Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

VA3 - 6.20 - Battery drain when turned off?

KuluKulu
over 4 years ago

I don't use the VA3 all the time and tend to turn it off when it's not in use, lately when I fully charge the watch it will then loose 30% overnight in the off state.

Has anyone else experienced this? I have done factory resets and it makes no difference.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I'm getting terrible battery performance with this new firmware.  Used to last 4 days, but now struggling to do even that.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I confirm the battery drain when VA3 is off.
    I turned off VA3 with far more than 50% (next to 70%) and when I try turning on my VA3 (the day after) It was very next to 0% and self-powered off.

    I had to full charge my VA3.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Minnoce

    Thank's for confirming that it's not just mine, I'm starting to get pretty sick of the endless bugs that crop up with every firmware release! I suppose the solution for now is to just leave the watch powered on regardless.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I get 8 days if I don't do any GPS activities with the VA3.

    Bluetooth and Notifications with light vibration for almost all smartphone apps enabled, no HR on the standard screen, DND during the night 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I use my VA3 all the time and used to get 5 1/2 + days usage from a full battery recharge (w/o using gps). The least 10 days or so I am getting a mere 2 days with no change in the way I use my VA3. I also am on Firmware 6.20. I contacted Garmin and they told me I am out of warrart re a "repair" (17 months ownership) and that a "repair" would cost me $99.00. I am guessing that's garmin speak for some kind of replacement.

    But as the degradation was so sudden I feel it is most likely a software change that has caused this massive and sudden degradation. Not sure how we can get Garmin's attention on this.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 4409741

    As mentioned in the other thread, my suggestion is for you to explain to your local Garmin support that this has started since 6.20 software update and has nothing to do with the hardware (warranty only covers hardware defects). 

    Replacement should only be an option if it is confirmed that is a hardware issue. Getting 5 days of battery life to just 12 hours is completely not acceptable and has only started recently with the software update. 

    It is funny that 6.20 was supposed to fix "rapid battery drain " but ended up causing it to a number of users. 

    If you receive push back from your local Garmin support, point them to these threads and explain that this is a systemic issue affecting other VA3 users as well. Common denominator is the software 6.20 and insist them to open a complaint ticket so that Garmin Engineering team can look into it.

    Solution for the next software update may not come so soon but at least they can investigate the contents of your watch to see if the same bug is also causing the rapid battery drain.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Same here. I just got my VA3. I only turn it on when I run. When not running I turn it off to save battery life (or so I thought). It had 70% battery life when I turned it off. When I turned it back on the next day it was 30%. I thought it was deffective but based on all the comments I guess not.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Gail71

    I love my VA3 and above all it has much better battery life than other smart watches.

    That said their are some battery issues which persist. My first VA3 gave me 6 days of life wearing it 24 hours a day every day. after about 15 months the battery life slipped to only 24 hours. After discussions and following Garmin support directions they eventually decided to give me a renewed VA3. Again it gave 6 days of battery life. This worked fine for 8 months until suddenly the battery lost it's charge after around 3 days of usage. Hmm. Not bad enough to engage with support again, but a little disappointing. First watch was on firmware 6.20 latest is on 7.20

    I will eventually upgrade to one of their top of the line models which give 14+ days of battery life amongst other improvements... B U T I am hanging on to see when and if Garmin announce they have found the hardware/software battery issue. I don't want to drop $600 ish and find battery life drops from 14 days to say 6.

    Gail I suggest you call Garmin Support. They were very pleasant and helpful with me. They did walk through resets etc. which I was totally fine with and monitored whether the fault went away or not. Apparently full resets do work many times.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've been having significant battery drain on my VA3M while turned off. Deleting WiFi connection helped a lot, but switching the watch not via the menu but using the long button press (about 10 seconds) deals with the problem completely. Try these 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I do the same thing - turn it off when I'm not using it. And I've found that inconsistently, it will drain a tremendous amount of battery while powered off. But I think I have found a solution to this. It is annoying, but works - before I turn the device off, I disable the phone connection from the same screen. I turn the watch back on the next day, and I still have tons of battery. I hope this is a helpful clue for the Garmin people when they work through patching the next release.