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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

I don't know if we are many or not, but I think it would be nice to have an official answer: "Yes we know the problem, it is software problem, so be patient, we work on it"...... Or it is hardware problem..... I have more garmin products as index, FR watch, HRM4....... I was very satisfied until I got the "flagship".....

0 BLAU over 6 years ago

pistapoci some users are having varying results by re-calibrating the battery indicator (full discharge/recharge). Although this will slightly decrease the overall life of the battery, it could be a fix, but not everyone is having success. Seems those that have contacted Garmin on this, they are replacing the watch under warranty, also with varying success. My suggestion, if you don't want to do the re-calibration, is to call Garmin support, find out if they are aware of the issue and have them add you to the case number. Unfortunately, there is no consistency in what works and what doesn't work at this time.

Is nice to read finally someone from Garmin telling the users that they are working on it ... is a shame they did not find out what is the problem yet, hope they can find soon the bug.

At least, from my side I really apreciate that garmin finally face off the problem in public, and users did not feel like fools with this (Or at least I feel on this way a bit frustrated).

0 seilogramp over 6 years ago

BLAU just to be clear, I am not a Garmin employee, just a forum moderator. As yet there is no "official" response on this thread. but I'm pretty sure they are aware of it if multiple users are calling in their issue to Garmin support and having their devices RMA'd.

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

I hope this is a software problem, so they fix it and we can enjoy this fantastic watch (besides the problem of the battery that makes it non-functional)

0 seilogramp over 6 years ago

Makes sense that it would be software since this was not an issue on day 1, as far as I know.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

pistapoci yes, thanks for pointing me to your other thread. Occasionally I read here about non-USA based Garmin support that is not exactly supportive. As you see on this thread, Garmin is for the most part replacing the devices without a hassle. Even then, the new devices may or may not have the same issue. :(

@seilogramp: Scanning through all the reactions in this thread, my conclusion is that Garmin is very reluctant in replacing the faulty watches.
Almost every mentioned replacement was done by Amazon!
This is also my personal experience: I'm now trying my third F5, bought at Amazon.de. Again the same problem: battery drain in 4 days, even drain with the watch off (tried versions 8, 10, 11 and 12) . I have sent two emails to Garmin, but until now the reply is not more then an automatic acceptance mail: very disappointing!
Luckily that I bought the F5 at Amazon, because they are very supportive in replacing the watch.

0 Calusa over 6 years ago

Hello,

Found this discussion through an Internet search for Garmin fenix 5 battery life. Glad I'm not the only one. Picked up a Fenix 5 from REI during the black friday sale. First watch had to go back immediately because of a faulty altimeter. My second watch was perfect except for the fact that it only lasts about 3-4 days with every "smart" feature turned off. I've tried several soft resets, a couple hard factory restore resets and a couple weeks of charging cycles. No matter what I try it still discharges at 1.4 -2.0 % per hour. I was planning on returning this one too, but if there is no solution maybe I'd be better just getting my money back. I have 90 days through REI. Garmin offered me to return it to them, but then there's a strong chance I 'll just get a factory refurb.

0 BLAU over 6 years ago

BLAU just to be clear, I am not a Garmin employee, just a forum moderator. As yet there is no "official" response on this thread. but I'm pretty sure they are aware of it if multiple users are calling in their issue to Garmin support and having their devices RMA'd.

I take back what I said about Garmin then

0 RobKenjiwhe over 6 years ago

When I bought the watch end 2017 I lasted 20 - 25 days on a charge. Now it's about 15. I guess another year from now the battery should be replaced, the watch sold or just live with it.

0 Richard-Hagen over 6 years ago

When I bought the watch end 2017 I lasted 20 - 25 days on a charge. Now it's about 15. I guess another year from now the battery should be replaced, the watch sold or just live with it.

Wow, that's just what I want :/

Can you tell more about how you use your watch? Do you have bluetooth notificatinos on? Do you use the step counter? Do you have on sleep and wrist HR tracking on?