Fenix 6 got crazy, looses battery during night, each button press takes 30 seconds

HELP, SOS!

I'm in the middle of a family trip. I used the fenix6 to track 2-3 hour hikes every day without problems until yesterday.

Yesterday I had a 2 hour "bouldering" activity and at night the watch notified me that it has less than 1% battery. I was surprised because I thought it should be around 50%. I fully charged it in the evening and went sleep in the knowledge that I'm ok now for at least 5 days. But in the morning I woke up with the watch being turned off on my arm and the battery was depleted again.

I only used bouldering activity twice in my life, 1st time 4 days ago and yesterday. All the other things I did with the watch were things I did many times. I had no software update recently (on 26.00), everything should be normal. The only unusual thing was that yesterday was pretty hot, but I did not notice that the watch was hotter than usual during the day when we were out in the sun. I did notice that during the night when I charged it it seems unusually hot.

The other unusual thing is that EVERYTHING takes about half a minute. I click any button, and have to wait ~30 seconds to see the reaction of the watch. I connect the charging cable and it takes half a minute for the watch to react with the vibration and display the battery percentage. I click on start, 30 seconds... 

Restarting the watch doesn't seem to change anything.

I never had any problems like this before.

Here's a video showing how slow it reacts to the UP button from the watch face: www.youtube.com/.../6Gj8zFUI7aI

I just noticed now that the watch is not connected to my phone even though in the settings it is enabled. I also checked that it isn't in some kind of power saving mode.

  • Well, the bad news is: I need a replacement, I am out of the 12 months warranty (not by much) so they offered me a refurbished replacement for $190 + tax + I need to pay for shipping both directions, because I bought it on Amazon US but I don't live in the US.

    And then I'd get a "refurbished" watch that was probably returned by someone else (and the next guy will get my watch refurbished...) and get a 90 day warranty... Not very promising....

    I asked a few days to think this through. My options are:

    - do the replacement and have an outdated watch with 90 days warranty (and from the statistics it looks like it'll be broken after 120 days or a little over a year...)

    - buy a newer model for much more money, which after the user experience I had with the fenix6 is not a logical step either

    - or look for some other company... Any recommendations are welcome

    BTW anyone had a "good" experience with a refurbished replacement? Is it even worth considering it?

  • What country are you located? For Australia, I had my 6X replaced free after 26 months. 

    my first 6X was a remanufactured one provided free by Garmin because my 5X broke. It was full warranty and when it failed at 26 months was replaced for free.

    ask for a free replacement because products are meant to last beyond warrranty (Australia has a consumer guarantee to cover these circumstances.