Edge 130 Cold Weather Performance

I swapped my battery for a bigger one and now have 14h runtime.
Lost my warranty tough...

Would be interesting to know if the good (new or exchanged) 130's get anywhere near 15h.

I like my 130 (very much), but felt very disappointed with it's short runtime.
Much shorter (7h) then advertised and even shorter in winter (only 2 or 3h).
Glad I solved it, but I think Garmin should have done something about it.
And now, with the 130 plus, the whole charade is starting al over again.

robfischer said:

There is likely a bad run of units out there and Garmin

I agree that there's a run of bad batteries out there.  If WalterB's experience below is typical then it may even be the Chinese factory fraudulently putting smaller batteries in and hoping nobody would notice! 

WalterB said:

Would be interesting to know if the good (new or exchanged) 130's get anywhere near 15h.

I don't think Garmin ever advertised 15 hours with everything on. That was without a smartphone, any sensors or navigation. The 10 hours posted here by Garmin for the original 130 was correct for a good battery in normal use in warm weather.  And if you're not getting that, or are seeing more dramatic declines in cold weather, you probably have a duff one.

WalterB said:

with the 130 plus, the whole charade is starting al over again

The 130 Plus advertises only 12 hours despite having the much newer and more efficient chip set. The reviewers seem to agree that this is more honest because it's with all the features on, a 'typical' usage scenario rather than an 'up to'.  

For myself, I've bought a 530 instead.  This is so much better IMO if you're doing longer rides with navigation on. It's not just that battery anxiety is now a thing of the past for me with a an advertised 20 hours (or 40 in battery saver mode) that seems to be honest, it's that the feature set is so much richer and easier to use. Also, I whilst I was impressed with how good the breadcrumb navigation was on the 130, I don't think I'd go back to it now. 

My 130 is one year old and I don't use it in winter, with connected HR sensors, speed and cadence (without phone) lasts 10 hours

Hi.

Do you charge your new battery to 100%?.

factory installed battery was HV lipo which charged up to 4.35V. New one shouldn't be charged above 4.2V. I wonder if that's an issue after changing the battery.

djbahool said:

bigger (5x25x30) Li-polimer batter

Hey, where did you buy that one? I have the same issue

Ok, I got jammed again last night.  Long arduous mtb ride on snow covered trails, average of 34*F, 32* towards the end after dark.  4 hours in, with only 30 minutes left to go, my 130 died on low battery.  Not worth saving the ride with only partial data, had to have my buddy add me to his Strava ride, recorded with a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.  His battery lasts forever, with the backlight on 100% of the time!!

Anyway, here's my attempt at the lazy man's solution... I zip tied a lipstick battery pack to my stem with a short cord connecting to the 130.  Literally over 10 times the Garmin battery capacity.  I had to grind a small depression into the Garmin mount to clear the rubber port cap.  I put self adhesive foam under the battery pack so it compressed when the zip ties were tightened, seems to be very robust.  I also used the special heavy duty cold weather zip ties.  Crap ones will break in the cold.  I'm looking forward to having the backlight on high and having the 130 survive a long ride in the cold!  I'll try to report back after a ride.

Another user with unreasonable expectations Cranky K.

Upgrade to an Edge 530.  Unlike the 130, which is made for the summer club rider, the 530 was made for you. It will also be significantly smaller, lighter and safer than your Heath Robinson bodge, impressive and creative though that is! :) 

George:  No, I was lied to.  I bought a unit that was advertised to have 15 hours of battery life.  Being reasonable, I assumed in the cold I should still get more than half of that.  Nowhere in Garmin marketing did they mention I will only get 4 hours in just moderately cold weather.  32*F is not some crazy sub zero arctic ride.

For those four hours I had GPS on, following a course, but "turn by turn" off.  Backlight set to medium, and for 10 seconds only, and only the last hour was after dark.  I only have a wheel speed sensor and the handlebar remote, but I use only sparingly.  There's no time during mtb to be staring at a screen and paging through data constantly.  

I have $250 dollars wrapped up in this and it's only a year old.  I'm not rewarding Garmin for lying to me by handing them another $300.  I'd consider a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt next, but then I have a $100 worth of mounts that aren't compatible and two wheels speed sensors that "might" be compatible.

Point is, my expectations were very realistic.  I can't justify another $300 when my "bodge" is elegant enough for me.  It's mountain biking, I don't care about pretty, just functional.  It doesn't weigh that much and it is a solid mounting, shouldn't move.  As "bodges" go, you can't get much simpler.

I just finished this mod.  I haven’t done a cold weather ride yet (although it is 32F here) but I notice that on power up after a long charge it shows 2 bars on the batter indicator and then increases to 3.  At the moment I am assuming that the new battery and its capacity are not compatible with the battery life values in the Garmin software, but we will see.  Anyone else who has done this mod notice this?