Real Data - Arlo Battery limits

[chrisbrousseau]

Critical statistic from Netgear Tech Support:  Arlo batteries will deliver 4-5 months of life ONLY IF the cameras are recording **no more than 5 minutes per day**.  This includes video from all events, motion detected, manual, live streaming, etc.  This is not listed anywhere from Netgear that I can find, they resort only to "4-5 months" and each situation is unique.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way.  I have a three-camera setup outdoors, and the Arlo batteries burned out in two weeks, much faster than expected. This was driven by a combination of Sunlight driven IR, motion from squirrels and insects, etc. Turning the sensitivity down helps on battery, but does not capture motion we expect to capture.  Am experimenting with schedules to see if we can eliminate false triggers.

Recommendation - evaluate your per camera total daily video usage (simply sum the # of videos times duration).  If it is more than 5 min/day, either adjust settings / setup or stock up on replacement batteries.

[trickytcamgeek]

I also found that pointing Arlo at a sunlit area led to lots of recordings due to cloud, shadows, birds etc.  Now my cameras have all had the motion sensitivity turned down or point to a shaded area with no expected movement.