Instinct 2 solar battery degradation after 1 year 3 months

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice. In the last 2 months or so my Instinct 2 Solar battery has begun discharging much quicker than I'd expect, it was initially requiring a charge once every few weeks then once a week and now it's every 3 days.

I've followed all the easily signposted guidance on garmin support, regarding sensors, factory and soft reset, GPS settings etc and using the battery guesstimator from a full 100% charge I'm still only getting 4 days.

Do I have a dead/dying battery? I've emailed garmin support but haven't heard back yet, and as its now a few months out of warranty I'm wondering what sort of bill I'll be hit with if it needs repair/replacement. Doesn't feel great to be dying at 1 year and change, especially considering it's not a cheap watch.

Anyone else encounter something similar? Am I just very unlucky?

0 jorgerobertojr over 2 years ago

I'm having the same problem, after installing beta 12.13, even going back to firmware 11.18, the problem persists, the battery lasts a maximum of 4 days. It's discharging at around 2% per hour.

0 Rvpuk over 2 years ago in reply to jorgerobertojr

I'm glad I'm not alone on this one then! Sounds very similar to mine, I'm seeing about 1% an hour on guesstimate.. Hopefully support will have some suggestions for us. I'll reply if I get an answer.

0 Bullet over 2 years ago

here in sweden Garmin watches have 3 years warranty

0 Rvpuk over 2 years ago in reply to Bullet

According to support there's a 2 year warranty in the UK which is better than I believed, and after sending some information they've offered to exchange. So hopefully that will be the issue resolved!

0 NoTrux over 2 years ago

I don't have issues with my battery just yet, but I never charge to 100%, except a couple times by mistake, but then I drain it very fast right away with an activity and/or pulseOx. I don't discharge completely, either and usually go between 33%-80%. I also give my watch a bit of a bump during showering daily. If you want your batteries to die prematurely, charge them to 100% and make sure to go from zero every time. In summer, due to solar and exercises outdoors, my battery stays for a long time in the 60% range and that's fine with me.

0 Bullet over 2 years ago in reply to NoTrux

You are correct. 100% is no good for battery.

garmin watches can stay long time on 100 or 99%.
i charge mine 20-90%