Disappointing battery life

Just want to add my +1 to this. I am seeing a significant increase in battery drain after a GPS workout.

The battery is down to 29% after 2 GPS running activities in 3 days (30-41 minutes each, with local on-boardmusic). The second one was with an HRM-strap, and after this workout the watch lost approx 11% overnight, not being worn.

Other parameters such as watch face, notifications etc are exactly the same as on my 935, where I would probably have approx 70% left after the same amount of time. I realise that the battery on the F5+ is smaller, but something is not right here.

I do acknowledge that the music option during the workout may be a factor here, but should not drain after the workout anyway. The headset was immediately turned off.


Using a Fenix 5 Plus, sapphire edition.

Edit: should also note that I am using the GPS & Galileo option.

Same problem here. I've contacted Garmin and they told me to let the clock go off, charge it for 10 or 12 hours. Then put it near a window with the GPS on and bluetooth off and leave it until it turns off. If the duration of the activity is more or less what is indicated by Garmin (about 19 hours), the battery works correctly. If not, I have to send it to them

That’s a pretty useless reply from Garmin when the one situation when battery life does seem to live up to expectation is when GPS is active (i.e. during an activity).

I dont think there’s now any suggestion that there’s an issue with the battery, it’s a problem with the firmware and how it’s managing and using the battery, especially after activities.

I agree that Garmin's suggestion doesn't help diagnose the problem to any great extent, but there is simply not enough data to say whether the problem is down to firmware or hardware. I haven't turned off bluetooth during GPS activity, but I have noticed much greater battery consumption during runs than I ever saw with my 935. Conversely, I haven't seen much in the way of post-activity drain that others are reporting. The battery life of the Fenix 5 + appears to me to be one third of the 935's in all circumstances. I am on day four after a full charge and the battery is at 32%. The 935, which started off at 100% at the same time and has done exactly the same as the Fenix except for one 45 minute run, is at 79%. I also hope this is a fixable firmware issue, but I am far from convinced it is.

Just want to add my +1 to this. I am seeing a significant increase in battery drain after a GPS workout.

+1

The large battery drain may occur even after open water workout under GPS-OFF.
When 5+ is restarted, the battery drain may be stopped.

When 5+ is restarted, the battery drain may be stopped.

For folks seeing these excessive battery drains, it would be useful to test this hypothesis over 2-3 days by always turning the watch off then on after every activity recorded. If this works, then it’s almost certainly of interest to the beta team if you’re on the latest beta software (currently 3.21), so email your findings over to them at the email address [EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL] in the first post of the beta software sticky thread https://community.runscribe.com/t/ru...-problems/1356 From past experience they simply can’t reply to everyone (or promise to fix every issue), but they certainly read the reports emailed in and get back if they need more info to help diagnose or fix the issue.

Hi,

Could it be that the battery measurement on the watch is not calibrated. It does not know the true 100% and 0%.

I would let the watch drain till it powered down by itself and then charge it up to 100% over the night or extended time. (Even if the watch shows 100%, the battery may not be fully charged)
It is not uncommon and I've had this issue on iphones and other devices.

I am hoping your recommendation regarding calibrating the battery on my 5S Plus will work. Currently I am getting about 2 days between charges. This is with one 45 minute run using GPS and listening to music per day. My previous 5S consistently got 4-5 days between charges on the same workout schedule. Otherwise, I really like the 5S Plus.

Dudley

Although I have 'only' a F3HR, I can confirm that sometimes my watch behaves in a way as if it were still in high power mode after saving an activity. It has been never related to any speciic software version, nor to any specific sports app. It just happens sometimes. So it is a good idea to restart an Fenix watch after saving an activitx.

Same problem here. I've contacted Garmin and they told me to let the clock go off, charge it for 10 or 12 hours. Then put it near a window with the GPS on and bluetooth off and leave it until it turns off. If the duration of the activity is more or less what is indicated by Garmin (about 19 hours), the battery works correctly. If not, I have to send it to them

Hmm....

The sales pitch for the F5+ does state that it will do 18 hours GPS or up to 12 days smart watch, so technically he is correct.

Given those stats one would sensibly assume that you could split that usage any way you want, so for example 6 days smartwatch with 9 hours GPS (or indeed 6 days and 9 x 1 hour GPS). However Garmin may well argue that they do not explicitly state that.

My experience so far would seem to suggest that if I do not use GPS the F5+ will use 8% per day which is indeed 12 days. I have not checked exact drain during GPS but I would guess it may well be in the region of lasting 18 hours from a full charge.

As people have pointed out it does appear that the unexplained post activity drop is to blame but Garmin never claimed that you could split your GPS activities and have 18 hours.

Just playing devils advocate ;)

Logically, if the software is well optimized, the drain should stop shortly after ending the activity and return to the usual 8%. The biggest energy penalty would be the saving, and the Wifi auto-uploading which happens in the first minute usually.

I understand what you are saying and you may be right, but this is not the issue here, the issue is an unexplained phantom drain that appears for no valid reason, given that it is reasonable to assume the CPU workload in watch mode should not be altered just because you ran a prior activity. Which is why there seems to be some sort of bug that should be rectified to address the wasting of resources.

Bought my new F5+ 10 days ago and honestly thought battery life would be better. When unpacking the watch battery was completely empty and after first full charge I've managed to get about plus 5 hours of running with GPS in 6 days before battery was done.

Bought the watch for an Ultra Trail Marathon coming up in 2 weeks where I need battery to last for about 14~15 with GPS and direction on so hopefully battery will last..