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Edge 130 Cold Weather Performance

ChrisInYpsi
over 5 years ago
Today’s ride was cold - around 11 F (-12 C). My Edge 130 worked fine for the first 30 minutes and then started automatically shutting down. I could restart it (once I noticed it had shut down), and when it restarted it knew I was still in the middle of a ride, but no data was saved between shutting down and restarting. Once restarted it would collect data for a minute or so before shutting down again. After futzing with it a number of times I gave up and resorted to the Strava app on my phone which worked fine (phone was in my inside coat pocket).

Garmin’s specs list the temp range of the 130 to be -4F to 140F (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge130/EN-US/GUID-19267AC7-DD98-4F6A-9761-AF88319B338F.html), so I would expect it to work normally at the temp of today’s ride. I suppose I could ride with it in my pocket to stay warm, but that shouldn’t be necessary given Garmin’s temp specs.

Has as anyone experienced anything similar on your device? Is there anything I can do to avoid this happening again?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5230008

    The voltage of a Li-Po battery ranges from 2.7V(fully discharged) to 4.2V (fully charged).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery
    Would be nice if a device operating of a Li-Po battery would have the same operating voltage.
    Looks like the 130 stops way before the voltage drops to 3V, let alone 2.7V...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5230008

    I observed the voltage while it was charging. It charges the battery to cca 4.35V. This would be a bit too high for the standard 3.7V li-on battery, 4.2V is max for 3.7V batteries. In this garmin 3.8V battery is used, so it is OK.

    So, because of this, I would now not recommend changing it for some other standard 3.7V li-on battery.

    Still cutting out at 3.6V is still a bit unreasonable in my opinion.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5230008

    Why has Garmin been so conspicuously silent on this?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to robfischer

    Garmin contacted me (the original poster in this thread) in January of 2019 not long after the first post.  They requested I send them a folder of data from my device which I promptly provided.  I have heard nothing from them ever since.  Very disappointing.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to ChrisInYpsi

    We're all Garmin's guinea pigs?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 5230008

    In reply to 5230008:

    If we take a look at this pic, than we find that the original battery is about 20x28mm
    The code on the battery is xxx4/20/28, so it's save to presume the battery is 4mm x 20mm x 28mm.
    it's capacity is 180mAh / 3.7V

    We could try a thicker battery( 5x20x25 - 250mAh), or a bigger battery (4x25x30 - 300mAh).

    So, who's the first to pry open his 130?
    Looks like the 130 can be opened at the glass with help of a heatgun and the tip of a knife.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to ChrisInYpsi

    A more positive experience today:  Did a snowy fatbike ride in about 0 deg C weather and the 130 lasted the entire 60 mins of my ride.  In the past I’d get maybe 25 minutes in similar weather.  No idea what was different today, but this is much better than in the past.  I’ll try a longer cold ride tomorrow and hope for the best.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to ChrisInYpsi

    60 mins?

    That's a joke. Twice the time you had before, but still a joke.

    My Etrex30 lasted 28hrs outside in the freezing cold.

    Don't need 28hrs, but half of the claimed 15hrs would be nice.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to WalterB
    WalterB said:

    60 mins?

    That's a joke.

    My Etrex30 lasted 28hrs outside in the freezing cold.

    Don't need 28hrs, but half of the claimed 15hrs would be nice.

    Yes, of course 60 minutes is not normal performance at any temperature you're likely to be cycling at.  That's clearly a faulty battery. Garmin have a very good return and replace service. 

    The Extrex is twice the price of the 130 and (more importantly for many roadies) five times the weight.  You can also get the Edge 530 which is again about double the price of the 130 but less of an entry-level device and probably more suitable if you're hardcore, doing long rides in the depths of winter. Compared with a lot of winter cycling kit, there's a good chance that it still won't be the most expensive item you'll have with you!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to George

    Edge 130 has proclaimed smaller battery life then Edge 530. So I think it is in initial consideration when you'e buying a device. As well as facet that most users buy it because they want to see info from few sensors and have no need for navigation, training program, profiles etc. (which is why people buy different garmin devices.)

    But even if you buy Edge 130 with fact that you'll get 15 hours tops users are happy for getting 1/15th of that. Or 1/5th at ideal conditions (warm, dry...). And this is not isolated issue it's issue with the device design as each performs the same, which maybe reason why there is no reaction from Garmin.

    And if I get back to reasons why people buy this device one of them having info from few sensors on the screen this device is dropping ANT+ devices at least once per 1 hour ride. And again it's not an isolated issue.


    Non of these info was advertised anywhere so saying "you should have bought edge 530" is very out of place. Me personally I really wold not use any extra features of 530 and would rather have 130 for each bike (if it worked). I bought thinking that if it performs at least half as well as claimed it will be fine. Me as hundreds of other users were not right and funny enough issues with firmware update (or similar) are solved within days. But two main issues that every single device has (battery life and ANT+ signal drop) gets no reaction from Garmin.

    So tell me please is it my fault that I have not bough more expensive device or Garmin's who lie about the specs. and don't sort or at least address it (this forum is made from their initiative, so I assume they have a will to sort such problems). 

    May be they would take my device and replace  it but I would end up with device having the same problems.