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Battery life?

delingren
over 1 year ago

I have a 735XT from 2018. When new, the battery would last 12+ hours while tracking. Now it's more like 7-8 hours, if that. Is this more or less aligned with everyone else's experience? While 7-8 hours is fine for most of my activities, it's not enough for some long trail runs and ski mountaineering activities. In fact, yesterday, it started giving low battery warning only 4 hours into a 10 hour run, probably due to that it was cold in the morning and the signal was weak in the trees. It's really annoying to have to bring a battery pack and charge it along the way.

My watch has been in relatively heavy use though. I run 3500 miles a year, do a lot of backcountry skiing, and bike a little bit too. I understand if that's to be expected for a watch 4 years old. I know lithium batteries don't last forever. If that's the case and I'm to get a new watch, which one would give me the best battery life, assuming battery life is my most critical criterion? Thanks.

  • +1 over 1 year ago

    You mean long-term battery life, like how many years will the battery last before losing performance? Or short-term battery life, i.e. how many hours of activity will a single charge give you?

    If money is not an issue then check out the Enduro 2.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I have bought mine in 2019, use it for sports daily and so far I do not see any decrease in battery life. Before I had FR220 and after 5 years I noticed a great difference, almost like a half, of a battery life. Hope this helps. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to pavel.dostal

    Thanks. It feels like there’s a sheer cliff that it suddenly dropped off. I guess it’s time to get a new watch Slight smile

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to tmk2

    Wow, it’s impressive! Both battery life and price tag Joy 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I bought mine in 2018. The battery life decreased. Yesterday I ran 5k. Started with 98%. During three minutes at the starting line it went down to 96. Finished after 28:18 minutes, waited three minutes for recovery HR, 83% left. 50 minutes after finishing the level was back to 91%. I don't know how it will be in winter. Last winter I had a "recharge" of 20% and more... Glad I don't run a marathon, only half marathon... But I think I'll use my new FR245 I bought yesterday. The FR735 has a lot of glitches meanwhile. Lost connection to the HRM Pro during a run without any reason, slow sync etc.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Carmen_F

    Another interesting observation: it not only decreased, but also became inconsistent. I went out for a 8 miler for a bit over an hour two nights ago when it was a little chilly and windy and it consumed more than half of the battery. The next day, I did 3 legs of a Ragnar, totaling about 2 hours and it only consumed roughly 35%. The weather was mild during the Ragnar. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to delingren

    Yes, temperature has a big impact. Since at least two winters I noticed that. And that strange "recharge" after the activity. I remember a firmware update for a temperature problem but it didn't change the strange temperature behavior. Obviously the whole software had problems. Sometimes I let the battery went down to 5%. It stayed there for a half day and longer!

    This was new in FW 9.40: 

    • Reduced the likelihood of the watch shutting down prematurely in very cold weather.
  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Carmen_F

    I would not much care about actual battery % during an activity. My experience is that after power consumption decreses, ie. some time after the activity with deactivated gps or light, battery % increase many points. Look at numbers before activity and some time after it. Also analyse every lost % during activity is not correct. It is not linear for some reasons. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to pavel.dostal

    Yes, that is what my FR735 does. Glad I don't run a marathon, only a half marathon. Otherwise the watch might shut down due to low battery (percentage). Since one week I have a FR245 (because of that and other things), without that behavior. Only thing I notice is a short dropout and reconnect from HRM Pro every run although the battery is still fine.