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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 Vissai over 6 years ago

At least mine is relatively stable at 3.18% per hour.
I feel I'll have another replacement.

0 JSRUNNER_ over 6 years ago

Using the widget 39 hours since charging (5+) - now at 83% so .44% per hour with only 30 mins Non GPS activity (Pool swim)

0 Nehows over 6 years ago

Nehows - It could be HW related as you say but also with these watches there are so many options to configure even before you include Connect IQ apps and watch faces. Additionally people are connecting to a variety of phones and in some cases BT connection problems can impact battery life. Don't know what Garmin are planning to do - but I do know that they are looking at examples of battery drain problems and trying to understand the reasons in order to fix them.

Thanks for the reply, and I give you the point of doubt that it could be a software related problem...if its not hardware related, it must be GPS related. For instance I fully charged the watch (and left it charging for a couple of days...). For the first day, battery drain was ok (even recording a pool swim activity of 40 min), but the next day in the morning I saw that the altitude was off, so I calibrated it (it uses GPS) since then, massive drainage even restarting the watch several times...at the end of the day, it was without battery.... In total it lasted 2 days, only recorded 1 swim (40min)... See images attached...ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1455599.jpg

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

Really strange, I had a .25% drain in sw mode until now Just charged it to 100% and now my drain is .48%.
I'm saying wtf?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I have a question for anyone that has updated the software to the 12.anything beta. My battery life is pretty bad - about 36 hours, with 5% backlight, no fancy watch faces, and about 1 hour of running activity per day. The only way to save the battery life is to not have it connect to the phone at all, which defeats the point of things like recording heart rate and activity monitoring. Nothing else fancy going on with the watch.

Was thinking to try the 12.whatever beta software. Transferred all the files to the fenix 5s per the instructions while it was connected to the computer, but the last line of the installation says "Disconnect from computer and proceed with the update." When I disconnect from the computer the fenix behaves as normal and does not update. When I check on the fenix it still says software version 6.00. How exactly does one "proceed with the update" after disconnecting the fenix from the computer? #wthkindofinstructionsarethose
Thanks in advance!

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

If you want to know real battery life you can do the following.

Disable wifi
Charge to 100%
Install diijr battery widget
Disconnect from charger
Use only smartwatch mode, so no gps running or anything else that can trigger additional battery consumption. Just use it as a normal smartwatch.
Measure the result. If it's less than 7 days return the watch, assuming you have the 5S

0 jminar over 6 years ago

JuliaGulia I think you are misinterpreting some things here. The fenix 5/5S PLUS are on v6.00 and beta-v.6.51 right now. It seems like you tried to install a fenix 5/5S (NON-PLUS!!) v12.40 or beta-v12.51 on your fenix 5/5S PLUS. No fault of the installation instructions it seems.

0 yago77 over 6 years ago

To all of you who are reporting problems with the battery. The same thing happened to me, I tried everything... even to restart the watch without synchronizing with my phone and the same thing, 4-5 days and dead. Garmin replaced and with factory system settings back to 10-12 days. I suggest not to waste your time (like me and many others) and replace it.
Good luck

0 jsanneblad over 6 years ago

To all of you who are reporting problems with the battery. The same thing happened to me, I tried everything... even to restart the watch without synchronizing with my phone and the same thing, 4-5 days and dead. Garmin replaced and with factory system settings back to 10-12 days. I suggest not to waste your time (like me and many others) and replace it.
Good luck

Same here, I posted earlier in this thread having only 3-4 days of battery life. Got a replacement Fenix 5+ from Garmin and the new watch only uses around 0.25% per hour. Was a week since I charged it and it is around 50% now, the difference is like night and day.

0 GaryHawke over 6 years ago

Same here, I posted earlier in this thread having only 3-4 days of battery life. Got a replacement Fenix 5+ from Garmin and the new watch only uses around 0.25% per hour. Was a week since I charged it and it is around 50% now, the difference is like night and day.

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