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Battery Life Decreased Dramatically

Carl_Fredrik_Ahl
over 5 years ago

Hi,

I have had my Instinct since March 2019 and the battery life has been very good. I didn't had to charge it for about 3 weeks before. I have the same settings now and I barely get 1 week of battery life. I use it the same way as before. Could it be because of the temperature outside (About 6-8 degrees Celsius)?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    How many hours of GPS do you have in between charging cycles?  

    Even with no GPS activities, 3 weeks is remarkably long.  By the same token, only 1 week with no GPS seems low.  I think the spec is 14 days max in smartwatch mode (no GPS and most battery saving settings), or up to 16 hours GPS (which would drain the battery in less than 1 day).  I've had my Instinct for 11 months and continue to get pretty close to the same battery life:  typically 1 week with 7-8 hours of GPS usage.

    Some other users have noted a dramatic change in battery life, so it is possible there is something going on with some units.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to GeoffR

    Yeah ok, thx for the info. I used the GPS much more often in the summer and the battery life was really good despite that. I do some strength exercises that don't use GPS now. I barely use it at all now during the winter. I have all sensors activated and data recording every second. I have backlight set to 20% when turning my wrist after sunset and it's on for 15 sec. I turn the watch of during the night.

    Don't you think it has do with the temperature outside?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to GeoffR

    I set the time with GPS though every morning.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Carl_Fredrik_Ahl
    Carl_Fredrik_Ahl said:
    I set the time with GPS though every morning.

    Why are you doing this? This is not necessary at all.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to TeaRacer

    If you are inside when using GPS to set time, it is possible that this is causing some of your battery drain.  I imagine that the GPS might hunt for a longer period to establish a signal.  

  • Former Member
    +1 Former Member over 5 years ago

    This seems to be an issue for a lot of people I have seen online.

    I've had my Instinct since last Christmas and battery life was fantastic, usually lasting 14 days between charges. Then, around 1-2 months ago, battery life dropped off a cliff. Now I need to charge it every 5 or 6 days.

    I never use any GPS functions at all. Bluetooth on with notifications and alarms. I have not changed my usage pattern at all.

    I've tried updating to the latest stable firmware, latest beta firmware, and multiple factory resets. None of these resolved the issue.

    Again, no GPS use and my usage pattern has not changed at all to cause this. I've seen reports similar on this forum as well as on Reddit with similar problems, and it seems like people are contacting Garmin to get replacements. I am in the process of doing that right now.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I've had my Instinct about the same amount of time, so I'm a little worried that I might soon see a significant drop.  For me, the bigger concern would be losing half of the GPS usage time on a full charge.  I'll have to test the GPS on a full charge.

    I'd expect some degradation over a year, but 50% would be too high,

  • Former Member
    +1 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to GeoffR

    For sure. Battery degradation is expected but mine decreased so drastically seemingly overnight with nothing changing, seems like it must be a defect.

    In any case I just got off the phone with a very helpful guy at Garmin support, I'm getting a new unit in exchange. Very pleasant experience with support.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to TeaRacer

    Yes it really is because otherwise it will be inaccurate with about 4 seconds and I don't like that.