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Is Garmin working on the sudden battery drain issues? Or is it expected when new?

LaurenceGough
over 3 years ago

Hi all,

On both firmware v16 and v16.43 I've had sudden battery drain during non activity use (no GPS). Last night I went to sleep with around 65% battery and woke up to 5%!!! Within 30 minutes it was down to 1% battery. For information I do not use pulse O2 readings.

I put it on charge before it turned off and took it off charge at around 22%, I restarted it and it was still around 22% - seemed stable after the reboot, I checked a few hours later and it was at 31%! It had gone up further...

I had the exact same issues with my previous Instinct Solar which was replaced due to a faulty bezel and on that I never tried anything other than stable V16.

When I got both watches I updated them to the latest software, then performed a master reset to be on the safe side after the update and slow charged to 100% in attempt to avoid exactly what I am seeing as I did read some reports of this issue on these forums. There was a post on this very forum yesterday but it appears to have been deleted???

What's going on? It seems really unstable. Is this issue to be expected when the watch is within its first couple of weeks? In both cases the watch already had a couple of days and nights of normal use.

  • +1 over 3 years ago

    I am sorry you are having an issue.

    If you are experiencing a fast battery drain issue, please note - it is not normal behavior. If taking into account the bigger picture of how many Instinct series watches across all models that are on the same version of software and are in use worldwide that experience a fast battery drain issue, it is incredibly rare.

    Please review this Support Center article:

    - How to Improve My Garmin Instinct Solar Series Battery Life

    If you continue to experience a fast battery drain issue, please reach out to Outdoor Product Support for your region.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris
    Garmin - Chris said:
    fast battery drain issue, it is incredibly rare.
    LaurenceGough said:
    I had the exact same issues with my previous Instinct Solar which was replaced due to a faulty bezel and on that I never tried anything other than stable V16.

    Let's stay with the Instinct :
    I have written to the beta team. However, I have not received any feedback. However, from your statement it is obvious that this problem is not being investigated ?



  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Bluefish, what happend to your post on the battery drain in this instinct forum? It disappeared? Unless my phone is playing up.

    Thanks

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to LaurenceGough

    It was deleted by Garmin

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    In this case clearly it is not normal battery drain so that article is just general battery related information, which I happen to follow anyway using things like 5% backlight for 4 seconds, no backlight during the day, no pulse ox use etc.

    I was hoping to see if anyone could confirm if this is either normal behaviour for a new watch during the first few weeks and/or if others are having trouble still with random battery drain. Bearing in mind I've had this on two different watches and both after full master resets.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to LaurenceGough

    No. it is not normal behavior on a new watch. When basic troubleshooting does not resolve it, Product Support needs to be contacted.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    Great, 2nd watch down then. I thought I was going to have luck with Garmin watches. The heart rate sensor works very well at least. What a shame. The chances of having this battery drain issue on both makes me think it's a software and not a hardware issue. Yes, I could just put it on charge when it happens but not only is it a pain but what happens if I was in the middle of nowhere during a trip...

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Did they give you a reason why? 2nd reply to yours as my first appears to have been deleted also ..

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to LaurenceGough

    The main reason a post gets deleted is the content is discussing another unrelated product that is not within the same conversation of the device being discussed. There is different software across each series.

    Most customers seek help using search engines. When we have forum users voting down our official responses that removes our responses from coming up when searched, it is not helpful and is taking away from other customers trying to get a quick answer.

  • +1 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    EDITED 12/22/2021:

    If your battery drain issue began before you went to the v16.43 Beta software, or continues if you rollback your software to the official version 16.00 software, you are welcome to reach out to Outdoor Product Support in your region to exchange your watch.