Arlo Integration - Battery Life

Just wanted to give a quick review. I bought a single Arlo and base station almost 1 year ago and was impressed by the battery life even though that aspect has mixed reviews. After 9 months my battery showed 75% which is great! That’s with daily recordings and always being armed.

I was excited to see the SmartThings Arlo integration because I’m a big fan of consolidating. After 3 days of going through smartthings the batteries were DEAD. Replaced batteries (not cheap) and deleted from smartthings.

It’s too bad because I wanted this to work. Oh well!

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Mine lasted about 2 weeks through ST but it’s still a whole lot of batteries to be replaced, I think on the average prior to ST I was getting 3 months of one set.

I bought 4 of them about 2 weeks ago. They’re all used outdoors. They’ve drained about 15% since then. Also realizing its going to be getting colder soon and at some point this winter I’ll more than likely have to take them down. I really like them but still on the fence on whether I’ll keep them

I really on the fence if I am keeping them longer because I recently discovered that their hub is messing bad with my wifi. The channel changes how it pleases and interferes with my zigbee networks. As soon as I find a viable alternative, I am taking mine down…

Blink… :wink:

I just took advantage of another sale they had - $67.50 (discount, shipping, taxes) for just the camera.

My most frequently used camera, integrated with ST via @RBoy’s DH and SmartApp, is still at 96% since it was installed at the beginning of June.

Night vision hasn’t been a worry because the LED is bright enough for our use cases. This latest camera I got will go outside under an eve that is fairly well protected from weather. I currently have a Monoprice motion sensor in that area for over a year and it’s doing great out there. I do wish they would hurry up with an outside version.

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Agreed! Have four of them, I would have replaced all my Arlos but the one in the back is on open space. I am waiting for Blink to release the outdoor one…

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Something definitely fishy going on with the Arlo Integration…

Usually I lose about 10% battery power on a camera in a month or two of use. I started the ST Arlo integration for a couple of weeks and all of my 4 cameras taking turns go under 5% of power left!

I also noticed that my arlo batteries drained to 10% from full bars withing a week after adding it to smartthings. These batteries are approx 7 months old. I have 3 cameras and my two other cameras are barely used while the other gets triggered quite often. My heavily used arlo went to 10% first and i thought nothing of it, but then a week later my other 2 arlos that barely get used went to 10%. I already replaced with new batteries and will monitor the batteries closely. I also noticed that the arlos got a new firmware upgrade recently and one of the changes were battery optimization…

I use 4 Arlo but chose to not connect to ST. They function as a concurrent system, a back-up of sorts. Considered ST connection but can now see that would not be cost effective.

My 4th camera’s batteries just got drained last night with an alert email 5% left. It’s on a relatively new set of batteries just got replaced may be a week before I started the arlo integration.

After replacing 16 batteries on all 4 cameras in about a week time I am done with this integration for now until there’s a fix.

You guys are probably hitting that nasty Arlo bug where camera motion is still ON when camera is turned OFF. I reported it when integration just came out:

That happens because ST has no way to turn OFF motion on Arlo cams (as Modes in arlo app do) and just turns OFF the cam itself.
I am glad I have rechargeable batteries. Usually they last around 3 months. With ST integration I have to recharge them every 2 weeks (in busy areas).

No updates from Arlo on a fix. Please chime in to that thread. May be more voices can make Netgear notice it.

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What rechargeables do you use?

One set of: EagleTac RCR123A (16340) 750mAh
from
http://lightjunction.com/arlo-security-camera-batteries/arlo-rechargeable.html
they sell bundles of 4.
(I am not affiliated with LJ. just found that link on arlo forums and sharing here)

and 2 sets of ON THE WAY from amazon. These are cheaper.

I like EagleTac better, they hold charge much longer. But they are more expensive. $5 pc.

