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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 JaymO over 7 years ago

One other thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. If I wear the watch during the night while I sleep, it really drains the battery. Anywhere between 5%-10%. If I take the watch off and do not wear it overnight (the watch is still turned on, just not worn on my wrist), the battery will only drop 1-2%. Could it be that the OHR is the root cause of the PABD?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Checked it before bed and it was still at 87%. Checked it again this morning before my one hour run, still at 87%. Just checked it a minute ago, which is now 2 hours after my run and it's still at 87%. This thing really is bonkers. #PABD

Hehe. I charged it to 100% on Monday. 18 hours later including GPS run (35 minutes) it was still at 100%. Agreed, this thing is bonkers.

OH, and how do you propose to charge it to under 100%? Mine always jumps from around 85-90% to 100. ;-)

0 JaymO over 7 years ago

Well, I sit at a desk for work, so it's easy for me to watch the battery level as it charges.

Anyway, I've been doing some additional checks, and I'm putting the #PABD squarely on the OHR. My watch was in a period of heavy drain this morning, so I went into the heart rate widget and turned off the OHR for two hours. The battery only dropped 1% during that time. I turned the OHR back on, and things seem to have returned to normal. Couple that with the sleep issue I mentioned in an earlier post, and that's enough to convince me. It's almost like the OHR doesn't properly shutdown after an activity, or is using an abnormally high amount of the battery. I will test this theory again tomorrow, but out of everything I have tried so far, shutting off the OHR has been the most effective remedy.

0 fin.pimlico over 7 years ago

is there a diagnostic tool to load up to see what is using the battery, not these rather pointless battery meter apps? at the end of the day there is a chip in the watch, it has threads and there will be a way to run a log of threads open, by number, by usage and map to battery drain...

0 rob-tech over 7 years ago

The battery fuel gauge is currently useless, I charged the watch to 86% and after I unplugged it was still at 86% after 48 hours of wear. 86% appears to be actually 100% or close to it from my experience. My watch immediately jumps to 100% from 87% when charging which coupled with decreased drainage rate seems to confirm this.

The only way of knowing the true battery life is charging to 100% and running it down until it turns off as the fuel gauge is as useful as a random number generator.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Anyway, I've been doing some additional checks, and I'm putting the #PABD squarely on the OHR. My watch was in a period of heavy drain this morning, so I went into the heart rate widget and turned off the OHR for two hours. The battery only dropped 1% during that time. I turned the OHR back on, and things seem to have returned to normal. Couple that with the sleep issue I mentioned in an earlier post, and that's enough to convince me. It's almost like the OHR doesn't properly shutdown after an activity, or is using an abnormally high amount of the battery. I will test this theory again tomorrow, but out of everything I have tried so far, shutting off the OHR has been the most effective remedy.

The OHR sensor on this thing is definitely somehow more finicky. Compared to original 5, it takes much longer time to acquire heart rate initially and I often notice it in active (solid green light) mode during regular watch mode, rather than power saving (blinking light). Though I haven't find any rhyme or reason to why it's doing it (apart from being active during initial acquisition which, as noted above, takes much longer). This is actually rather strange since my understanding is that it should use the same OHR sensor as original models. So you may be on to something.

0 JaymO over 7 years ago

Went for a 50 minute run this morning. GPS+Galileo, OHR, backlight by gesture. Lost about 6% battery from this run....that is acceptable. Switched off the OHR shortly after the run. It's now over 2 hours later, and I have lost only 2% during that time. Normally, this would be a period of heavy post-activity battery drain, so I am sticking with this theory about the OHR causing the excessive battery drain.

Also, someone above talking about the battery gauge. I feel like that is a separate issue from the battery drain. The battery gauge is really wonky on this watch. Very interested to know if either of these issues can be addressed by a firmware update. I will continue my testing, but it would be helpful for others to try and turn off the OHR after a GPS activity to see if you find a similar result.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Went for a 50 minute run this morning. GPS+Galileo, OHR, backlight by gesture. Lost about 6% battery from this run....that is acceptable. Switched off the OHR shortly after the run. It's now over 2 hours later, and I have lost only 2% during that time. Normally, this would be a period of heavy post-activity battery drain, so I am sticking with this theory about the OHR causing the excessive battery drain.

Also, someone above talking about the battery gauge. I feel like that is a separate issue from the battery drain. The battery gauge is really wonky on this watch. Very interested to know if either of these issues can be addressed by a firmware update. I will continue my testing, but it would be helpful for others to try and turn off the OHR after a GPS activity to see if you find a similar result.

I have been noticing much higher battery drains after activity. A 60 min run with GPS+Galileo, OHR, no music, would drain about 20%! A 3.5 hour run drains about 50%.

0 fin.pimlico over 7 years ago

Back..so

24 hours ago...

1: Upgraded to latest beta 3.56 as it was there
2: Not done any activities in last 24 hours
3: Used garmin pay a few times
4: Wrist HR ON
5: Wreless on
6: Bluetooth on
7: Smart notifications on
8: Walk detection on
9: Watch face is a default one with no heart rate on
10: No GPS usage

Drop is 9%.

So in theory a 10 day window here. ill watch again once my watch hits zero/full recharge done as out of action for running for next 7 days due to injury anyway. FOr me once weekly runs back on, if i hit 7 days no recharge that is fine, tbc. Fenix 3 was c12 days.

0 fin.pimlico over 7 years ago

Back...so

21 (twenty one) hours later

Same as the prior post setup, with 3.56, garmin pay ect...as stated in post #210...perhaps less activity using the watch as was busy, but as stated setup as above

36 -> 25%, so 11% drop. I imagine 3 hours from now it will be c12-3% total drop over a 24 hour window.

So thats what 8 days usage when doing not much really at all. Remembering I have only charged the watch one since purchase, so my initial views are drain fine at this point in the journey ignoring the exhuberance and playing I did on day 1, Ill review again in a few days once I do a ANT+bluetooth+wireless on+zwift run+headphones on+mobile app syncing+footpod on, +hrm-run on...so basically everything bar the kitchen sink (i.e. GPS/galileo)..