Tenergy CR123 rechargeable batteries/charger review

[Iriemon]

I just thought I'd provide some input and feedback on our experience with the Tenergy rechargeable CR123 batteries for our Arlo 3030 Systems.
First, some background: we have two systems and 14 cameras -- 12 Arlo 3030s and 2 Arlo Pro. So as you can tell, the prospect of rechargeables was exciting. We bought two chargers and 10 sets (of 4) rechargeables. That's 40 Rechargeables!
The short version is that they are, bar none, the most disappointing purchase we have EVER made.
Some examples:
- fully charged the batteries on Sunday. By the following Sunday, when we went to use them, they were only at 48%
- batteries did not last longer than one week in the cameras before complete discharge. Now before you say that this is based on the sensitivity and length of recording, I know. But the comparison is against the costlier regular batteries, which will last, in the same conditions, longer than a month.
- the rechargeables messed up the entire Arlo system, resulting in ALL cameras having to be reset. And once we removed the rechargeables and put regular batteries back in, we have had no more issues with the system.
This is extremely disappointing. We spent over $300 on rechargeables and chargers and have nowhere near the problems in the past two years that we've had in the past 15 days with the rechargeables.
The disappointment is not just from the cost perspective, but also from a convenience factor.
The Arlo Pro and its rechargeables are a much better option and seem to be working far more reliably.
One other note is that this experience is in the summer months. Winter would be impossible to keep up with.

[manfredz]

I only have 4 cams and 3 of those have the Tenergy rechargeables and the other has Nitecore.

My experience is far different from yours.

I get 2-3 weeks from a charge but am happy with that because I'm a heavy recorder doing 20-40 x 120 sec recordings per day per cam, plus several live views.

Is there any chance you got the silver colored 3.0V Tenergys instead of the gold colored 3.7V rechargeables?

If you got the right ones, have you charged them a few times because performance may improve after a few charges.

I'ms ure other rechargeable battery users would also agree that what you're experiencing is not normal.

[Iriemon]

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manfredz wrote:

Is there any chance you got the silver colored 3.0V Tenergys instead of the gold colored 3.7V rechargeables?

If you got the right ones, have you charged them a few times because performance may improve after a few charges.

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Thanks for the input -- nope, they are the 3.7V.  Bought the entire set and system at Best Buy, so can only assume they are not selling "off brand".  They have been charged several times (largely because they would not keep a charge), but did not improve at all.  That said, one set was pretty good, but it appeared to be the anomoly -- the rest were far more work than they should have been.

[StevenL]

Hmmm.  I have the gold Tenergy batteries installed in one of three wire free cameras, and although they do not last as long as the alkaline batteries, I should get a couple of months out of it at least.  I've had the cameras installed for three weeks now, and with a lot of "goofing around" with them, I'm still at 87% on the rechargeables.  Maybe there's a bad batch floating around out there.

[shashinka]

Mine work great! But do we really need these. Expensive

[steve_t]

While the Tenergy batteries are 650mAh and lower capacity than non-rechargeable lithiums, they shouldn't be lasting less than a quarter of the time.

Did the batteries receive a full charge and display 100% when first inserted?

What problems did you have that went away when you went back to lithiums?