Battery Life with Mition Detection Off

[PHK1853]

Will battery life be longer if I keep motion dectection off and only view the cameras when I log into my Arlo account?

[jguerdat]

Depends on how many videos you were recording previously, how often you use live view and how long you use live view.  You CAN save battery this way but it depends on a bunch of variables.

[TomMac]

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PHK1853 wrote:

Will battery life be longer if I keep motion dectection off and only view the cameras when I log into my Arlo account?

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  Quick answer Yes and No...

If the camera is in sleep mode, power usage in almost nill..

Motion detect on uses a bit more power than sleep, but not as much as live viewing. Where the cross over point occurs depends on the current draw of the cameras ( which we don't know) for the two different modes ( remember the old school math ; car a at 50mph leaves at 8:00, car b doing 70 leaves... etc )

But as an educated guess, 8 hours in motion detect mode uses same as a couple mins of live viewing/recording time.

I would just use Motion detect ( as long as you don't get a lot of false triggers ) and view if an alert comes.  Now and then if need be view. if you keep your view time below 4 mins per day , you should see at least 3-4 months on batteries.  I usu keep the motion detect on when out ( 4-8 hrs per day ) and just later go to the library to see if any recordings, If none, there's no need to view as I 'm home... When away, I only view once a day unless an alert. Batteries last 4 months.

2 cams I rarely view ( < 1 min per week ) but use motion on often lasted about 7 months.

[PHK1853]

Thanks.  Not sure what you mean by sleep mode.  My mode options are: "Armed" - motion and sound dection; "Disarmed" - Motion and sound detection off; "Schedule" - manage based on schedule; and "All Motion On" - custom mode.  I have my cameras set to "Disarmed".  Is that what you refer to as 'sleep mode'?  I am not using the cameras for security.  I use them at my vacation home to be able to see if I need to call the snow plow before I arrive.  I installed the cameras a week ago and both batteries are already nearly spent.  I realize that I used them a lot during set up and placement but have looked at them only 2 - 3 times since then.

[PHK1853]

I should add that I don't plan to record anything.

[TomMac]

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PHK1853 wrote:

 I have my cameras set to "Disarmed".  Is that what you refer to as 'sleep mode'? 

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Yes... when the cameras are DISARMED, they actually go into a 'sleep' mode so very little power is used.

Using for viewing or recording uses the same amount of power from the batteries.  The spec usage to reach stated battery life of 4-6 months is 4 mins per day.

Don't know why your batteries seem depleted so much, mine run usu 4 months with 2 lightly used going 7 months.

What temp is at the location?

[PHK1853]

It can get cold.  It was in the high teens and mid twenties last week.  The batteries in the cameras are the ones shipped with the cameras so I'm not sure how old they are.  I purchased new Panasonic batteries through Amazon. (Good deal, by the way - 10 batteries for $17.25. +/- $4-$5 in a retail store.) I will put those in today and see how they do. 

Actually it's not quite as bad as I thought.  One battery is down to about 1/8th.  The other one still shows about 75% left.

[TomMac]

May be battereis, hard to tell... A new set and or swapping the two cameras will maybe tell if camera or location

BTW, many good battery distrib companies online...my last batch(battery junction) were $1.30 with free shipping... look around but buy from "well named" companies