Having experienced random “excessive battery drain” problems ever since my E3 was purchased, and referring to the three E3 forum topics named below, I recently noticed a comment by forum member Attila, who had “a theory that there is a bug that triggers with the watch not being connected to Bluetooth, which is not discovered by Garmin engineers because they all have them connected to phones all the time. . . .”
ENDURO E3 RECURRING FAST BATTERY DRAIN PROBLEM
RANDOM DRAIN OVERNIGHT
54% BATTERY DRAIN IN TWO DAYS
Like other users experiencing the problem, I had always had Bluetooth and Wi-Fi disabled. – I neither wanted nor intended to use the E3 in conjunction with Bluetooth and an App on a phone. – It was purchased as a standalone map enabled backup device for use when hiking with a Garmin Montana 700 handheld GPS. – I expected it to be fully fit for purpose in that respect!
However, taking on board Attila’s suggestion, I reluctantly downloaded the Garmin Connect App, enabled Bluetooth & Wi-Fi, and paired the E3 with the phone. – For the last several weeks I have been allowing the watch to automatically sync to the App. for at least a couple of hours every day.
I fully charged the watch on 16th March. – And, as of today, 16th April, i.e., after 31 full days of normal 24/7 use, including more than 25 hours of GPS enabled hiking activities (and with typical UK weather solar charging included within that period), battery level has reduced to 14% – No excessively fast battery drain being noted at any time during the entire 31 days. – (Previously, with no Bluetooth connections, the fast drain problem would undoubtedly have reoccurred after around 12-14 days use and/or circa70% battery level).
At this point I can only conclude that Attila’s suggestion of the E3 needing to be “Bluetooth connected” to prevent these random battery drains from occurring was absolutely correct!
