Garmin Li-Ion Battery Charging 80:20 - Will it change battery discharge issues?

I've had my 6X Pro Solar for less than two years and I've always aimed to charge it to around 80% once per week. In the past it was unlikely to drop as far as 20% a week later, but I would charge it to 80% each Friday afternoon as a routine. So my watch has a long history of charging this way, never running empty or even close, and I have a good handle on the expected drain over seven days.

Unfortunately, recent firmwares have caused battery life to plummet. Most recently, on 24.00, my watch has been draining at an average rate of 9% per day over five days as a smartwatch. The drain should be less than 5% per day.

Yesterday I rolled back to 19.21 to see whether battery life improves. Tomorrow (Friday) afternoon I will charge as usual. Then the clock stats ticking on battery drain performance.

Yesterday I rolled back to 19.21 - how???

I have several copies of old beta firmware files for my 6X, each of which contains a file to roll back to the previous live software. It's a simple case of copying the roll back (backdate as Garmin calls it) file to the watch and rebooting.

Despite the backdate being named 19.20, the file is actually for 19.21. I wrote very positive things about battery life on 19.20 when it was released. I assume that 19.21 will be just as good. Otherwise I will have to roll back further to 16.70, as I have nothing else in between.

eezytiger said:

Despite the backdate being named 19.20, the file is actually for 19.21. I wrote very positive things about battery life on 19.20 when it was released. I assume that 19.21 will be just as good.

First, I am happy that you remembered that 19.20 was ok for you, too, see https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/316932/battery-life-improvements-in-software-24-00/1540325#1540325

Sometimes I feel that there are no such things as same behaviour of the same firmware on two devices of the same type. :-)

Anyway even it was the case with 19.20/1, now with 24.00 it is different again, because I am far from 9% per day. But my watch is just 12 months old. On the other hand sometimes I let it be discharged until 7-8%.

And the other thing that I also have the same version that you photoed and shared. I also used it for a rollback, but to be honest I dont remember that 19.20 had a name of 19.21. Right now I dont feel like testing it. :-)

I did not "remember". I found my own words when searching the forum to make sure that, however far back I rolled, I would still have Virtual Running. I came across a 19.20 thread where I myself declared battery life to be solid.

From this discussion - forums.garmin.com/.../battery-issues-after-update-19-20

It's worth adding that the 7-8% daily drain referenced there includes a daily dog walk with GPS and around an hour of indoor biking. On 24.00 I was seeing 9% daily without activities.

Sure, sure. I just expressed it in an imperfect way that you could figure out what you did. :-)

Full disclosure - today I rolled forward from 19.21 to 21.00, having discovered that the Stryd Zones data field now in the CIQ store would not install. At least rolling forward has preserved my watch settings, unlike rolling back.

The 80:20 routine will not really give any better results in the day to day consumption. But instead the 80:20 will delay the deteriorating of the battery's ability to retain a charge (i.e. Battery health) over longer periods of time.

So the gain is that after 1-2-3 years, the battery will be able to hold its capacity more compared to a routine of 100:0 charging habit.

Once a month it's good to do a full charge to 100% for "recalibration" of the battery capacity.

At least that's what SONY and other battery researchers are saying.