Garmin Edge Explore battery life

During navigation simply switch to another data screen. The navigation still goes on in the background and you will get navigation prompts superimposed on the screen you're currently on, without the need to switch back to map (which indeed might make some impact on battery).

I had mine for about 18 months and the battery life was terrible, 3hrs life and that was it! Eventually had a reply from garmin uk who told me to post it back to them for an exchange. Had it for a couple of weeks now and used it this morning, 1hrs 30mins and 8% battery life used.

It does look like a brand new one to be fair. Hope you get it sorted as it's a great device. My old Edge 800 is still going stong.

Thanks!
Haven’t gone for a long ride since, but will definitely try this out next time ...

Longest battery life is:

No sensors. Speed/cadence ect

Auto sleep enabled

Lowest brightness for screen

Battery save mode on

This will give you close to the 12 hours quoted for a few months and then i will start goign down to 8ish. But lots of peeps have problems with the battery no matter what they do

Well you might aa well just turn it off then! Apart from the battery issues I thought it was a great device for the money.

In the forum of a Dutch GPS-shop I found a possible solution for this problem:

They have now been able to solve it for several customers by resetting the device after it was completely empty.
Make sure your device is completely empty, so really until it switches off.

Then connect to the charger and simultaneously press and hold the start / stop and lap button (the 2 on the front).
You will then see the Garmin logo and then a white screen. When you see the white screen, you can release the 2 buttons.

The device is then reset and knows the 'zero' point of the battery.
You have to set it back to Dutch, etc.
Then really leave it on the charger for about 6 hours until the battery is 100% full.

Beware: you loose your settings. Make a backup.

Thanks but I sent it back to Garmin and paid the extra for the 830, smaller screen but the battery life is much better, 6hrs riding at the weekend and used 19% of the battery. Still use my 800 though and I've got a new unused one still in the box!

Thank you for sharing this - I tried the above mentioned procedure. Went out yesterday for a 1st ride after the reset. After 3 hours I still had 70% of battery left. So looks like the suggested solution is working!  I hope to go out for a longer ride somewhere in the coming weeks - will keep you updated about the outcome.

Many thanks !!

Hmmm interesting.... wished I heard of that earlier :). Returned my device after having tried several settings, and recently bought another one (unfortunately for a higher amount but with additional extra warranty to be sure). Seemed to last longer initally. However.... did a 3,5 hour ride last Sunday starting with fully charged battery and had to switch to energy saving mode at the end of the ride (cadence & heart sensor coupled, brightness @30%). When do I know my battery is fully empty? Until it won't switch on anymore?

I left my device on until it switched off. Switched it on again (couple of times I think) until it switches off again after seconds during the startup of the device. Plugged-in battery and then did a hard reset. (Didn't work the first time if I remember well - when you have to select the basic settings as language etc the reset normally has been done successfully).

I went out for an almost 3h ride this morning and had 75% battery left. But with optimal battery settings (battery savings mode, backlight off or shortest possible period, map in night modus (don't know if that matters?), no sensors connected, ...)