I purchased my Fenix 5s just a little over 18 mo ago. The battery life seems to be getting worse and worse. I did an 8 hr race and it made it 7.5 hrs before dying after pulling it off the charger that morning. Once I take it off the charger it goes from 100%-92% in the first 10 min. When I go out on a 1 hr run it drops between 30-40%. I have it on GPS only mode. I have tried restarting it and did a factory rest on it. I do not have smart notifications running or move alerts. It is not connected to my phone except when I connect it to upload data to Garmin connect before bed then I shut that back off. I know it is out of warranty and I am running out of ideas to correct the issues. Is there any other ideas on what I can do to try to preserve and increase my battery life? Is anyone else having the same issues and is it worth reaching out to Garmin to see if they can do anything?
What you described is typical of a end of life battery, however it shouldn't happen so soon. Usually there are several things that we can do to extend the battery life. One of the most important is not letting the battery go bellow 20% and not charging above 90%. Avoiding High or low temperatures are also good advices, however is almost impossible in an outdoor watch.
Also, take a look to the beta post there are several posts about battery problems.
Your watch is unlikely to have gone through enough charge cycles to have lost significant battery capacity. (With typical usage, most people probably charge only every 5-7 days, as against daily charging for a cell phone).
But certainly a number of people seem to be reporting shorter battery life after the last update. Although my experience is that battery life is unchanged after the last update. I suspect that things may have gone wrong with the update process, rather than there being an inherent problem with the firmware. (The last update involved a complex 2 part update process for the watch firmware, and the GPS chipset firmware). One thing to check is the GPS firmware version - it should be 2.30/
Hello, i didn't notice any difference of autonomy with my 23mo Fenix 5 Wifi. I use it between 8-15H/week for sport activities and rest of time smartwatch. Smartwatch drain < 0.2%/h and GPS drain < 6%/h Usually charged every weeks.
Thank you! I will see if the next update fixes it. This has been going on for a few months now and keeps getting worse. I don't charge it everyday and when the battery was good when I first got it it would last 5-6 days and now it lasts 2-3 days depending on how active I am. If the next update doesn't fix it I may reach out to Garmin and see if they can do anything. Yay I do have the correct GPS version! Thanks again!
Never let your battery run right down, it wreaks the battery. I dont let mine go below 40%. Batteries like to be topped up often, than run right down. Running your battery right down puts stress on the battery.
but always getting under 30% charge often will shorten your batteries life. From 30%-100% is classed as a cycle, 50%-100% is not a cycle, but part of a cycle. The more often you charge your battery the longer its life cyce will be
I usually charge when it goes below 30%, somewhere around 25% most often to about 95-96%. The watch is about a year old and i haven't noticed any drop in battery life, not once, but i do wan't to note that i've never installed beta update packages it's just updates when it's time :)
