Hold off buying this product until they work out major kinks!

[jfrenaye]

I purchased a system $399 with 3 cameras and a base station due to two break-ins.  The installation was a breeze and it worked solidly for a few weeks. 

All of a sudden, the cameras were going offline (it was installed to the letter per their instructions) and needed to be manually reset. The problem is that you do not know if they are offline, so YOU have to monitor it.  That issue seemed to solve itself, and all was good for a month.

Then they upgraded the firmware and APP and it all went to hell. I can no longer keep the cameras online despite re-boots, fresh installs, etc. The latest thing is that my front door camera does not activate on motion as it is supposed to even when on-line, but it appears to have somehow zoomed in. I have a good photo of an upper windo pane, but the door is nowhere to be seen.  I have tried to re-synch the cameras and all to no avail.

The final straw was that the front door camera got a low battery. I knew they were replaceables so I bought 4 new ones. The batteries range from $5 to $8 a piece, so every time you swap batteries it is $25 to $32.  And with the cold, the batteries seemingly last just a little more than a week.  With 12 weeks of winter, I am looking at a $320 battery bill per outside camera!

The concept is great. Netgear usually makes a good product (routers etc) but boy is this a hugely regrettable purchase for me.  Their support is limited to the basics from what I see--did you synch, did you replace the batteries, try to re-boot.  And 99% of the time, that will solve the issue immediately, but shortly thereafter it will fail.  

Incredibly unreliable and in hindsight, I shoudl have gone a different route.

[TomMac]

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jfrenaye wrote:snip

I I knew they were replaceables so I bought 4 new ones. The batteries range from $5 to $8 a piece, so every time you swap batteries it is $25 to $32.  And with the cold, the batteries seemingly last just a little more than a week.  With 12 weeks of winter, I am looking at a $320 battery bill per outside camera!
snip

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Don't know where you buy your batteries, but there are many online sellers that carry name branded 123s for aprox $1.35 to $1.60 depending on brand

[jfrenaye]

Granted they are at the local hardware store, but Energizer Lithium123 (123-1 Lithium) is the model I believe. These are the batteries per the specs.  But still to only get a week or so out of them in the winter is crazy

[TomMac]

Netgear does recommend any 'good named' brand; 

Arlo Wire-Free cameras have been designed for use with non-rechargeable batteries. For the best possible experience, we strongly recommend using the non-rechargeable batteries supplied with your Arlo Wire-Free cameras, or non-rechargeable batteries from other high quality, established well-known manufacturers such as Panasonic®, Energizer®, or Duracell®.[

But if your only getting a week or so, something else is going wrong.

I have 2 cameras out side now ( and have had cams outside since 12-2014 ) and get aprox 4 months.

[StuBee]

I agree that we should receive notifications if any of the Cameras, and/or Base Station, are offline.  Not sure why they don't do this, since they do it with low battery notifications, which are less critical.