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good to hear... what's the lowest temp so far for u?

As to the 30 day recharge, also a good idea tho normal use should get you to 40+ days with those cells, its the same time frame I went for when away a lot

[Shirley2015]

Hi I have the latest Arlo. We cant buy rechargeable batteries over here in New Zealand for my Arlo. Cost of CR123A batteries is $120 every 2 months.  Is there a way to save my battery power?

[Schorschi]

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Shirley2015 wrote:

Hi I have the latest Arlo. We cant buy rechargeable batteries over here in New Zealand for my Arlo. Cost of CR123A batteries is $120 every 2 months.  Is there a way to save my battery power?

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I recently ordered 24 rechargeable Nitecore batteries from Fasttech.com for my five wireless Arlo cameras, at a little over US$6 a piece (free worldwide shipping) and a D4 Nitecore charger from Amazon USA for US$32. The batteries took two weeks to ship to the US.

Not the cheapest option, but at least they are protected by an electronic circuit monitoring the charging process, so I don't have to worry about them going up in flames during the charging process.

The charger is quite sophisticated. Has an LC-Display that shows you the charge current in mA and the voltage across each of the four batteries. It can charge other battery sizes and chemistries too. The charger also has a low-charge option that will take longer to charge the batteries, but potentially extend their lifetime because of it.

I believe Fasttech ship from China. I don't know how strict your country is regarding importing goods from abroad and imposing customs fees and taxes, so it could probably cost you a bit more. I used to live in Germany, and only goods below ~$30 were customs-free, but at the least I'd be charged the value-added tax of 19% for every little nit. Since I've been living in the US I have yet to be charged for customs or sales tax for anything shipped from abroad.

I haven't yet run down my first set of rechargeables, but because of the lower voltage of them compared to the one-use batteries the battery gauge will show two bars out of three in the Arlo app or browser UI when fully charged. It doesn't really matter though, because I don't have to worry about buying new batteries. Pop them in the charger, recharge them at virtually no cost.

[TomMac]

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Shirley2015 wrote:

Hi I have the latest Arlo. We cant buy rechargeable batteries over here in New Zealand for my Arlo. Cost of CR123A batteries is $120 every 2 months.  Is there a way to save my battery power?

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First I buy the OEM cells via internet...they cost about $1.30 - $1.50 per here in US, ( search is your friend ).. I use a battery supply house call Battery Junction.

Second, the best way to save batteries is limited use as per spec ( 4 min a day ). You should get about 4 months or so. If your usage is more than that, battery life will suffer.

After that, there's not much you can do... remember that viewing and recording uses the same amount of power, best is just to put in the ARMED mode ( if settings are correct for stopping false triggers ) as that mode uses the lower amount of power. ( only less usage is when in sleep mode ;  ( DISARMED ).

[MESMERIZE]

Update: This is my third charge of the Eagletacs and the charge seems to be lasting longer. 4 weeks with two bars still showing on all cameras and they went through blizzard on east coast 2 feet of snow 3 weeks ago and this past weekend with temperature of 7 degrees and wind chills at -10 degrees. Everything is great shot over 1000 videos on all cameras with balanced settings.

[jguerdat]

Yeah, my EagleTacs are in a camera that has been subjected to -5F or so and tripped the tired battery warning this past Sunday.  The battery indicator has been empty ever since but the camera keeps on going, with both day and night videos being taken.  The weather has moderated some but I haven't had a need to change them.  It's a test to see how long they'll last!

FWIW, I rebooted the base to see if that would make a difference - no. I could open the battery door to see what that might do but I'm just gonna let them completely die. 42 minutes of recording since the email for 12%.

[TomMac]

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@MESMERIZE

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Yes... I've found that a few cycles on the cells ballance them out a bit ( and fine the ones that don't recharge well )...

A note is to charge all and let sit for a day then take voltage readings ( they come off charge at 4.2v but settle .1-.2 lower +/- )

Then take the V levels of the cells after settling and sort them into groups of the closest voltages.  I may just give you a slightly better life.

Another note, is the rechargeables DO work better for heavy use VS long term ( like the oem ) ... good to hear their working well for you.

As to optimized settings, your prob not saving more than a day or two so I'd bump it up to best quality.

[Schorschi]

I bought 24 NiteCore rechargeables a few weeks ago. After I charged them with a NiteCore charger and waited a couple days, they all showed exactly 4.08V without exception. No grouping possible. Is that normal?

Will they eventually exhibit different voltages after some discharge/recharge cycles?