Battery lasts 7-8 hours, anyone has had an item with faulty batteries?

Former Member over 6 years ago

I bought a Fenix 5s last October, in April battery life was 5 hrs with 25% residual, against the 14 hours declared.
I have had so far 2 rounds of replacement with regurbished items on unknown origin which lasted even less.

First they sent me a 'refurbished' item to replace mine, so I got a used device that they got back presumably because it was faulty itself in the first place.
This one had battery life = 7.15 with 10% residual. I was expecting my device repaired but this is not what I got.

After lengthy discussion, I was promised I would be sent a new inboxed device.
I was returned another un-boxed watch instead (maybe the refurbished item that I returned, maybe my original device? another refurbished item? Who knows), with a sheet of paper that said the item was tested an no issue was found with it.

I have spent hours with Garmin UK, they refuse to do anything else than me resending the item back (round 4) and them checking it and evaluating whether the item is ffaulty or not. As if this did not happen twice already. Endless discussions to ascertain whether I am a competent user, whether I use bluetooth, apps, music, alll of that - answer was no but they still made me go through endless checklists - and this with at least 5 advisors. Going nowhere.

I am considering going to the ombudsman to get the issue redressed.

Does anyone have suggestions around how to get Garmin to agree to give me something that works?

0 mcalista over 6 years ago

One thing that is not mentioned in your post is backlight. Each 10% of backlight uses about 1.5% of battery per hour on the F5 (and likely even more on the 5S), so at higher backlight percentages, it can chew battery FAST.

With the exception of the 9.2 FW update (now fixed with the latest FW 10.0), the experience of most users is that battery life is largely as advertised. While faulty units are possible, the odds of receiving 2 faulty units seem extraordinarily low.

The standard advice for battery life issues are:

* calibrate the battery gauge by giving it a full discharge, followed by a full charge.
* remove any custom watch faces (not all of these are coded as well as the Garmin stock faces) and CIQ datafields
* check the backlight settings.
* perform a power down, and a hard reset if necessary.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

If you’re in the UK I would recommend getting some advice from trading standards. I had a similar issue with a new oven. I my case the item was less than 2 months old but they kept sending repairmen out over and over again, replacing parts that had already been replaced and still not solving the problem. I spoke to trading standards and was given some very helpful advice.

Long story short, after a few months of repairs and arguing with both retailer and manufacturer, I phoned the retailer, informed them that I’d had a chat with trading standards and that I knew exactly what my rights were and told them what I expected of them. I had to be pretty firm, but 10 minutes later I had arranged a date for delivery of a new oven.

Advice from trading standards is free and in my case was well worth the few minutes I spent with them on the phone. Give them a call and see what they say.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Out of curiosity, do you live in an area with a high density of 2.4GHz devices like WiFi, Zibee, Bluetooth, etc? I am wondering if the BT radio in the F5 is working overtime trying to get through all of the traffic. It doesn't make any sense why even a replacement is doing the same thing unless something environmental outside of its control is causing the problem.

Good luck, I hope you resolve the issue.