This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

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 BLAU over 6 years ago

Just flashed beta v12.21 (the link of 12.51 gives 12.21?)
I will give feed back.

Q: Now that I have beta version, in case there is a roll out of stable version, I will get or I have to flash it manually?

If you got the watch configured for that before, you wil be promp to update to the oficial as usual, nothing change so do not have to worry about made the update manually like you did with this beta.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Right, so the 12.21 beta isn't looking promising.

Upgraded to 12.21 this afternoon (UK time) and fully charged the watch from 5% battery left. Opened up the Battery Gauge widget and set a marker at 20:20 UK time.

It's now 23:45 UK time and the Battery Gauge widget is showing 1.1% battery loss per hour.

I'm now at 96.20% battery with a 3.8% depletion in 3hrs 25mins. Looks like the beta doesn't do anything to resolve this issue whatsoever. At this rate, without any phone connectivity and no GPS activities being performed (stock watch face, HRM on, activity tracking on) the battery will last at most 5 days. Not sure if this will be worse this time around, or last the same amount of time as it did previously for me.

So feel free to update to 12.21 beta to see if your results vary from mine, but personally I'd not bother. Seems like Garmin are shooting blanks with this update.

I'll contact them and let them know my results as it looks like their software testers aren't testing the updates correctly

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hmmm 12.21 seems to have resolved the issue for me!

16th Jan 9:46 100% (Performed update)
16th Jan 15:51 99%
16th Jan 17:52 90% (2 hours activity with GPS on)
17th Jan 09:46 88%

Obviously will keep on monitoring as it has been only 24 hours and the watch has previously behaved well for 48 hours before reverting back to high battery drain.

Watch settings, BT link to phone, no messaging from phone switched on, Wrist Heart Rate, Activity tracking and stock Garmin face with battery% added.

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

Also 12.21 seems to improve the battery:
16/01/2019, 22:20 update -> 100%
17/01/2019, 13:00 -> 94% (just 10 min test GPS, walking activity)
*In smart watch 24/7, notifications on, HR on, BT on GPS off
I will try to test in today's 45 min running

I will keep the feedback

0 Zubrania over 6 years ago

Hi all - my 2p worth!
Got my F5 for Christmas - quickly noticed it was discharging quickly when in Smart Watch Mode at around 1% an hour not HP. Applied all the standard suggestions to extend life with little difference, eventually performed a factory reset and did not pair to a phone. I had two days of 0.2% per hour then on the third it reverted to just under 1% an hour. So time to contact Garmin Support which I did via chat.

They wanted me to fully charge it and then go out with GPS on to see how it lasts on GPS - ok my issues is with Smart Watch Mode and not GPS but happy to work with them. Did as I was told, did an hour on GPS 4% drop, as per spec, back on Smart Watch Mode it carried on at around 1% per hour.

Second chat session with Garmin support and as the GPS function was as spec, they didn't understand why the battery life was poor on Smart Watch Mode and therefore asked me to run a test to charge it to 100% and let it drain dry as they called it in Smart Watch Mode to see how long it lasts. They also confirmed that this is not a known issue with the watch, I have this in writing as a transcript of the chat has been emailed to me......

Now here is where things get strange.....
Day 1 went from 100% to 83%
Day 2 went from 83% to 66%
Day 3 went from 66% to 53% (I switched off bluetooth except for when I synced twice for this 24hour period)
Day 4 went from 53% to 36%
Day 5 went from 36% to 20%
Day 6 went from 20% to 16%
Day 7 went from 16% to 14%

I am still running this test but you can see that from 20% the discharge has slowed down and returned what we expect for the watch, if it continues like this I might actually get close to the watch specs.......

I will keep you posted when I get to the end of my test.

5Q SN bought through Amazon and arrived with 0% battery

Hello. What software version have the watches installed ?

0 HamDenFede over 6 years ago

Also 12.21 seems to improve the battery:
16/01/2019, 22:20 update -> 100%
17/01/2019, 13:00 -> 94% (just 10 min test GPS, walking activity)
*In smart watch 24/7, notifications on, HR on, BT on GPS off
I will try to test in today's 45 min running

Pretty much equals my experience. Upgraded last night. In 16 hours, settings the same as above, drained 3-4%.
Fingers crossed that the issue is resolved.

0 sirgab01 over 6 years ago

Pretty much equals my experience. Upgraded last night. In 16 hours, settings the same as above, drained 3-4%.
Fingers crossed that the issue is resolved.

Yes we have to to keep an eye on it

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

D2theT , sirgab01 , HamDenFede

How did you all perform the upgrade?

I followed it to the exact specification on the Garmin beta update page but I'm not getting the same results as you all. I'm down to 86% after 17hours of standard smartwatch functionality. HRM on, no GPS activities, activity tracking on.

Did you all perform a hard reset after doing the upgrade to 12.21? I didn't, and I'm now wondering whether this is required to get the correct functionality from the upgrade.

0 agzgz over 6 years ago

I had the same issue since yesterday, 1% less battery every hour. I installed the 12.21 3 hours ago and battery usage remains in the same percentage. Seems fix worked for me.

0 agzgz over 6 years ago

D2theT , sirgab01 , HamDenFede

How did you all perform the upgrade?

I followed it to the exact specification on the Garmin beta update page but I'm not getting the same results as you all. I'm down to 86% after 17hours of standard smartwatch functionality. HRM on, no GPS activities, activity tracking on.

Did you all perform a hard reset after doing the upgrade to 12.21? I didn't, and I'm now wondering whether this is required to get the correct functionality from the upgrade.

I copied the files as described in the instructions. Once I unplugged the watch, the watch asked me automatically if I want to install now the update or delay it. I hit now, and it restarts automatically after the upgrade is completed (takes a while until it comes back to life).

Hope it helps!