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Garmin instinct 2 solar battery drain

9022284
over 1 year ago

I brought instinct 2 less than a week ago, new 

The device has a long battery life of approximately 28 days. The battery life expectation is displayed in days on the device. However, in 24 real-life hours, the watch's battery indicator decreases from, for example, 28 days remaining to 25 days remaining, even without any exercise. When engaging in exercise for around 3-4 real-life hours, the battery life decreases by a few more days

I have factory reset it yesterday and charged 100% battery/28 days, and right now, after 26 real life hours, 86% battery/24 hours left according to the watch. And no, i didn't do any exercise today and:

  • Due to the factory reset, brightness is on the default as well. 
  • I turned off the "turn on light automatically" so no, it's not me trigger the light by accident or sleep (sleep barley uses battery btw).
  • That xo app is on manual, and i verified this since gamin connect app said clearly no data on the ox category
  • There is nothing from CIQ installed
  • GPS (gamin watch) is set for UltraTac as it says best battery life and I DO NOT need GPS anyways. But i don't know what happens if i chose the OFF option. Will consider doing that as well since again, i don't need gps. 

The only things that are on non stop:

  • Heart pulse (due to medical issues I need it ON!)
  • Stress level (copy paste above...)
  • And get notifications from phone (Bluetooth) as i need to alway be ready to pick up phone in case of doctors or other important calls or messages.
  • I also changed the face via watch's menu. I only have time, heart, date. Nothing else (and i do need thoes). 

So i don't understand. This this a common issues? Is my device a faulty one? 

I brought the solar version exactly to not worry about battery. But it doesn't really charge the watch's battery - > to be fair, since i got it, the weather was cloudy or rain, even the devices solar option clearly shows barley any solar bar... 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Give it a couple of full charge/recharge cycles. I had the same perception in the first week with my brand new watch. Second cycle after a full charge looks much better. Watch out for other things that can drain battery (too many phone notifications triggering vibrations and backlight, for example).

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to thr4

    What about during exercise?

    I clicked the back button, and instead of 24 D, it says 92 h (and if i stop exercise it goes back to 24d) 

    And i set gps off. Light is only on when i manually fidel with the watch

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9022284

    During exercise, the watch samples heart rate and other metrics more frequently, processes more data and saves it to memory. So even with GPS off battery life during exercise can be expected would be lower.

    I am keeping an eye on my new Instinct Crossover as (as I have mentioned) the battery drain during the first cycle seemed excessive - but now it looks like it's much closer to specifications (in 1.5 days I lost 4% without recorded excercise which is pretty much as expected).

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to thr4

    Days later:

    Battery is more stable. ~1 day watch day match real life day.

    And i as far as i can tell. The big battery drain is what you gave as an exemple: notification.

    I need this feature as i put my phone away and can't hear (headphones connect to non phone devices).

    But sure enough. Few people keep writing me on WhatsApp or similar, aka tons of notification in 1 day. Next day, i notice that watch's battery used 2-3 day VS what i remembered it had the previous day (no exercise, nothing. I was to busy with other stuff so didn't use the watch much)