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Battery life is much shorter than advertised

1766218
2 months ago

Hello,

about a month ago, I bought Edge 540 solar and have been using it during rides (15 rides ~50 km long). The first week or so I turned a blind eye to a poor battery life because I was still fiddling with it and if there were any setup processes running in the background. As of now I haven't seen almost no improvement regarding the battery life and ballpark usage is around 10%/h. To my knowledge, I'm following Garmin's “demanding” guidelines and can barely squeeze out 10h of battery life.

GPS accuracy is set to max, 3 sensors via ANT+ and dimmed auto brightness (under battery saving options only screen dimming option is turned on). With dimmed screen battery drain only dropped slightly, at best from 12%/h to 10, but estimated battery life goes from under 10h to 30/40h.

Just today I rode for 1:20 (1:50 total time), started at 16:30 and there was considerable amount of sun/I was in the open area 70-80% of the ride. Battery percentage dropped from 64 to 44% even though I didn't have preset track (no navigation/free ride). Estimated time left went from 30 to 20h.

Are there any "useless" options/settings that affect the battery a lot, which most turn off?

Is this expected battery life with my settings, or should I look into repair/replacement?

Can I view how much battery I drained during rides anywhere on PC/phone/device itself other than just remembering with what I started and finished?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

  • 0 1 month ago

    Same here - about 10% per hour.  What a disappointment.

  • 0 1 month ago
    1766218 said:
    Are there any "useless" options/settings that affect the battery a lot, which most turn off?

    My “useless” might be your essential and there are lots of discussions re battery life, especially on 1040 which has same software (different bigger battery of course but bigger screen). On my non-solar 1040 I have got battery usage for the last two years which never exceeds about 1.3% per hour (*that's 1.3 not 13 !) with achieved durations of 85-95 hours. Try minimal or 0% backlight during day, 10% night, minimise useless features requiring phone connection, manual settings rather than “battery save” mode can give better results. Up to you what you want, longer battery or useless features.

    ps I used to get more than 40 hours from my 530.

  • 0 1 month ago

    With Battery Saver disabled, my Garmin 540 was reporting about 5 hours estimated run time with 100% charge.  With Battery Saver enabled, it shot up to over 39 hours.  Every time I use it, regardless of Battery Saver setting, I get an ACTUAL battery usage of about 10% per hour drain.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 4617337

    I would suggest checking what the back light is set to. That is the biggest battery drain if it is set higher than you need.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to aweatherall

    It's set to 15 Seconds and the Display Brightness is set to AUTO.  I'll just keep turning features off hoping for improvement.

    It's already less functional than my old Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V1 that gets the same battery life but is almost 7 years old.  The Garmin 540 has a slightly larger display (but smaller fonts and lots of wasted space) and Multi-band GNSS that use more power.  The only functional improvement is the GPS accuracy so far.  Nothing else works better.  Strava Live Segments on the 540 are a total disaster.  Seems like nice hardware but the software (device firmware and all apps/utilities) is just horrible.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 4617337
    4617337 said:
    I'll just keep turning features off hoping for improvement

    If it really bothers you then you could get scientific and install something like Battery Up Down ( https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/84104c99-6ad2-4bcb-8537-8bfb6d141089 ) and measure the usage % for different settings. I generally avoid "AUTO" features as they rarely agree with "my" ideal settings, the AUTO backlight is very high (IMO) although others say it is too low, I almost always use 0% day / 10% night and my eyesight is not great? The one AUTO setting I have found works (for me) is for GPS level, AUTO SELECT seems to mostly use lowest level but goes higher in the rare times that is needed. Otherwise as @weatherall says the backlight is the number 1 drainer followed by active connection to phone, everything else is distant 3rd although I have no experience with "group" anything or hazards as I use neither. If you are still unhappy then sell the 540 and return to something else.