Charge time and charge rate of Fenix 5 plus.

Don't laugh, I'm upgrading from an Epix that served me well for many years...mainly for the heart rate monitoring. It seemed like the Epix would recharge from empty in less than an hour. I would only recharge it every week or so.

The Fenix is much, much slower. I had it plugged into a 2.4A external USB charger for about a half hour this morning and it only recharged 20% or so. I've tried several different chargers including using the USB port on my computer and they all are similarly slow. What are people seeing for charge times?

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Former Member over 6 years ago +1

I was so preoccupied with my battery's charge duration that I hadn't given the charge time much attention, but I too am noticing a longer than usual charge time. I'm not sure how long it should take to…

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0 ImDisaster over 6 years ago

More info. Measured with TACKlife MUT01 USB amp meter. .16-.17 amp charge rate at standard 5.04 volts. 160-170mA is way below even the basic USB charge rate of 500mA, let alone the 1,500mA to 2,400mA of faster devoted chargers or the 900mA of USB3.

I hooked the Epix up to the same charger and amp meter. It reported .44-.45 amp charge rate. So it charges almost three times faster than the Fenix.

Also noticed charge was 66% but I swear it read 60% when I removed it from charger. Either I read wrong or there is a delay in showing the total charge and it updated afterwards.

0 shanetkd over 6 years ago

Glad you said that I thought I was going mad!!! I had the Fenix 5X and that charged a lot faster than the 5+

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

From my one charging attempt, it seems to charge at similar rate to original 5, which is pretty slow. From near 0 it would take almost 3 hours to recharge completely. Though if you want to quantify charging speed, you'd have to do so at different charging levels. From my observations, it charges relatively fast when it's in the 10% charge remaining range (close to 1% per minute) and then slows down.

Also noticed charge was 66% but I swear it read 60% when I removed it from charger. Either I read wrong or there is a delay in showing the total charge and it updated afterwards.

I think I saw something similar. I'd swear it was showing 76% when I took it off the charger but later it was around 81%. I was thinking I just didn't read it correctly, but since there's more of us...

0 ImDisaster over 6 years ago

Charged it up during my shower this morning. In a half hour it only gained 13% charge. Frustratingly slow.

0 ImDisaster over 6 years ago

More info. Took a photo of phone before I hooked it up to charger and after I removed it 20 minutes later. It charged 8% in 20 minutes. That equates to about 4.1 hours to charge from empty....assuming it doesn't slow down further as it gets closer to full. Unfortunately, that is less than it ran down yesterday so I'll need to leave it on the charger, and off my wrist longer, to keep up.

Could other people take a photo of their watch from the beginning of the charge to when they take it off the charger to see what exact charge rate they are getting?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Charge rate will be limited in hardware by the charge controller. You could attach it to some 5V, 10A _USB_ charger and it will still charge at the same rate.

A compliant USB port will supply at least 500mA (100mA before USB enumeration). This will almost certainly exceed the F5 charge rate.

0 ImDisaster over 6 years ago

Charge rate will be limited in hardware by the charge controller. You could attach it to some 5V, 10A _USB_ charger and it will still charge at the same rate.

A compliant USB port will supply at least 500mA (100mA before USB enumeration). This will almost certainly exceed the F5 charge rate.

That is exactly the case. No matter what USB charger I hook it to, the charge rate is limited to 170mA. That is considerably slower than my Epix which charges at 450mA. I'm curious if there is something wrong with my watch or charge cable or if this is what other people are seeing as well. Also, I've seen cases where this can be adjusted in the firmware. Perhaps Garmin still needs to optimize the charge rate?

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

I will be reaching out to a few of you via the email address that is attached to your forums display names to see if we can get more information on this subject.

0 ImDisaster over 6 years ago

I will be reaching out to a few of you via the email address that is attached to your forums display names to see if we can get more information on this subject.

Great. Would love to know if that charge rate is expected. Seems very low. In the "disappointing battery life" thread, jsla7527's watch only charged at 140mA which dropped to 20mA at 80% charge. It would take half a day to charge the watch to full at that rate. Makes the discharge rate even more of an issue. This morning I was only able to get 4% charge during my shower. That is about 1/3rd of the daily discharge rate.

0 NeilJonesOnline over 6 years ago

Earlier today I ran my f5+ battery down until it shut down and wouldn't restart. Charging it, it took about 2 - 2.5hrs to get back up to about 80%, at which point it seemed to leap to 100% (I don't know exactly when as I wasn't watching it all the time, but one minute it was in the high 70s, the next time I looked not much later it was 100%)