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Realistic battery life, fenix 5?

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hello all,

So last week I bought a fenix 5. Store had it in open box and on the shelf but it was off, I was worried about it having been on for months on the shelf but they told me it had never been powered on, they only had the 5X on display powered up. Bought it, no discount got home and charged it. The battery was completely discharged.

One of my main reasons for buying the fenix 5 vs a 3 or another less expensive option was battery life - as I am starting to run ultra marathons.

Last Saturday ran my first. I started with 95% charge. GPS only mode (no Glonnass). I played occasionally with the watch during the race, and often moved it into view to see my HR (with backlight at 50%). Halfway into the race, 7 hours in, I notice it is at 40% battery. I changed it to Ultratrac in the activity settings menu, and start avoiding using the backlight or play with it(still glancing at it often to see HR).

My race time was 14 hours 30 minutes. When I made it across the finish line, literally 1 minute after, I glance at the watch to stop the activity and it powered down.

I know actual, realistic device times are often lower than what the manufacturer advertises. Still, advertised GPS mode at 20 hours and Ultratrac 60 hours, seems I should have gotten to the end of this race with a good battery reserve. I am planning longer races later in the season so... this watch might not cut it, apparently. My iphone 7 plus in airplane mode, but doing GPS tracking, went through all of this with 30% power left and me taking some pictures and listening to podcasts on the way.

So question to the group - is this the normal battery life I can expect from this device while tracking activities? Or did I get a dud or a battery affected by it being a showroom device?

Unsure if I am just being paranoid and need to enjoy the device and go Ultratrac from the start, turn off the backlight (not needed to be honest).

Thanks all,

Juan

Top Replies

Garmin-Heath over 6 years ago +1 verified

If you are experiencing rapid battery drain, where your watch is only lasting a few days, first verify on latest software version. If you are using any third-party Connect IQ watch faces, try changing…

All Replies

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

Well......
I had a very interesting chat with garmin today.
Summary:
After an activity that requires GPS you have to turn off GPS manually. Otherwise GPS stays "on".....
I will imidiatelly test it....
I feel noob.... (if this is the answer to the problem)
:eek::eek::confused::confused:

0 pistapoci over 6 years ago

Today I called the Garmin Support for Italy once more, this time I got to talk to a nice operator who confirmed that this is a known bug introduced with v12 that affects only a group of F5 units. We should expect a fix (I hope soon).
Since my device is behaving very funny on track recordings (tested again and again) even after a hard reset, I decided to have it replaced. So tomorrow i'm sending it back and I hope to be able to try again in a couple of weeks tops.

0 AnatoliAngelov over 6 years ago

Well......
I had a very interesting chat with garmin today.
Summary:
After an activity that requires GPS you have to turn off GPS manually. Otherwise GPS stays "on".....
I will imidiatelly test it....
I feel noob.... (if this is the answer to the problem)
:eek::eek::confused::confused:

And how are you going to do this?
Did they tell you how to turn it off?

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

And how are you going to do this?
Did they tell you how to turn it off?

This is the most funny... You have to re-enter to the activity and from settings(?) of the activity (I quess) you have to turn of the GPS... Or (I think) you have to enter to a 2nd activity that does not require GPS..... I really dont know.... Maybe he did not understund what I meant, but it is the most simple thing to test..... IF this is the problem, I will stop consider my self as an expirienced user.... :o
I don't know if he is right BUT ForRunner 630 that I already have, use the same method.... (you have to be in watch mode or in a non GPS activity or else GPS stays on).

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Today I called the Garmin Support for Italy once more, this time I got to talk to a nice operator who confirmed that this is a known bug introduced with v12 that affects only a group of F5 units. We should expect a fix (I hope soon).
Since my device is behaving very funny on track recordings (tested again and again) even after a hard reset, I decided to have it replaced. So tomorrow i'm sending it back and I hope to be able to try again in a couple of weeks tops.

After our discussion I ask Amazon the support from my problem, the simply replay was: we can change the watch without any problem but Garmin have to declare the defect, this happens on sunday. Monday I call the Italy support, after the explanation of the issue the technicia think immediatelly to battery and organize a pickup for yesterday in order to check it.
I also install the battery app and my consumption ws minimum 1% p/h and during day goes up 1.2/1.3% p/h.

PS: My watch is 5Q party

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Well......
I had a very interesting chat with garmin today.
Summary:
After an activity that requires GPS you have to turn off GPS manually. Otherwise GPS stays "on".....
I will imidiatelly test it....
I feel noob.... (if this is the answer to the problem)
:eek::eek::confused::confused:

n-th fenix 5 here with 1%+ per hour battery drain in watch mode but with a reasonable discharge rate during activities.
S/N 53-.
Trying what you reported above, and I'll be reporting on the outcome in the next days.

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

n-th fenix 5 here with 1%+ per hour battery drain in watch mode but with a reasonable discharge rate during activities.
S/N 53-.
Trying what you reported above, and I'll be reporting on the outcome in the next days.

I also try this (for 2 hours) I will update my results. In any case is strange to activate / deactivate GPS every time you need it.
Poeple with F5 X or F5 X plus never do this ....

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

After "de-activating" GPS, nothing changed.... Still on -1.6% per hour.....

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Today I called the Garmin Support for Italy once more, this time I got to talk to a nice operator who confirmed that this is a known bug introduced with v12 that affects only a group of F5 units. We should expect a fix (I hope soon).
Since my device is behaving very funny on track recordings (tested again and again) even after a hard reset, I decided to have it replaced. So tomorrow i'm sending it back and I hope to be able to try again in a couple of weeks tops.

Disabling GPS also didn't work for me, so I'm interested to hear this could be a problem with v12? Anybody have these problems prior to v12?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hi, I noticed on this thread people have mentioned a battery widget. I tried to add this, but I cannot as it says I need to update my phone. My software says it is a v8.2. How do I force an update so I can add the battery widget? Thanks.