Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar - 4 days of Battery Life - TERRIBLE

Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar draining battery Very Quickly.. 1% per hour.. only last 100 hours - 4 days. Not as advertised. Talked to Garmin and they have no fix - Latest version 12.35... Offered new Eunduro 3 watch; but I really liked Fenix. I had Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar prior and battery lasted about 10 days. What do I do?

It shows 83% left - 15 days of battery life - 29 hours after charging... But No way it won't last 15 days; more like 4.

Should I get rid of my Fenix 8, get a refund and buy Enduro instead?

Is there a Fix for this now?

0 webowner 4 months ago

Mine is the 47 mm - Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar

Would a different size work better in terms of battery life?

0 Andrew 4 months ago

I'm having the same problem. My battery doesn't drain as fast as yours, but it's way more than what was advertised by Garmin. I'm getting about 6-10 days (depending on amount of activity tracking) on the Fenix 8 47mm Solar.

I am also curious, if Garmin expects a new firm version in the future will fix the battery drain issues on the Garmin Fenix 8 Solar in the future. I hope so.

0 v3rtex 4 months ago

That’s definitely not normal, but usually a result of software issues.
Have you tried to reset the watch to factory default?
In my case I have an Fenix 8 Solar 47mm and get around 15 days, not the best but not the worst too.

The most battery drain for me are causing watchfaces from CIQ.
Standard ones are definitely way power saving.

0 hml60 4 months ago

That's not normal, I had a similar problem with my Fenx 7X Solar. Consumption was normal from 100% to 50%, below that it suddenly rose rapidly and the battery was empty within about three days.
After a lot of back and forth and all sorts of suggestions about what I should do and initially playing along, I got to the point where I said "that's enough now".
The customer is not a Garmin employee and should get a working device for his money. I was then offered an exchange and I received a new watch that then worked.

So my advice is not to waste time on suggestions from support but to request an exchange, it is not a general fault with the Fenix 8, so either have a new one sent to you or get your money back.

0 7343684 4 months ago

Awesome. Another post from someone whining about their battery.

0 Volker 4 months ago

Have you installed a non Garmim watch face from the IQ store? That often burns a lot of battery. PulseOX 24/7 enabled…?

0 gaijin 4 months ago in reply to Volker

Volker said:
Have you installed a non Garmim watch face from the IQ store? That often burns a lot of battery. PulseOX 24/7 enabled…?

Sincerely, thank you for having the patience to try to help. I am interested in the resolution, but I have given up trying with the "20 questions" approach.

I hope you receive meaningful responses.

0 net1994 4 months ago

I haven't seen any mentions of solar battery drain (or even AMOLED) fixes/improvements in the 13.x series of beta builds for the next official firmware release. So it doesn't look like any resolution is coming. Does the Enduro have similar battery drain issues? If so, doesn't make much sense to switch over. Will the 51mm enduro size work for you? The Enduro 3 doesn't have dive capability or mic/speaker as well. Good part is the E3 is 200-300 cheaper than the F8.

0 net1994 4 months ago in reply to 7343684

@7343684 How is this whining? Multiple F8 solar users have had this issue.

0 webowner 4 months ago in reply to v3rtex

Hi there,

Thank you for the notes.

I see some are getting 15 days is good. What settings do you have? I doubt the Sapphire part makes any different in battery drain, as mine is Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar... I have gone through all settings and even changed to "plainface" garmin watch face, which seems to be working a tiny bit better.. Updating to latest update, 13.22, am hopeful. But it has been frustrating.

I had the Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar before and it lasted about 10-15 days in normal mode. Simple daily exercises, biking, swimming & walking and some GPS/Solar. But not enough to significantly drain the battery. How do we know this is a software issue - or - faulty battery?

I have cancelled my order for Enduro 3 as when checking closely, Fenix 8 is better with more features - and Enduro 3 is a large watch at 51 mm. Mine is 47 mm, plus it is thicker. I really like the style of FEnix 8 Sapphire Solar and especially all features. I just wish there was a fix for battery. Changing some settings and changing to a PlainFace watch face has helped a tiny bit so far...

IF this doesn't fix the battery issue - what other watch is compatible to the Fenix series, other than Fenix? I am not sure about the Enduro 3 but was looking more at the Epic Pro 2 , but think that one is fairly old. Seems that the Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar and Enduro 3 are the only options? Eunduro 3 lacks features, display and 51 mm, so not ideal. What do others think?