Massive battery drain during activity!

Since some monthes, I suddenly got massive battery drain during activities on my Fenix 5 plus.

It drains about 20%/h !!! (shi..y Garmin software!)

When the watch is not in an acivity, it is fine and running about 10 days with no activities.

Does anybody know a solution to this issue (besides avoiding Garmin products in future)?

Should i downgrade the GPS or BLE or Softwareversion.... and if, is there a repository with older versions available?

Thanks.

Here are my FW infos:
------------------------
Softwareversion: 13.00
GPS: 2.70
Wi-Fi: 2.50
WHR: 20.03.32
ANT/BLE/BT: 6.09
Sensor Hub: 2.40

  • Well, depends also on the time of activity. 20% in 5h would be great!

    I have 9-11% power drain per hour, during activity. i have GPS and Galileo active, also a stryd and the Garmin running dynamics pod

    This is really good in my opinion

  • As i wrote it's about 20%/h (per hour).

    I got the watch almost 2.5 years now and this excessive jump in battery drain is definately again some Garmin firmware ""feature"".

  • I have the same software-versions on my watch. I charged it 8 days ago and after approx. 6 hours of GPS-tracking I now have 15% battery left. This is typical. As I am currently only running in my home zone and the Gym is closed I did not use maps, navigation or music - and I have only Ant+ Sensors connected, which have almost no impact on battery life.

    Especially maps and navigation increase battery consumption, just because the processor has to work much more. Do you use any 3rd party apps or datafields? Did you try a soft reset (switch off and on)?
    Do you use a high capacity charger (no cheap one and no charging on a computer)?

  • Hi

    My FW-infos is exactly like yours. 


    In my case 6 hours of GPS-tracking (Running) with maps  AND Stryd gives me 12-15% battery left. This is typical.

    If I choose to turn off the map-view, then my remaining battery will be around 40%. 

    In most cases I don't think it is possible to get better results than this. 

    Do you use Spotify Music when doing your activity? 

  • I use around 15% to 20% an hour, and generally end up charging my watch every 4 to 5 days.

    I do not use maps, smartphone notifications or navigation or have any 3rd party datafields or watchfaces.

    My watch was brand new in April 2020. I've never understood how some folks seem to go over a week without charging, I can pretty much guarantee I'll be around 20% towards the end of the 3rd full day after charge.

  • No music and no additional widgets installed.

    The only thing that changes on my watch since 2,5 years are firmware und maps updates (through regular Garmin express).

    Storage is far from beeing full aswell.

  • After activities, I see the same, 15% to 20% an hour. I had been thinking of replacing the battery because it was so much more compared to the FR935 I used to have, but apparently it's not abnormal.

    I doubt that software versions can affect battery life a whole lot, esp. if the change log says nothing about it, but after installing 14.00 I went cycling for over an hour, and the charge had gone just 4%, which was surprisingly little. Settings were 1 second recording, with 5 ANT+ sensors active. Am curious what the drain will be after a running session.

    Update: after 1 hr running with my usual configuration and settings: 4 ANT+ sensors, Bluetooth on (but no Livetrack on), battery was down 10%. About normal. But that was followed by an overnight drain of 10% which is not normal, so I figure the battery has just had its best days and discharges in a non-linear way.

  • I just checked my F5+ today, I did a 13,5km run in 1h13 (o.k. compared what I could run 30 years ago the pace is rediculous) with 3 ANT+ Sensors (HRM Run, Tempe, Garmin footpod) without bluetooth and without optical HRM, GPS+Gallileo, every second and it consumed 13%. Now, 4 hours later the watch ist at 62%, so just 2% lower (after autoupload via Wifi, Bluetooth and optical HRM switched off). This is typical for my watch and the consumption is even higher than Garmin claims. Firmware is 13.0.

    .