Related
Options

Does solar really work? Or we got fooled

SantoshRane
over 2 years ago

Since I’ve got the watch I’ve tried every possible suggestion and test regarding solar.

have kept the watch in sun for hrs, restarted as some forum suggested. But have not seen any battery % or any battery estimate changing.

it’s very disappointing to know that I trusted the brand and its marketing and fell in the solar trap.

Casio : a dead watch in solar charges.

Instinct : I don’t own it, but I’ve seen a video where it charged by solar and showed some % increase 

I’ve tried to disable all sensors n kept it only in watch mode and tried to give it hours of sun as well. But still no luck.

is there something I’m missing or solar is just a gimmick?

don’t see any update or mention in 10.43 as well.

thank you

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Z

    You have a good point there, even I agree the watch is super hungry with all the sensors running.

    so in my test. I switched off all, including the touch and used battery saver which gives only time and date and the display goes off after sometime. So ideally screen is blank.
    And I hope this is the least power mode.

    Let me know if I’ve missed something, I’m happy to test and try.

    I’ve still got no results.

    Ill  be happy to try and test and feel good about a brand that I’ve trusted since so many years. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to SantoshRane

    And what that gives you? Proof that watch drain more than solar can provide? We know that Slight smile

    Anyway, I had battery percentage increase by 1% only once while driving for hours. And I think that it was just coincidence that battery was on the edge or just dropped 1% and than with a sun, increased back.

    Previously, I bought Fenix 6 Solar because I was hopping solar is making difference. It didn't and I returned it. Then Fenix 7 Solar came out and dc rainmaker wrote how Garmin improved solar efficiency, etc. and I bit the hook. Fenix 7 is great watch, more or less, and $100 more for solar is not that bad, Does it make a big difference in battery life? I don't think so. Maybe, just maybe, in ideal conditions. Would I buy with solar again? Yes, with a hope that it will increase battery life a bit.

    If you want watch fully powered by solar, buy Instinct 2 or Instinct Crossover.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Same here. I never really got any charge level increase, so even seeing that you might have got 1% is a 'WOW!' ;)
    I do see that solar support works in terms of slowing down the discharge rate but haven't noticed any increase in charge level.

    Example: 2 weeks cruise, sailing, 8-14 hours outdoors, sunny most of the time, watch recording anywhere between 250 and 600 k Lux hours (getting more than 300 was actually very hard as I tend to hide from the direct sunlight but I wanted to test it and kept the watch exposed to sun instead of staying on my wrist during some tests out of my interest, but I was concerned about overheating so didn't do this more than during 2 days of experiments, as I know how Lithium batteries hate high temperatures - also expecting the charging / solar powering to stop, as Garmin informs) and how I saw this was that during the day battery level remained as it was. That was even if I occasionally activated the GPS to compare the readings with a proper, stationary one, yet I never kept it on for more than 15' a day in total. During the night and under the deck time it was losing around 2-3% during a 24h cycle. It's pretty much like the solar was indeed powering the watch in sunny conditions but never really pushed any extra into the battery. Like if the solar is not connected to the BMS and does not allow charging the battery but only works to power up the watch, so it drains less or no power at all from the battery. Just my observation though and hypothesis without any disassembly or schematics check to verify it.

    I also have 2 Citizen watches with Ecodrive and a couple of Casio's with ToughSolar (or w/o this name later) but these cannot be compared to a Fenix. Just one Casio GBD-H1000 has a GPS and BT. Others have nothing more than radio time sync. These watches charge in the outdoor sunny conditions easily and fast. Even the 'almost good' Casio GBD-H1000 (to say it was disappointing for me would be a very euphemistical understatement, especially thanks to lousy menus and no way to control which apps' notifications the watch should display nor a way to quickly dismiss them, while getting to them was super easy - very last item on the list...) has info about the number of hours at certain light intensity to reach the next charge level and no. of hours required to provide power for all average daily operations.

    Fenix Solar has no such thing. Garmin just claims what boost we can have if we have 3 or more hours of 50k+ light per day. However, it seems there's no way to store the extra power in the battery. Maybe they've put some small capacitor instead that holds some power, enough for a few hours tops? The only noticeable profit is... no loss from the battery during the sunny day. Weird policy. I'd love to see (even on a PC or via app) the actual mA values, indicating what current we're getting from the solar, how much the watch actually drains and what is the balance. If we're getting more mA, than the watch uses, it should go to the battery. At the end of the day we should be able to see how many mAh we generated, used and stored. Like in solar installations with good BMS. Without that or access to schematics / alghoritms used by Garmin, it's just plain observation leading me to a theory that the solar has no way of pushing any charge into the battery on these watches. It's seems to be using some sort of a bypass and only powers the watch, not allowing any extra power to be sent from the watch's power section to the battery. Again, just an unverified hypothesis :)

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Z

    So guess I'll conclude my own post here. 

    Attaching pictures of what I did. Dunno if 10.43 had to do something with it.

    So it's not a scam Smile like I thought.

    But it's neither something that works as desired. 

    The test I did today, gave me 1% increase of battery life after 140-150lux accumulated in 2hrs. Of course after a restart. 

    I tried to double up the time and test if I got maybe 2%, but to my luck it failed. 

    Now for paying extra 100$ to  feature that does not work or buying a external solar charger from amazon is a decision one can make. 

    I'm a fenix fan, so I jumped right into the X solar without doing much research trusting and having expectations from garmin. 

    The box should have written - Garmin Fenix 7x Solar (maybe) Yum

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to ApoC

    I did but it was too big so ultimately replaced it with a 7SS :) 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Z

    The edge 1040 solar charges via the sun just fine. As in I've owned it since August and have not plugged it in once to charge. I think the problem with the Fenix is that the panels are just too small due to the form factor. That's why they're so up front about edge charging (you gained 2 hrs 47 minutes of battery due to solar charging) vs being so cagey on the Fenix (56k lux today - um, thanks I guess?)

    But I know that when I was doing 5 and 6 hour hikes in the pounding sun with full gnss tracking in the national park this summer I certainly appreciated the tiny solar panels on the tactix. It absolutely helped with the battery burn 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Skyewalkr

    Edge is sitting on the bike handlebar and it's exposed to the sunlight almost all the time. Watch is on the wrist. Most of the time not in the horizontal position to catch the sun. When I'm biking, in one way watch is exposed to the sun better, when going back is basically in shade of my hand. When walking, running, hiking it's even worse. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Z

    Not necessarily. I mountain bike and am rarely in the sun thanks to dense foliage. It tells you on the edge actually. Sun exposure is reported around 10% or so but even on the sunniest trails it doesn't typically get above 20%. Still good for an hour or so of battery charge. To fully charge I leave it in the sun after rides for a few hours and it charges just fine.

    As for the watch, I'm always with my dog on a leash and my watch is almost always pointing right at the sun horizontally or close to it. Even if I leave it in the pure sun the experience is radically different from the edge as I don't think I've ever seen it get even 1% charge. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Skyewalkr

    Edge has much bigger solar panel, right? And does not have optical HR...

    Btw, do not leave your watch (not sure for Edge) on the sun. It will heat a lot and Li ion battery does not like heat. At least it will shorter life of the battery but battery could get swollen and with limited space in the watch case, maybe even start fire.