This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

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

Top Replies

All Replies

0 remcomeeder over 6 years ago

That has been my experience with battery after Garmin sent me a replacement.

It was exactly like that when I got my Fenix 5 Plus new in box. The batterylife was great as you describe. After a couple of months and a couple of software updates the battery life is down to about 1 week where it was 1,5 to 2 weeks in the beginning. You would almost thing that the charge controller is doing something to the battery which is bad for the battery.

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

I'm on my 2nd watch due to syncing issues with the first 5+. But that one drained only .25% per hour. This replacement is now on .48%.not funny!

0 Chrisly over 6 years ago

I´ve replaced my watch and now I´m happy::)
smartwatch-mode; original garmin-watchface (digital with seconds, background: white); 3 activities/week (no GPS); bluetooth only enabled for synchronize

old fenix 5: 15-20 days
first fenix 5 plus: 5-6 days
replaced fenix 5 plus: 16 days !!!

I advise everyone to test first after purchase (only in smartwatch-mode!!!). If battery life is not at least 10-12 days: replace it! It is NOT a firmware-problem, if battery life in smartwatch-mode is so short. Don´t hope for improvement ...

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

My first f5+ didn't track all data points so my garmin shop insisted on replacing. battery life was really good though, in SM mode easily 12 days. My second f5+, this one, tracks great but battery life can be better. If I run for half an hour it takes off about 2 days from my estimation. So I made my own estimation calculation. On a full watch - with 12 days in sw mode, one hour of GPS use should leave ~10.8 days for sw mode: (288 hours * 0.9) / 24 = 12.8 days.

So I noticed that half an hour of running on a fully charged watch results in some 10 days left. Second half an hour the next day leaves me with 7 or 8 days max and so on. The strange thing is that the estimations vary. So I'm thinking that it's most likely software and not hardware/battery related. Afterall, it would be odd if every single Fenix is delivered with a different quality of battery.

So I changed watchface from digistorm to nofrills yesterday to measure the difference in drain in sw mode.

Quick conclusion - no use of GPS:
Digistorm uses around 0.48% over a period of 14 hours of which the watch was laying on the table during sleep for about 6 hours.
Same setup/period:Nofrills uses only 0.21%

For now I'm concluding the same as before:
This watch has very complex hard- and software.
Making it bug free is not that easy as one (software) component will likely influence the other.

I'll not be returning this one unless I'm sure the battery is bad.
So Garmin, please take another look at your code!!!!

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

This watch has very complex hard- and software.
Making it bug free is not that easy as one (software) component will likely influence the other.

Really... neither hardware nor software are near to complex!
If they don't fix essential bugs in over 1 year of time, then they are not interested or not able to do so.

So Garmin, please take another look at your code!!!!

You really think Garmin cares??

0 JSRUNNER_ over 6 years ago

Forerunner - it's all relative I know but I would hardly describe the hardware and software as simple - particularly when you factor in the interrelationships between the two and their external environment. As for fixing bugs in one year I'm sure they are interested but obviously unable to do so at the moment - I have known plenty of major software suppliers unable to fix bugs even when being paid directly to do so. Although the bugs are serious for the users that have them they are in many cases not shared by the majority of users and so they will attract less attention from Garmin.

0 Vissai over 6 years ago

I received the replacement some time ago (had to send back mine, Garmin then sent a replacement); the difference is visible to the naked eye.
The watch went 10 days without charging (probably would have went longer too, only I don't like to see the charge drop below 10).

According to the battery widget, right now I'm on day 6 after a full charge, with another 5.3 days ahead (0.35%/hour). Of course, I had a 1.5 hours run today which probably drove it up a bit.

I'd say anything worse than this, get a replacement.

0 JSRUNNER_ over 6 years ago

Vissai your 10 days without charging - how much time in that is spent on GPS activities and non-GPS activities - inyour example above is the 1,5 hour run the only GPS activity in this cycle?

0 axbl over 6 years ago

Over the last 3 Weeks I have made daily battery tests.

My watch is a Fenix 5S plus (replaced two times....)

I started with a full reset and deleted the watch from garmin express.
Then set up the watch:
- no bluetooth connection
- no WLAN
- no Heartrate
- no other apps and widgets
- default digital clock without seconds and heartrate
- default light
- no gestures
Then full charge to 100% plus one hour.

Then made dayly tests (24h) of power consuption per hour:

Day 1: 0.28% (no sports)
Day 2: 0.31% (Heartrate on, no sports)
Day 3: 0.35% (Heartrate on, WLAN on, no sports)
Day 4: 0.65% (Heartrate on, WLAN on, Bluetooth Connection to Phone, no sports)

I repeated the Test and had the same result.

Bluetooth doubles the consumption...

0.65% per hour gives me 6 days only in smartphone mode !

The consumption for Indoor sports (crosstrainer, stepper, cycling) is 5% per hour.

Indoor Cycling: 5.2 %/h
Crosstrainer: 3.2 %/h
Stepper: 4.4%/h

Outdoor activities:

Walking: 10%/h

For measuring the battery consumption ind Activities I use the Battery Info Field.

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

I did similar test and I have different findings. SW mode only, with BT but no wifi results in .35 % consumption per hour over several days. Important to notice that your watch face makes a big difference. I use Nofrills. If I use another the consumption goes up. Digitstorm for example gives 30% more consumption. As soon as I use GPS the consumption goes to about 1% per hour but drops when I stop and nicely flattens out the average. All in all I'm not that unhappy after all.