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Enduro E3 Recurring Fast Battery Drain Problem

LancashireMV

The watch was purchased in February this year for daily wear, but also as a map enabled smart-watch backup for a Garmin Montana 700 handheld GPS unit I use when hiking.

The E3 is worn 24/7, as a stand-alone device, (not paired to a phone), using default analogue watch face, with pulse oxy & Bluetooth etc. all disabled.

Activities are only enabled occasionally, when I get chance to go hiking in the hills. Otherwise, the watch is consistently in “normal everyday” smart-watch mode.

(Glances for heart rate, steps, sleep score, solar intensity, floors climbed, ABC, and body battery are enabled, and checked occasionally during the day).

With that specific setup and usage, the watch normally loses 2% (or thereabouts) battery power each day.

However, approximately every fortnight, (when no specific activities are enabled), and generally when remaining battery power has dipped below 70%, the watch suddenly starts losing battery power at 10-12% every day.

This happened again yesterday, and has occurred ever since the watch was purchased, regardless of routinely updating and syncing the watch (by wired connection to  a desktop PC using Garmin Express) whenever a new firmware update has been released.

Whenever this fast battery drain occurs, fully powering off and then restarting the watch solves the issue, with the watch returning to its “normal” 2% (or thereabouts) battery drain per day. – But, the 10-12% battery drain always reoccurs after another fortnight or so.

I suspect the issue must be some sort of basic but ongoing firmware bug, which shouldn’t be happening on a watch costing over £750.00!

I’m sure that I cannot be the only person whose E3 is exhibiting this problem, but I haven’t seen it mentioned on this (or any other E3 related) forum

Is anyone else on here experiencing this, or can anyone offer any suggestions as to cause or potential permanent solution?

Top Replies

  • in reply to LancashireMV +1
    LancashireMV said:
    I disabled pulse oxy (along with Bluetooth). during the first week after purchase, when I was customising the watch set-up for my personal needs.

    Some users reported paradoxical high battery…

All Replies

  • 0

    Try disabling pulse oximeter (Spo2).

    I had crazy overnight battery drain on my former watch  (Fenix 7), and disabling that solved it for me.

  • 0 in reply to Mikkel Ravn

    Hi, Thanks for your reply,.

    But, (as I mentioned in my original post), "pulse oxy & Bluetooth etc. all disabled.".

    I disabled pulse oxy (along with Bluetooth). during the first week after purchase, when I was customising the watch set-up for my personal needs.

    It has never been re-enabled since.

    The excessive 10-12% drain per day always starts when no hiking/walking activities are ongoing, (no GPS tracking in use), and when remaining battery level shows less than 70%

    Regards,

    Mike.

  • 0

    I am having a similar issue of sudden battery drain. Yesterday I was at 42% after a few weeks of 2-3% drain per day, today it is suddenly down to 15% overnight. I had no activities in a couple days. I'm on firmware 20.24. I hope the next update fixes whatever bug it is. I'm really looking forward to the new battery manager.

  • 0 in reply to Peter Hand

    Hi guys. I am on a stock watchface and it looses 2,5-3% or just over that per day. I charge from 20 to 80%, have the watch since December 2024 & no such issues you described. Similar thing I had on previous FR955 for a while after the GPS activity...battery drain. The solution was to turn off the watch after recorded activity by long press and hold light button...until they finally fixed it in some of the firmware updates. I haven't noticed such issue on Enduro 3. I can only suggest to do a factory reset, do a full charge and full discharge and see from there. Also try to switch to a default watchface for a test. If that doesn't help, send it to Garmin under warranty.

  • 0 in reply to Peter Hand

    Maybe the download of the update to the latest version (20.29) uses the extra battery. Make sure you update and after that do a restart. The update might already be on your device waiting for you to install it.

  • 0 in reply to LancashireMV
    LancashireMV said:
    I disabled pulse oxy (along with Bluetooth). during the first week after purchase, when I was customising the watch set-up for my personal needs.

    Some users reported paradoxical high battery drain with BT disabled. I have no idea why, but it might be worth of testing keeping BT on, and see whether it makes any difference. First of all though, make sure to connect the watch to a computer with Garmin Express, and check for updates. Even if the main firmware is up to date, the watch may try to download some additional components, which then may cause high battery drain. Also have a look at the Troubleshooting guide for high battery drain for some additional tips.

  • 0 in reply to e7andy

    I keep bluetooth off most of the time, so that wasn't it. But I did enable it temporarily to download and install 20.29.