Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar battery problem

Did you have the map displayed the entire time and were you using navigation (i.e. was it tracking a predefined course)? My old Fenix 5+'s battery life was nearly halved from the quoted 19 hours of GPS life when the map was displayed, so there appears to be quite a cost in rendering that map and running the turn by turn navigation.

By the way, congrats on the 100. Thats a great time!

True, my Edge 1030 bike computer drains battery twice as fast when map is displayed. 

Thanks for the answer Loen. I've used the watch in the mode that claims 60 hours (normal mode). It has everything enabled, but that mode is installed by default and it says that the battery should last 60 hours. Garmin does also say, that with that mode, you should have those 60 hours.

Do you mean that I need to disable things for those 60 hours? 

Another thing, pulseox is disabled by default (It was not enabled on my race).

I'm also using navigation for ultra racing with the maps. I understand that Garmin knows that it has not sense using running modes (without anykind of track), when you need such a big battery duration.

Is it possible that navigation consumes more battery or why the battery does not last what Garmin claims in the mode that Garmin says you should have those 60 hours?

Thanks for the help

Thanks Joel!! 

I'm thinking exactly that. The map seems to need more battery or there's something strange here and Garmin does not explain this (the just sell you those 60 hours). So at the end it seems that I have a very expensive watch that is not able to survive all the hours you thought it could do

dreamer_ said:

Is it possible that navigation consumes more battery or why the battery does not last what Garmin claims in the mode that Garmin says you should have those 60 hours?

Yes, it most certainly takes a hit in rendering the map. It might be worth running 15 miles with the map displayed, taking note of the charge and then running 15 miles with only the pace / heading bug being displayed. My sense is that the map rendering alone probably accounts for an additional 30% and the navigation another 10-15% on top of Garmin's quoted figures.

I'm training for my own ultra so I'll be running similar test soon in the hope that I'm able to make mine last the distance.

Thanks a lot Joel. I will do a similar test. 

Do you know is it possible to use navigation without maps? I mean like in the FR935 (just a track). That's enough for me if it increases the battery life.

I don't mind disabling everything but the GPS but I'd like to avoid ultratrack mode if possible.

Yes, using the map drains a lot of battery. The 60 hours are ok, just in case you’re using the map just some times. But having the mapside open the hole time, it drains the battery much faster.

I have read that map rendering uses a lot of cpu and that makes the battery drain a lot. Seems that you can have the screen off and that will make the battery last. You can enable the screen pressing a button and you will have 7 seconds to watch the screen  and the map (everytime that you press that button). That seems to make the job (and we  really don't need to have the map being rendered all time)

Does anybody know how can be this done?

Thanks in advance

This is a round-a-bout way of answering your question to the 'one press map display' functionality - I've set my data screens up so that my first screen displays pace | average pace | power | heart rate zone | distance remaining | ETE, plus the heading bug (which is a little red arrow overlay showing the direction you need to be travelling in), and I've set my second screen up to show the map. I keep the first screen displayed for the majority of the time and I'll occasionally switch to the map screen with a single button press when theres doubt as to where I am.

It'll help save on battery and present you with all you need to know (well, all I feel I need to know anyway) during your ultra.

(As an interesting side note, I used to display calories burnt as a reminder to suck back a gel, but then I found out that you can actually set an alert which will go off every X calories. Super useful if you werent aware of it)