New Fenix 5 Plus completely discharged out of a box

Hi everyone, I have just received new Fenix 5 Plus. When I opened the box (still sealed) I was quite unpleasantly surprised that the watch can't be turned on. After connecting to the charger, the charging screen appeared. Then after couple minutes of charging watch has finally turned on. It means the battery was completely discharged which is definitely not healthy for battery. Even worse, long term storage of battery in this state can be disastrous. I have never experienced this with any other device.

I have just done full charge and at the moment the watch consumes about 1% of battery per hour in smart watch mode (leaving them untouched, no GPS or music, default watch face) which seems quite lot for me.

Does anyone has similar experience? Should I be worried?

Thanks, Lukas

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

Last week I decided to upgrade, from a F5 to the new F5S+.Sapphire
It was also fully depleted and only showed a screen after charging for about 15 (!) minutes. The watch lost 4% juice per hour so I returned it and got me a nice F5+ Sapphire Titanium which I got at 25% and it loosed 0.28% per hour. Perfect! And the S was too small after all...

Both in smartwatch mode btw, nothing fancy.

So yes, worry and return it.

0 tmk2 over 6 years ago

Li-Ion batteries have a relatively high self-discharge rates. Besides, the watch always draws a small amount of energy, even if completely turned off. This means that if the device is shelved for a couple of months, it will come with a completely discharged battery. I experienced this recently with a brand new Forerunner 35, and despite being completely discharged out of box, after few recharge/discharge cycles the battery seems to operate within specs.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Currently the battery indicator on my Fenix 5 Plus seems to not go down. I did a 30min run with music last night and it didn't budge from 31%. I charged it up to 62% before going to bed, where it has remained ever since, over 12hrs later. Something clearly up here. Has anyone noticed similar behaviour?

0 chatlow over 6 years ago

Check out the 44 page disappointing battery life thread on the forum, all issues listed there.

In a nutshell; 1. If you're battery is not even close to what Garmin advertise, then there is clearly something wrong, so speak to support. 2. There is a bug that often shows the wrong battery amount during and immediately after charging the device - i.e it may say 62% but it's actually higher/lower. For me and many others, the true amount is shown again after a reboot. 3. Many including myself see some form of post GPS activity battery drain. Usually 2-3% within an hour then it becomes steady again.

I am hoping point 2 can be fixed by the Garmin dev gods. In the mean time I just reboot mine after my weekly 2 hour charge.

0 PSteinlech over 6 years ago

I wouldn‘t worry too much. These battery’s have quite large tolerances. I take a good once depleted battery over a not so good, but never depleted battery every time. Try it out a couple of days or even weeks.

0 nmyeti over 6 years ago

My wife's 5s was in the same state when we bought it. She hasn't had any problems over the last year. I suspect the device is deigned to shut down before battery damage happens.

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

My 5+ came in fully discharged. Put it on charge until fully charged - in fact left it on charge overnight. Not been aware of any excessive battery drain since.

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

Marshall.CZE

BTW, read this thread - https://forums.garmin.com/forum/on-t...g-battery-life

Some people are reporting problems, others not.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I also thought my battery was defective from new but after a few charge cycles it's been fine. Could be that or the last beta fixed the battery reporting issues as I was also getting wrong percentage etc. I kept using old firmware for first weeks because a fix for the power spike bug was still not available.

Also depleted battery causing noticeable degrading of battery life is mostly BS. I have a lot of old watches (and other electrical devices) sitting in the drawer for months yet most seem to work just fine after recharging.

0 Stig E. I. over 6 years ago

Li-Ion batteries have a relatively high self-discharge rates.

No they have not. The low self-discharge rate is one of the advantages of Li-Ion batteries.
Ref: https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/lithium_based_batteries

Stig