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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 jimoestman over 6 years ago

Ofcourse i did!
Is there any battery powered device on earth that does not need it? :)

Hmm. I do not remember the exact time and circumstance, but the power meter froze on me once at 100% after having charged it overnight. When I noticed the freeze, I did a restart by holding the light button for 20 seconds and then pressing it once more to turn the watch on. Then the percentage fell down to the expected value and the meter continued working as it should. This was some time ago, and I have not experienced this issue since.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I have taken detailed notes on the battery performance of my Garmin Fenix 5 plus Ti as I was experiencing poor battery life (4-5 days). I have been able to improve that battery life by turning off wireless and Bluetooth activities (6-7 days). Below are the settings I have used and basically I use it as purely a fitness watch as I have disabled any sort of wireless and Bluetooth activities except to update Garmin express once a day. For firmware version, 4.20 and 4.74, there does appear to be a battery drain issue after completing a GPS event.

Estimated battery life in percentage: 12 days smart watch or 8.333%/day or 0.347%/hour
18 hours gps or 5.56%/hour

Settings: Crystal face watch (no seconds, no heartbeat, Bluetooth (BT) icon); GPS/Galileo; 1 sec heart/GPS rate tracking; no notifications or smart watch features; BT off and only turn on once a day to upload data; enable/disable BT shortcut

Charge 1:

9/22 - 100% with new firmware 4.74 @ 3:00pm; Bluetooth (BT) off; upload data @ 8pm via BT; 98% @ 8:25pm;
9/23 - 97% @ 2:35am; 96% @ 6:00am; change to GPS/Galileo; 95% @ 6:55am; run 2:25 and BL went from 95% to 79%; upload @ 9:39am and turn off BL; 76% @ 5:45pm; 75% @ 10:22pm;
9/24 - 71% @ 6:45am; 69% @ 9:54am; upload @ 9:59am and turn off BT; 68% @ 12:49pm; 68% @ 3:11pm; 66% @ 6:40pm; 65% @ 9:22pm;
9/25 - 64% @ 2:54am; 62% @ 6:38 am; strength workout @ 27 mins; upload data @ 7:17am and turn off BT; 61% @ 7:18am; 60% @ 10:03am; 60% @ 12:05pm; 59% @ 4:05pm; 58% @ 7:38pm; 58% @ 9:27pm; 58% @ 11:21pm;
9/26 - 57% @ 5:29am; run 59min and BL went from 57% to 52%; upload data @ 52% @ 6:48am and turn off BT; 51% @ 7:56am; 50% @ 9:10am; 49% @ 12:47pm; 48% @ 3:18pm; 48% @ 6:10pm; 47% @ 9:32pm; 46% @ 11:04pm;
9/27 - 45% @ 5:30am; run 1:31min and BL went from 45% to %35; upload data and turn off BT; 33% @ 7:49am; 30% @ 9:21am; 29% @ 10:29am; 27% @ 12:26pm; 26% @ 3:19pm; 25% @ 6:50pm; 24% @ 10:27pm;
9/28 - 23% @ 6:19am; strength workout for 30mins; upload data and turn off BT; 22% @ 6:58am; 21% @ 10:00am; 20% @ 3:10pm; 19% @ 6:15pm; 18% @ 10:17pm;
9/29 - 17% @ 6:26am; upload data @ 15% @ 12:45pm; 14% @ 4:40pm; 14% @ 6:26pm; 14% @ 9:01pm;

Charge 2

9/29 - charge @ 9:15; remove charging @ 11:37pm showing 100% BL; power off and on and BL shows 92% (so BL still weird after firmware update);
9/30 - 92% @ 6:37am; run for 2:49 and BL went from 92% to 82% @ 9:34am; upload data and turn off BT; 78% @ 6:45pm; 77% @ 9:05pm;
10/1 - 75% @ 6:45am; 75% @ 9:25am; 73% @ 2:55pm; 72% @ 7:13pm; 71% @ 9:28pm;
10/2 - 69% @ 5:44am; run 1:00 and BL went from 69% to 62% @ 6:50am; strength workout @ 7:04am @ 61%; upload and turn off BT @ 9:08am 60%; 59% @ 1:41pm; 59% @ 3:05pm; 57% @ 9:20pm;
10/3 - 54% @ 2:26pm; 53% @ 7:55pm;
10/4 - 51% @ 5:24am; run for 1:04 and BL went from 51% to 45% @ 6:36am; upload data and turn off BT @ 6:42 @ 45%; 41% @ 10:04am; 41% @ 1:31pm; 40% @ 4:27pm; 39% @ 8:08pm;

(moved battery report for firmware 5.10 to new post)

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

Just installed 5.1 as been on holiday. Overnight from 10pm until 7am my 5+ dropped 5.2%! It dropped 0.2 as I was watching it. Not good. I did a reset before i went to bed last night as well (press light button for 20s).

