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Inaccurate battery display

Sert Switzerland
over 2 years ago

Hi,

I bought a new Garmin Instinct Solar last month. However, the battery display is quite inaccurate. Yesterday it was showing three days remaining, although I did not change the settings and the watch was exposed to sun a few hours, the the battery died out today (so instead of 3+ days, I got less than a day).

Similiarly, last week I had gone for swimming activity, at the beginning of the activity 8h of battery life was displayed, once I finished swimming 2h20mins (+1h30 pause), only 2h was remaining (moreover the watch was exposed to sun during all pause).

My question is: is this a general problem of Garmin watches or Garmin Instinct Solar (it is my first Garmin product) or is the device I have possibly defective?

Thank you. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago
    Estimation of time is prediction. It depends on how much activity you use, gps, etc. Whether you are in the sun or not. It has been said many times here. Try to observe for a long time, then you will understand how it works. Battery percentages are decisive, not predictions where many factors play a role.
  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Track the percentage, time is only a prediction. And actually that percentage is a prediction, too. And battery chemistry is affected from drawn power from battery, temperature etc. So estimating time from e percentage estimation is worse estimate.

    It said 8 hours for that level of power. However, drawn power during the activity decreased battery voltage more, thus causing remaining time to be less.

    I broke my watch, thus the display is always emitting some light. However, estimation doesn't take it into account and estimates the remaining time wrongly.

    As the percentage and remaining time is mostly an estimate. make sure you know how much percentage it consumes during an activity and don't live near the border. Just charge it if you are not sure it has enough charge to finish the activity, or battery level is too low. Also don't forget battery capacity will decrease in cold weather and it'll go low faster.

  • 0 3 months ago

    I own a new 2023 Instinct 2x solar tactical.

    The time percentage (or day left prediction) shown in ALL Watchfaces (as far as I Know) is totally wrong !

    It always starts with 40 days when fully loaded (as garmin advertises)...noneteheless what was tracked in reality in the history of the watch.

    So this display time is totally *** !..it seems to have no AI to calculate correctly...it stupidly counts days down and in the final week puts the shown time simply much more down, so that you have the problems as written by the author of this thread.

    For Garmin Instinct 2x I advise to use a widget called "Battery GUESSTIMATE", which calculates from 15 Minutes to 14 days REVERSE, how many time is left. This tool tracks the actual battery usage and calculates the days/hours left very precise.

    In my case (with 24/7 Mail and Messenger diplay, 24/7 Heartrate sensor, NO pulseoxy and NO (GPS) activity tracked) the realistic battery runtime is not 40 days, but only 20-25 days.