Enduro 3 - Battery replacement

The conclusion I drew is that it's impossible: you will never be able to restore the watch waterproof seal, which is crucial if you use it also during swimming/showering and other rough activities.

Garmin itself provides a "battery change" program in which they trash (or refurbish) your watch and provide a brand new (or factory refurbished) one because otherwise they cannot guarantee its level of waterproof-ness.

It is sad, but it does make a lot of sense in a device that has to be able to withstand many adventure conditions.

On the bright side, I use my Enduro3 a lot and consume (on average, with all the GPS activities) about 10% battery per day, which means that a full charge lasts me 10 days, hence, considering that the battery is rated for 400 cycles, I should be able to use my watch for 4,000 days, or 11 years.
Shall this be true, I will be more than satisfied and I will be more than happy to buy a new watch in 11 years from now.

Hi Gio!

Thanks for your reply. Interesting with with the 11 years battery possible life. It's indeed not bad.

I would draw the conclusion, it's possible with a lesser degree of weather sealing then.

But the bigger issue is where would one get the battery pack and the sealing in 10 years.

Have fun with your Enduro 3. I am considered to get one this summer.

Bests regards

Nicolas Det said:

Interesting with with the 11 years battery possible life.

This is a mathematically theoretical value. The real life expectancy of a LiIon battery is significantly lower for chemical reasons, as the cells decompose.

I indeed believe it's possible to get the battery replaced. I spoke to a local phone repair shop and they also think they can do it. Because it's not know exactly which type of battery is in a given watch, the watch needs to be opened first. They were also very clear: waterproofing will not be up to the mark anymore after opening the watch. Even so much as a severe rain shower could already be an issue.

With that, I drew the conclusion for myself that replacing the battery of my watch is purely a theoretical option, as I run outside in any type of weather.

I hope this was useful.

Interresting ! Thanks for your reply.

The battery might also been custom made for Garmin. And might be challenging to source. I pled for some regulation to enforce battery replacement over at least 10 years for such device.

Cheers

The decisive factors for how long a LiIon battery lasts are operating temperature, charging current and charging status. Ideally, you should keep the charge level between 20%-80%. Values below, and especially above, put additional stress on the chemistry and contribute to faster ageing.

Nicolas Det said:

I pled for some regulation to enforce battery replacement over at least 10 years for such device.

10 years ? You are very optimistic ;)

I mean 10 years replacement part avaibility. )

Availability of third-party batteries is not going to be a problem: it is usually easy to find non-original batteries sold online for cheap after a year from the watch release. Battery replacement is indeed "possible", but the watch will not be usable for what was designed without a proper waterproofing, hence my conclusion: "impossible to replace the battery".

My mathematical estimate of a full charge every 10 days goes to contrast a phone battery that undergoes 1 or 2 full charges per single day. My Garmin Instinct v1 died after just 3 years of use because I had to go through a full charge cycle every 2 days, on average. Hopefully the Enduro3 will survive for much longer.

Of course keeping the battery between 20-80% charge helps: I usually only charge the watch a little bit while I take a shower, and not every day.