Garmin Instinct change battery

Average modern Li battery lasts 500 - 1000 full charging cycles, so if you charge it every 2-3 days (say 100-200 times a year), if you are lucky, it can last about the decade, but it can also last just around 3 years. Personally, I'd tell that expecting a decade without a singificant degradation of the capacity is a bit overoptimistic.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it does more than three years. Incidentally, I guess the batteries are also not replaceable in the more expensive Garmin watches. I have to say, I would be seriously gutted if the battery conked out after three or four years in a watch that cost a four figure sum!

That's where gshocks clearly win. Construction, longevity and servicability. But way less features :(

I have some updates.

First of all: the battery of my Garmin Instinct is almost dead. I charge it in the office in the morning, and when I get up the next day the watch is already off although I turned all sensors off and did not use light.

Garmin replied: they don't offer a battery change for the Instinct - even not if I pay! Now I understood that the Instinct is a cheap constructed single-use-watch. But for my understanding the price promises something totally different. There should be a punishment for such products. I own an Oceanic Geo 2.0 dive computer of similar size; I can change the battery myself easily and it remains waterproof. Also the cheap Swatch I had for years.

I bought my Instinct used. Just contacted the seller and fortunately he was able and willing to provide me the proof of purchase. My watch was originally bought in March 2020; now I'll send it to Garmin and claim a new one. Happy end for me this time, but a bad surprise is waiting for many Garmin customers in the next years...

Folks, this is not normal. Garmin batteries do not usually degrade that much in six months. [b]AquaTed[/b], your Instinct should last much more than that. Just use it normally, do not let it discharge below 20% / 1 bar, as if taking care about any other lithium battery, and it will be fine.

The watch that [b]1751773[/b] bought was most likely defective in the first place and this is the reason the original owner was selling it. Unfortunately, reselling it voids the warranty. That's all.

Thank you for your words of comfort, sspanak. This issue has loomed large in my imagination and rather put a cloud over my delight with my new watch.

In every device with a rechargeable battery, there's a chance that this battery is faulty, dead on arrival etc. That's why they provide a warranty. Things are not so bad normally. There are early buyers of the watch and have no complaints about battery life. Especially the instinct has better battery life than other garmin models so it is expected to last longer.