These are 4.2 volt Lithium Ion batteries where as Arlo uses 3 volt Lithium batteries. Many products can’t handle 4.2 volt. Blink, for example, explicitly says not to use them.

I found this on Arlo web page:

Rechargeable Battery Warning

Arlo wire-free cameras have been designed for use with primary, non-rechargeable batteries.
For the best possible Arlo 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®.

Because many rechargeable batteries on the market are counterfeits or of inferior quality, WE
STRONGLY DISCOURAGE the use of any rechargeable batteries with your Arlo wire-free
cameras, as they may pose a fire or burn hazard. They may also damage your camera.

I’m a big advocate of rechargeable batteries and wish manufacturers would take the effort to make their products compatible.

Once Netgear announced that it’s safe to use 4+ volts in Arlo cams. They can handle that. Unfortunately I can’t find that announcement right now. May be it was removed when they issues that Battery Warning.

But they can stick that Warning up their … until they fix all the battery bugs.

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So…this is my first post on this forum, in fact first post on any forum in a while,

but I have been reading up on this Arlo ST integration and relationship quite a bit and I might have stumbled upon some helpful settings…so here it goes:

Using the settings below, renders these desired results:

1 - The motion sensors on my three Arlo cameras seem to stay inactive and not use battery.

Confirmed from a refreshed current state panel in the developers panel. In fact when they do go active for SHM or a custom rule, the red lights for night vision mode come on and stay on for the duration selected (30 sec, 1 min, or 2 min) but the motion sensor returns to inactive within seconds, confirmed with a repeatedly, quickly refreshed browser.

2 - The cameras remain active and available to be turned on via SHM or custom rules with no lag.

3 - The cameras send the same duration clip to ST mobile app (visible in intrusion alert and in history) AND to Arlo (even though “do nothing” rather than “record video” is selected in ST mode within Arlo settings) In fact, the duration of the clip saved to Arlo matches the duration selected in ST, 30 sec, 1 min or 2 min, huh.

Settings: (I got lucky, wouldn’t have tripped over it w/o all the feedback above and on other posts, thanks!)

Within Arlo:

1 - Click on SmartThings Custom Mode
2 - click edit next to first camera
3 - Make sure to select the same camera under “then do the following” as is selected under "if the following"
4 - Select do nothing
5 - Select push notification
6 - Click Save
7 - repeat steps 2-6 above for each camera

Now the motion sensors are not active and do not cause any recording to happen via arlo until ST tells it to do so, via either SHM or a custom rule.

So now use SMH or custom rules to setup when to use each camera for recording.

I currently have mine set to record when glass break sensors or door open/close sensors trigger when “Armed (Home)” and set to record whenever any sensor goes off when “Armed (Away)”.

This is only my third day with the ST system, and I have yet to set a custom rule except for testing. I hope to set up the cameras to record only when their own motion sensors trigger (or adjacent glass break), rather than all three cameras recording when any door or glass triggers when home, or when any sensor triggers when away.

Turn off notifications for the Arlo App on your mobile device, or simply do not install it. For me, the clips on the ST mobile app, and the backup copy on Arlo is sufficient. Since I do not use the Arlo app, just STs mobile app, I never see or hear the notifications from Arlo. So the notification remains out of sight and outta mind:) Weird thing is that Arlo would not let me save my settings unless either the notifications or the email alert box was selected. I def don’t need any more email, ha, and in this case an invisible notification is perfect!

I do like having the double copy on Arlo, it is easy to see all the clips at once and navigate through bases on timeline; and can view on a larger screen if needed.

More weird things are that the duration settings within arlo will always default back to 10s no matter what you do or how many times you try to save them. Don’t worry about this, use the duration settings within SHM or custom rules and Arlo will follow suit. Another weird thing is that the “motion is detected” box in the “if the following” settings is clicked on by default and cannot be deselected. This does not affect this scenario, but is any additional observation.

Any feedback is appreciated, I just hope this helps someone with their scenario.