Epix 2 51mm Pro - not getting anyway close to advertised battery life

I got my Epix 2 Pro 51mm on 1st June and I started my 3rd recharge cycle yesterday, after just over 3 weeks of ownership at the time of this post (June 24th)

The first charge cycle last 10 days and I used lots of GPS, often 4 to 6 hours a day, so 10 days felt good, and honestly I was very pleased with that because it's way better than I got with the original Epix.

The second charge cycle lasted 11 days (just over by a few hours) but this time I used WAY less GPS, probably only 50% as much but again by end of day 10 I was at 3% with an alert about turning on low power mode, I did notice that in less than 2 days I lost 19% with hardly doing anything - this felt strange so I made a note and took a photo of the watch face -I was at 56% on Saturday 17th about 1:30pm then by 930AM Monday I was down to 37% again really doing no activities and not really doing anything with the watch. It was 33% by 730PM so another 4% gone in 11 hours from last observation at 930AM.

I charged to 100% yesterday about 12 hours ago, and it is down from 100% to 96% already and I really have done nothing at all as I slept for a good proportion of that.

I did obverse on the 2nd and 3rd charge cycles it dropped from 100% to 98% really quickly, I would say it was down to 98% within 2 hours of coming off the charger.

The watch is still basically 'as is' so I have not turned on Pulxe Ox (have no use for that), have not installed any CIQ, do not use music (the only sensor paired is a cycling power meter) and most importantly the screen is not on on all the time - only when I turn my wrist 'just so'. I do not believe there are really any settings I can change to improve this, because when I am on not doing activities, I barely interact with that watch at all.

When I am in an activity - for example a 4 hour trail run, I see approx. 2 to 3% battery burn an hour which seems fine - it seems to me that when I am NOT in any activities and the watch is doing nothing but displaying a watch face (only if I have 'gestured') that power usage is higher than I would expect especially as I am not using always on display. The watchface is stock as well

The watch is on 13.22

Top Replies

Fabii85 over 2 years ago +1

Did you try a reset? Hold upper left button till watch turn off.

All Replies

0 AgentMax over 2 years ago

That’s too much. I get your runtimes with AOD enabled. 12-13 days with approx 50 min GPS/day and 2-3hrs indoor swim/week. Around 0,3% battery/hour.

0 5135968 over 2 years ago in reply to AgentMax

AgentMax said:
That’s too much

I think so too. so I posted this about 7 hours ago and I was at 96%, and it's now 92% - I did a 25 minute run and a 35 minute bike ride, so 1 hour of GPS. The 25 minute run didn't reduce the battery % as all as it was 96% before and 96% after.

I do use a lot of GPS, it's not usual for me to ride to a trail head, hike for 4 hours then ride back, so 6 hours GPS in a day, and I may lose 12% to 15% in those 6 hours which seems fine. Specifically the issue is when I am not using the watch apart from wearing it, and without AOD on, I can't understand what seems to be sucking the battery.

You seem to be outpeforming the AOD expected times by the way, without GPS they say max 10-11 days I think...if I am charged to 100% and turn on AOD it reports 11 days my side so mine is in spec. in that sense.

0 Fabii85 over 2 years ago

Did you try a reset? Hold upper left button till watch turn off.

0 mcbit over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

If you haven't changed the default settings much, check whether Pulse Ox is on, I thought it was on by default. I have always switched it to night only and it doesn't affect the battery too much.

0 5135968 over 2 years ago in reply to mcbit

Pulse Ox is Off as I mention in my post - I have no use for that data. It is Off by default. If it was somehow on, then I would have Pulse Ox data in Garmin Connect

I am quite confident its not a settings issue or user error

0 mcbit over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

To be accurate you said you hadn't turned it on, hence my comment. For me it has always been on by default.

0 5135968 over 2 years ago in reply to mcbit

mcbit said:
For me it has always been on by default.

No, it wouldn't have been - the default is 'Manual Check', it has been that way for the last few years and is now. It's possible if you used it before on a previous watch, it's a setting that is sync'd by TrueSync, but it is absolutely not the default.

I specifically mentioned Pulse Ox wasn't being used - I wasn't kidding or anything ;) it being on would be an obvious root cause for my lower than expected battery life after all, so I did make a point of mentioning that.

Down to 89% now by the way (Sunday 25th 11:45am) - I did do 1 hour 45 minutes on Zwift earliy but consumption seems normal while in an activiy. I was 96% after my run yesterday so another 7% gone with no obvious cause.

0 AgentMax over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

Is the connection to your phone stable? Maybe you have a lot of connection issues that result in higher battery usage.

0 5135968 over 2 years ago in reply to AgentMax

AgentMax said:
Is the connection to your phone stable? Maybe you have a lot of connection issues that result in higher battery usage.

I thought that might have been possible, so this charge cycle phone connection has been 'connection disabled' the entire time and it has made no difference at all sadly.

But during an activity (paired to a power meter, using oHR, no GPS) I am seeing about 1% per hour, which seems OK...soon as I come out of the activity it's like some process is getting stuck maybe?

0 Former Member over 2 years ago

Did you change any of the AOD settings?

brightness?

duration?

Are you checking the display a lot, going through settings and stuff on the device a lot, and making the display stay on for longer?

A good experiment may be to turn AOD off, and see how fast it drains that way.