0 airtime0007 over 6 years ago

Mine did exactly the the day it updated to 5.1. It only lasted a day then the battery drain returned to the same level before the update

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

Ok I am still seeing battery drain post workout. I see approx 10-12% drain on a normal day. Today did an hour run watch went down 4% during workout. 90 mins post workout it lost another 4%.

What can be gone? I don’t see why I should have to reboot my £700 watch after every workout to fix this issue. Would a RMA help? Thanks

0 Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago

Gr4z , I would be the first one here to suggest reaching out to the Garmin Support teams if you think your battery life is adding different then what is expected. We never know, talking with someone else might bring up a fact we did not see here in the forums. Before you do so, please take a look at the Battery Information before doing so.
Then ask yourself how you are using your device different than the way it was tested to get that battery life. Could you be getting more text messages? Could you be using the backlight more by reading Text messages or just checking the time? Are you using Pulse Ox? If so, with what settings? Do you always have your phone on you or do you walk away to other rooms causing Bluetooth to work more? Plus, anything else that you can think of too since I know we both of us would not want me following you around watching you for 24 hours, but you could do that yourself by just recording all those tiny facts together.

Once you have that information, explain that to the Product Support Agent. They are there to help you, but they can only use the facts that you provide them.
Using the facts that you gave us in just your last message and let’s say that you are using the device the same way as the testers that gave us 12 days battery life for ‘Smartwatch Mode with activity tracking and 24/7 wrist-based heart rate monitoring’. Then you are saying that you are getting 10 percent battery drain a day, which would make that roughly 10 days of Smartwatch. Then you said you had a 4 percent battery drop in battery when working out too for an hour and a half. That would make it 37 and half hours of working out compared to the 19 hours of ‘GPS mode with wrist-based heart rate’ stated.

Wait…! Ok, everyone math was not my strongest subject, so feel free to check my math. Either way, what I’m trying to get at here is that we want to do whatever we can to get you to enjoy your Garmin product the best way that we can so when you call Product Support and they give you steps you might have already tried, think first what they heard first and remember not everyone troubleshoots with the rest of us on the forums too. They are just starting at the first troubleshooting step and asking you to go try it. So, take a quick second, write down the fact, and work with them on what facts you have. If there is an issue, they will forward that information onto the people that really need to know. Plus, if all of you call in with those numbers, then that tons more facts to narrow down the issue too.

The last thing, feel free to reach out to me in a private message too. A few others here have, and they know I love to brainstorm with them and get their point of view on thanks. Why? Because I care and, I like solving issues and I think a few of you do too! So, I look forward to hearing back from you and everything you find out.

0 airtime0007 over 6 years ago

Garmin-health. If you read his post the way I did. He said he gets 10%12% battery drain per day, which is ok. Another 4% during his workout, also ok. He then gets another 4% battery drain in the 90 minutes post work out, not ok and what we are complaining about.

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

Garmin-heath

I am happy to help and will gather some more statistics but surely you can understand my (and others) frustrations? Previously I had (and still have) a Forerunner 935 which has been brilliant. Battery life is insane and tracks everything I could ever want. I bought the F5+ Sapphire as I wanted the same features with a more rugged appearance. Spotify and Garmin Pay are an added bonus. This upgrade cost £700.

It seems even after 6 months people are still suffering issues. While 24/7 tracking and normal smart watch stuff is OK (I lose around 10-12% every day when just wearing it, CIQ watch face with not much on it, BT, no notifications) which I can live with fine this is more than the 935 with the same setup. When working out I see the normal drain, fine. After the workout the watch seems to drain power quickly, this is a common problem and has been reported many times. I don't expect this really from something that is so expensive.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Garmin products, but your products are not cheap. I will contact the help desk and see what they say, but to make suggestions that we turn everything off makes a mockery of buying it. I might as well have a cheap forerunner 35 or just accept defeat and sell the F5+ on eBay and go back to my 935 until the Fenix 6 comes out.

0 jimoestman over 6 years ago

It seems even after 6 months people are still suffering issues.

It's been almost 4 months since the watch was available for purchase.... not 6. So Garmin still has 2 months to disprove your statement ;)

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

It's been almost 4 months since the watch was available for purchase.... not 6. So Garmin still has 2 months to disprove your statement ;)

At least they come closer and closer to releasing the Fenix 6 and finally don't care the Fenix 5 plus anymore.
OUCH... did they care much about the Fenix 5 plus since the beginning at all??