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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 strandme
    strandme said:
    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).

    For the majority of people who buy a gps watch to actually make use of GPS, then only 1 hour of GPS in 10 days seems quite untypical usage too be honest.

    Sorry if this comes across as rude, I don't mean to be, but I know it sounds like it! But generally speaking if people barely use the watches for what they were designed for, battery life is going to be better than expected. GPS and music will always be the biggest consumers of battery.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

    All good, I understand. Normally I run about 2-3 hours a week, but I have had a small break since I had a small surgery, and could mot move to much before the stiches was removed.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    OP here. I have been getting very good battery life in line with Garmin estimates here: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=CTuaBhDD4566xreluhWFdA&productID=780139&tab=topics

    Overnight, about a 2% loss. During activity, GPS now on All Systems (which seems quite good), still 1-sec recording, and some use of 50% backlight when running in the dark and music...10-13% loss per hour.

    Though I can't be certain, I think my one-time experience with significant battery drain was related to WiFi, which I have now turned off (and did a watch reset). I read some similar posts on the 955 forum. Bluetooth on, and working great for automatic activity downloads.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    This post has been, and continues to be, a TREMENDOUS help. I'm still hesitating between the 255 and the 955 for one reason: the battery. And while the 955 has a larger capacity, the battery life doesn't seem to differ much between the 955 and the 255.

    My intention is to use the watch as little as possible in smartwatch mode (Heart Rate and steps, at most), and then go for 2-3 runs a week. About 40-50 minutes (with music).

    The doubt is that I don't like to be aware of charging these devices and, although the 955 has a higher capacity, it doesn't seem to last much longer than the 255. If anything, on a run with music, it will last longer, but the price difference is big... And I would love the watch to live for 2 weeks minimum...

    The ideal, I think, would be to activate the Power Save mode and edit it to have only steps and HR working, but I BELIEVE that this possibility, to edit the Power Modes, is only possible on the Fenix, right?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to tiku

    It's not possible to configure what "Battery saver" does on the 255.  Garmin: pay an extra bunch of money to get that software feature. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Tom Hale

    I love the (free) "Battery Graph" app for automatically estimating the time to empty and total time in the current charge cycle.  The graphs are pretty, too :)

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to GS

    I think most of the WiFi battery drain comes from a bug: turning off "Auto upload activities" under WiFi fixes most of the drain.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to strandme
    5135968 said:
    With DC Rainmaker's analyser tool

    It seems that it's a minimum of $5 to look at 3 files.  Or is there a another version / plan available?

    https://www.dcrainmaker.com/analyzer

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Tom Hale

    Can you please specify exactly where you found the setting to disable auto upload of activities on WiFi?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ovekvam

    Connectivity; WiFi; Auto Upload