Edge 130 Cold Weather Performance

So much for keeping a positive outlook...

Ride today in similar weather as yesterday (~0 deg C). The 130 shut down after 21 minutes. It wouldn’t stay on for a minute or so after restarting. Yadda, yadda, yadda. 

I’m relegating the 130 to a 3 seasons MTB unit and will use my 1030 for all winter rides. 

Unless Garmin fixes this I would NOT recommend the 130 to anyone who wants to use it in the winter. 

I didn't say it was your fault.  There appear, however, to be two problems here, which is confusing a lot of people. 

Firstly, some people have a dodgy battery.  If your battery life is only one hour  as you claim, or 21 minutes on a cold day as ChrisInYpsi reports, then you clearly have a faulty unit and it should be returned to Garmin.  If you're resisting that because you think your experience is the same as everybody else's and that all the devices are the same, then you do have yourself to blame as that's not true. I am getting near the 10 hours on a warm day with navigation on and 2 ANT+ devices connected, which is as expected by Garmin, and about half that in the cold - not great but nowhere near as bad as you're reporting. 

Seondly, yes there is also a design/marketing honesty fault.  IMO the screen resolution is too big for the battery leading to disappointing performance. In addition, there may also be technical errors that may or may not be fixable in the firmware (the incorrect battery voltage reported below is an example).  We don't know, however, if that is set like that because of a different design fault and if the problem is fixable at all in the firmware, which is one possible explanation for the delay, another being that Garmin have still not successfully identified the problem let alone the fix.  Either way Garmin are often not very quick at doing firmware fixes (18 months so far on this one).  So, your choice is either to wait somewhere between a long time and forever... or to get a different device - either from Garmin or another supplier.  Again, it's not your fault but that's the reality. 

1 hour, or 21 mins, that is not normal.
Garmin used too small a battery, or used bad batteries, or both.
I feel lucky because my unit works fine, more or less.
I don't get 15hrs, not even in summer, but battery life is enough for a daytrip.
I live in a region where winter is short and the temperatures are already around 20C, so I'm not that affected by this temperature thing.
So I feel lucky.
But I shouldn't.
I'm screwed.
These devices are not up to specs, not even under good circumstances, not even with a perfect battery.
Mine just isn't as bad as some others.

I now use my Etrex (again) during the few cold rides this winter.
My 130 died after 3 1/2 hrs and it was'nt freezing, just cold. Had to find my way home without navigation. Luckily I'd been there before...
I've bought the 130 for my normal rides where I don't need topomaps.
For those rides in familiar terrain, just for recording data, and for simple rides where 'follow the line' is good enough.
And because I don't want a brick on my handlebars all the time.
So I like the 130 (and with fw3.60 most of the flaws are solved).
And at least in 3 out of 4 seasons I'll have a nice device...

Report from "lucky" user from finland. Couple rides done @-5c to 0c: after 3.5h still 2 battery indicator bars left. (2 sensors, GPS+GLONASS, phone connected). 130 purchased this year

This year, as in 2020?
You make a lot of people jealous...

Ok, I'm new here.  Bought my Edge 130 late December 2019.  Early rides weren't that cold, mid 40's mountain biking, using the remote and a speed sensor.  Always using live segments or GPS with turn prompts.  The 130 lasted easily through rides over three hours long.  Then I had a colder ride...

Low 30's for most of the ride, the last hour was right around 30.  About 1.5 hours of the ride after sunset.  Backlight set to "HIgh", on for 30 seconds, only on "After Sunset".  Sounds turned off.  Using GPS to follow a route, with turn prompts, backlight coming on maybe once every 10 minutes.

Died on low battery a little before 3 hours.  I tried restarting to be sure, died within a minute.  Once back indoors in the warm the battery came back up.  Took about 2 hours for full charge on a fast wall charger.  (I've later read Garmin prefers a slower charge on computer, which I know is better for the battery.)

I will be riding again this weekend in high 20's to low 30's, but it will be all daylight.  For mountain biking, the turn prompts are random and pretty much useless, I was just playing with my new toy.  Now that I know battery is an issue, I have set to 10 seconds of backlight, only after sunset (as before), turned off turn prompts.  I will keep on charge in truck on way to ride to have 100% topped off.  Will pair with Garmin Connect while still on charge to preserve battery.  Do need GPS for the ride.

Too many words, but here is an issue I've not seen discussed yet... The backlight comes on, day or night, if I use the remote.  If I use the 130 buttons, it only comes on after sunset as set.  But with the remote, it comes on day or night.  At least now I have it set to 10 seconds.

Oh, software version 3.60

I will report back after this weekend.

Ok, I rode yesterday, low 30's F, but Edge 130 reported higher temp as it was warm from being in cab of truck for drive to ride location.  I'll bullet this to be less wordy:

• Total ride time 3:23
• Edge 130 reported temps:  37*F avg, 41*F high, 34*F low
• Fully charged from computer USB to facilitate slower and more complete charging.  Left on charge for two hours after it showed fully charged.
• Put back on charge in vehicle on typical power outlet for drive over to ride location.
• GPS on for ride, but not following course/route.
• Speed sensor and remote, but didn't use remote since that ALWAYS turns on the backlight.
• No other sensors.
• Daylight ride, backlight should not have come on at all.
• Strava segments active.
• Dropped from 5 bars of battery to 3 bars at end of ride.
• When warm in house hours later, battery recovered to 4 bars.

Way better battery performance than my last ride that had substantial backlight usage.  The backlight, in combination with the cold, seems to be the battery killer.

If I do another night ride I'll again report back with performance with backlight set to "Medium", 10 seconds on, after sunset only.  Hopefully Garmin will fix the backlight always coming on when using the remote, as the remote is very useful when mountain biking which requires both hands on the grips most of the time.

Update-

Last week I called again and talked to Tech Support. The guy talked to was super helpful and thorough. Once we went through all the trouble shooting and history, he agreed to exchange it. 

One note- when I told him about this and other threads on the forum, you looked into the warranty history of this problem. Only six warranty claims showed up in the system for the edge 130 for this problem. I asked him if it needed to be covered under warranty to be logged in the system. He didn’t think so, just that someone would need to call in and inquire about covering this under warranty. He said most of the claims were in Europe and I was one of two claims in the US. This problem isn’t on their radar per se. He said if enough people call Lynn and they see a pattern they will investigate and possibly come up with a solution.

I’ve now done two rides with the new Edge 130 that they sent me. Both rides were sub freezing (21 to 32°F ) temperatures and more than three hours long. It worked flawlessly. When I finished, it still had 3/4 charge. Firmware on it is 3.60

Great info robfischer.

I hope that many of the people who come on hear to complain, realise that they're moaning at fellow users rather than Garmin (who don't seem to read this forum much).  TGarmin support is the best place to get support. That's also the best way to get change for future users too. The forum's for helping out other users, as you've done. 

I don't know if this is South America specific. But here in Europe I don't know about Garmin specific place/shop.
When I gave the device to seller he sent it to Garmin specific service and it was returned, because they were not able to replicate the problem what's more they said that lower battery performance than claimed is normal.

I'm sure if it was shutting off after a minute in room temp they would replace it but because it runs for 4 hour in room temp nobody sees a problem. This is not issue where it is clear it's broken.