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Disappointing battery life

I have just upgraded from a Fenix 5 to a Fenix 5 plus and so far I am finding the battery life to be a lot less than I would expect.

I used to get nearly 2 weeks battery life out of the Fenix 5 but so far the Fenix 5 plus has used 25% in 2 days, both watches are set up and used exactly the same.

I know the Fenix 5 plus is supposed to have slightly less battery life but at this rate it is not even going to last a week.

Does anyone know if this will improve if I cycle the battery a couple of times or if this is normal for this model

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0 jlgranth over 7 years ago

I had posted earlier about my 5 plus connecting to my HRM-TRI that is over 30 yards away and not being worn when starting an activity as a potential contributor to battery drain... But I just discovered that it is also connecting to the sensor during regular watch mode (i.e. not in an activity).

What brought this to my attention happened when I finished charging it. I had just disconnected it from my PC, and the watch did the usual routine of staring up... "loading maps", etc. But then I got a toast notification from the watch face that the HRM-TRI was connected. This sensor is just sitting nearby in my gym bag. Also, FWIW the wrist HR was active as I could see the lights are on and the HR values make sense. So I went to look in "Sensors and Accessories" on the watch. It is reporting as connected to the HRM-TRI. I suppose that may be normal when in the settings menu, but I wouldn't think that the connection should be occurring from just the watch face.

I tried cycling the power on the watch and then connected to the PC, allowed it to sync, and disconnected...but the HRM-TRI connected toast still appears.

0 nmyeti over 7 years ago

jlgranth I've seen that behavior and reported it to the software team. Please do the same via the beta email address [email][email protected][/email]

0 Baz 8755 over 7 years ago

After yet another week of charging up fully and running down the figures are still consistently pointing to a 2% post activity drain

Using the figures from my post a week ago of GPS consumption of 5.555556%/hr and smartwatch consumption of 0.347222%/hr I calculated that I was 14% short of battery expectancy.

However during the week I did 7 GPS activities of varying duration 22-60 minutes and after each one I had 2% post activity drain, thus accounting for the 14% deficit.

It is looking to be a very likely suspect in my case.

So again using my calculations 14% would give me 14/0.347222 = 40hrs battery life in watch mode.

0 nmyeti over 7 years ago

After my run on Saturday I charged the watch to 100% and rebooted. I then took screenshots when I noticed a battery % drop. I left all day acclimation on and was generally just using the watch as normal. The battery meter appears to be fine to me. The initial drop from 100% took a bit longer than expected, but these results do not appear to correlate the battery meter oddness that has been reported in this thread. ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1378918.jpg

0 rob-tech over 7 years ago

The battery meter is very messed up on this thing. I charged to 33% and unplugged, over 24 hours later it was still 33%, so I rebooted. The rebooting caused the battery to magically charge to 42%, therefore I rebooted again and it was suddenly at 39% seconds later.

This issue coupled with post activity drain.

Surely Garmin can do better than this, did any one who was enrolled in the battery ticket receive any follow-up from Garmin?

I have forwarded my information but have received no reply.

0 PSteinlech over 7 years ago

I had some of the problemens mentined in this thread. However, since I charged the F5+ for quite long (another 2 or 3 Hours after the battery meter reached 100%) things are back to normal here.

After 3,5 days and three 1 hour runs (GPS) I now have 62% left, which is more or less what I would have had at my standard Fenix 5.

I believe…

… the battery meter is messed up, especially with that sudden jump to 100 after charging for a while

… the battery charges very, very slow. Good for the longlivity of the battery, so I actually prefer it

Im still looking for sudden problems, post activity drain etc., but - fingers crossed - for the time being the watch is back to normal. Firmware 3.10.

Cheers
Peter

0 Seren over 7 years ago

After 3,5 days and three 1 hour runs (GPS) I now have 62% left, which is more or less what I would have had at my standard Fenix 5.

What settings were you using? i.e. GPS+Galileo ( by GPS do you mean GPS only?)/ maps/ HR/notifications/backlight etc..

Thanks

0 PSteinlech over 7 years ago

What settings were you using? i.e. GPS+Galileo ( by GPS do you mean GPS only?)/ maps/ HR/notifications/backlight etc..

Thanks

Yes, I use GPS (intelligent recording) only when doing activities. Didn't use maps on the last couple of runs.

Notifications and BT are completely off, I sync 3 to 6 x day via Wifi.

Watch is worn 24/7 with HR on. Background lights are lit 4 instead of 8 seconds, everything else is on default (so background light is 20%).

Cheers
Peter

0 zaragozamj over 7 years ago

Notifications and BT are completely off,

Yup, that's the specific issue with battery drain on my 5S+. W/out BT the apparent battery drain is within the Garmin spec. Enable BT and it jumps to 2%/hr.

But if I turn off BT the watch continues to drain at 2%. I need to reboot it to get back to the normal battery drain level.

0 yago77 over 7 years ago

Yes, I use GPS (intelligent recording) only when doing activities. Didn't use maps on the last couple of runs.

Notifications and BT are completely off, I sync 3 to 6 x day via Wifi.

Watch is worn 24/7 with HR on. Background lights are lit 4 instead of 8 seconds, everything else is on default (so background light is 20%).

Cheers
Peter

Software version 3.10?? Thanks