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Battery Life - Real World Experience

GS
over 2 years ago

Pleasantly surprised. Though a single example so far, I used 13% battery for a 1:10 hour run (@11% per hour), with backlight (60%) and music on continually, with GPS settings All Systems + Multi Band, and 1-second recording. No Pulse Ox. So, if linear energy drain (an assumption only), then about 9 hours of use in this max energy configuration as compared to the Garmin specifications showing 6.5 hours.

I did experience an overnight drain recently, and have been trying to nail down the cause. Maybe an update? I have not been able to replicate that battery drain. I did reset the watch after that issue.

But my activity (running) usage seems to be very impressive.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to GS

    I used to find that if an activity was uploaded via WIFI rather than via BT / Connect then I would get post activity battery drain which needed a device restart to resolve.

    Unexpected battery drain when the device is doing nothing in particular seems to be an issue Garmin have never got a handle on.  Having said that my 255 seems better behaved than my 6 Pro in that regard.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Just want to note 1 sec recording doesn’t impact battery. Only the size of the file that’s saved. “Smart” was introduced in the early days to make activity file sizes smaller due to storage limitations on the watches at the time.  

    If anything, “smart” might use a minuscule amount of extra battery because it has to work out which points to save and which to discard while you’re running. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to darrencroton

    Not so sure about that. Under Maximizing Battery Life in the 255 manual, it suggests "Select the Smart recording interval".

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

    I have just done 3 hours 40 minutes indoor ride, consisting of a 2 hour 40 minute Daily Recommended Workout + an extra hour.

    Battery is now at 21% so the above probably used around 1 to 1.5% per hour with 3 sensors connected via ANT - 1 Polar H9 + power meter + Wahoo Kickr. 

    So I'm likely to be recharging on Tuesday which will take me up to 9 days since the last charge. Happy with that.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

    That's really low usage IMO...1.5% per hour. I was more like 11%/hour but that was with music, backlight and multi-band GPS. Actually run today without music wasn't so different. Backlight and GPS multiband must really drain battery at high rates.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Another weird battery 'feature' or maybe bug....watch charges very fast. 50% in 30 min. Seems super fast to me, which might indicate battery capacity is less than normal or watch not charging completely. Does anyone else see this kind of fast charging?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to GS
    GS said:
    That's really low usage IMO...

    Too be honest, I just guesstimated it with before and after battery % but I wasn't far out...

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

    How are you measuring this usage (app)?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to GS

    With DC Rainmaker's analyser tool

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    10 days since last charge, Done 2 x 30 min run with GPS all settings, and i have 40% left (estimated 6 days according the watch).