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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 arcalius over 6 years ago

Since last charge yesterday at about 11am I have done about 4.5 hours running and have not used notifications just 24/7 tracking and sleep tracking. I am now on 49%. Awaiting my replacement from Amazon to see if it is any better...

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

Rebooting is just q power off and on. Holding the power button 10s is a soft reset .

0 AndySix over 6 years ago

I have owned no less than 6 fenix watches before I quite recently purchased a 5 Plus. The watch was completely dead unboxing it, but I eventually got it to charge.

Now I am concerned about the battery life on this one. I expected more than a weeks use per charge as my previous fenix watches has been able to do. Thursday evening my 5p was charged to 100% and now saturday evening (about 45 hours later) the watch is at 47%. I have not enabled GPS once during this and have only worn it while sleeping - keeping it on while not using it. With one of the OOtB watchfaces.

This is alarmingly short of the other fenixes that I have owned. Is this as expected?? Or should I return it?

Seems like it will last less than 4 full days not even using GPS! ????

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

AndySix My 5s plus is a recent enough purchase too after 3 or 4 Fenix 5s’s. Battery was very disappointing as was the altimeter and a few other weird quirks showing up. I contacted Garmin Support about the other issues and mentioned the battery as an aside. They recommended a full reset and set it should help the battery too. I didn’t think it would but actually it has and it’s currently at 55% over 48 hours later with an hour’s GPS use yesterday. That’s actually a huge improvement.

My only issue is I have a race tomorrow and I’d prefer to run the battery down completely before charging but not sure I have the confidence to not charge it before a race.

‘’This is the link they sent me for the reset: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=wxPmdnWsev1xGRUf58oDC8&productID=603201&searchQuery=reset&tab=topics

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

Holding the power button 10s [15s] is a soft reset

Garmin call that a hard reset.

0 AndySix over 6 years ago

AndySix My 5s plus is a recent enough purchase too after 3 or 4 Fenix 5s’s. Battery was very disappointing as was the altimeter and a few other weird quirks showing up. I contacted Garmin Support about the other issues and mentioned the battery as an aside. They recommended a full reset and set it should help the battery too. I didn’t think it would but actually it has and it’s currently at 55% over 48 hours later with an hour’s GPS use yesterday. That’s actually a huge improvement.

My only issue is I have a race tomorrow and I’d prefer to run the battery down completely before charging but not sure I have the confidence to not charge it before a race.

‘’This is the link they sent me for the reset: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=wxPmdnWsev1xGRUf58oDC8&productID=603201&searchQuery=reset&tab=topics

Thanks! I'll try that today. After ~60 hours I had 29% left (still no GPS used). Thats too little for tonights planned workout session. So I am charging now and will reset as soon as it gets to 100%.

0 arcalius over 6 years ago

Well...the replacement watch is currently coming up on about 60 something hours from a full charge, 2 runs of about 3 hours and a half in total...and I’m on 72%. I’m probably jinxing myself. But I’m happy with that.

0 Kaahl1stOfHisName over 6 years ago

Ive had my fenix 5 plus for about a week and a half now and have charged it 2/3 times already, Battery is going at a rate of .9% per hour according to battery widget

Charged it 2 days ago and it's already at 20%
it was at 21% 2 hours ago and I left the watch on my table and in 2 hours it went down to 20%

I don't leave Bluetooth on, only to sync

I use 24hr Heart rate tracking

2 GPS activities in the last 3 days(30mins each)

Some Bluetooth music 1-2hrs max
Backlight only comes on for 8 seconds when I press the light button(5% % no gestures, no button pressed)
Ive don't about 2-3 1hr cardio/strength (no GPS activities)
Watch face has time(no seconds), calories burnt, date, alarm,weather and world clock
I'm wondering is this normal or should I be getting worried and requesting a return??

I posted this as a separate thread and was recommended to go to a basic watchface etc and to check this thread, in the meantime I'm down to 18% no Bluetooth literally just a watch with HR

The battery widget is giving me 20hrs remaining

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

Try NoFrills from HermoT wf, has lowest power consumption afaic

0 AndySix over 6 years ago

Thanks! I'll try that today. After ~60 hours I had 29% left (still no GPS used). Thats too little for tonights planned workout session. So I am charging now and will reset as soon as it gets to 100%.

Ok, so I completely factory reset the watch. Doing no changes after the initial setup I did not download or install anything. Not even change the watch face from default.

The watch lasted for 75 hours (three full days) including 2 hours of GPS usage before it was completely drained.

Is this what I should expect?
Would you return it?