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235 battery life - post your experience!

Former Member
Former Member over 9 years ago
The claimed battery life of the 235 is up to 11 days with 24/7 HR on and some GPS each day. Is that what you're finding?

Post here your experience! Are you happy, and does it match expectations?

In particular, following comment by dcrainmaker in the comments section of his recent TomTom Spark review worries me:

As for the FR235, it does do HR 24×7, as well as more advanced sleep metrics. However, Garmin’s battery claims of 11 days are super-optimistic. I’m getting about 2.25-2.5 days per full charge, assuming 1hr of GPS workout time per day. So, about 25% of claimed battery life.


Of course there's a world of difference between having to recharge every week and a half and every 2-3 days!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    As well as HR, how often the backlight comes on and how much use of GPS (i.e. in timed activities) will be the major factors.


    Generally speaking, sure. But in the context of the discussion, this is true for the 230 as well. So the only major difference when comparing the battery life of the 230 and 235 is the HRM. And it seems (perhaps understandably) pretty hungry for juice, and unfortunately quite a way off what Garmin is claiming.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    So is it possible to turn it off completely and just have a 230 if you need longer battery life?
    And has anyone done that to prove that it is just the hrm?
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    With the app "battery Gauge" from Connect IQ, you can see how match battery was consumed in the last 24 hours.
    I have ~20% in 24 Hours with Activity Tracking, Smartphone notifications, and Optical HR sensor on, but WITHOUT GPS.
    And ~1,6% in 24 Hours ONLY with activity tracking. NO GPS, No Heart Rate, no Bluetooth.
    I hope I have helped you a little to have an idea about the battery.


    To go on,
    I have ~ 2,5% in 24 Hours with Activity Tracker, and Bluetooth on and connected to the phone. No Gps, No HR. I think it is very good!

    And ~ 11% in One Hour For, Running with Gps and HR, Bluetooth on and Connected, Activity Tracking. Everything On.

    And very often the light On to all these.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Custom watch face and battery life

    I was testing the watch and switched all off, no bluetooth, no heart rate monitoring, only activity tracking. I had my custom watch face (SR1) on and in 6 hours I used 4% of the power. Then I switched to the default digital watch face, same setting for the rest. After 10 hours only 1% power was used.

    I think I should re-test and also ask others, but my guess is that the watch face could have a serious impact on battery life. Anyone any ideas, can someone confirm this?
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    I took a well deserved rest day yesterday. Had HR turned off. Everything else on -BT/Notifications /back light on whenI hit a button/IQ watch face- No Frills- 25 hours later the watched had gone from 99% to 96%.
    Went for a 9 mile run- slow- over 1hour 45 minutes with HR on and IQ data field/mile time and when done. Walked several minutes and didn't turn the HR off until about 10 minutes later. Battery had dropped to 80%. Put on the charger- 35 minutes was back to 99%. To me, that is great.
    The 24 hour HR was "cute" for awhile, but after 40 years of running and over 83,000 miles not anything that I needed to know. Have known my resting HR for years, and believe it or not, listening to my body w/o gadgets has worked pretty well for me. Though I do love running w/o a HR strap, and for me, the HR charts are spot on. Maybe a little spikey, but nothing that has affected the quality of my fitness or my runs. This with over 80 miles run with the 235.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Got mine yesterday, fully charged it. Turned of smart notifications, but using 24/7 HR monitoring. Did two GPS runs (about 01h 30m together) and ever since the battery is down to about 40% in only 24 hours.

    Continuing like this it will hold a charge for only about 2 days. Far off from what specs say.

    I am using beta 3.13 (I had to since with 3.10 my HR was stuck at 66).

    best
    phil
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    I decided to turn the backlight off for alerts and for wrist turn as I was getting lousy battery life. That made a huge difference! Still kept hr and vibrate and activity tracking on. Happier now with the results. 16% lost in last 24 hours. Still not on track for 9 days though.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    SO I got my watch also last week. I wouldn't mind if I had to charge every couple of days, but it would be important for me to get through the weekend. I am charging at the office, so I don't want to have the burden to bring the USB cable everywhere.

    Anyway I charged it fully yesterday afternoon. I had NO run, nothing and I wake up to 63%. The watch had trouble finding my phone, so it was not connected. I am wondering if this is the culprit, or whether wrist tilt activated backlight while I was sleeping, but this is a bit hard to imagine.

    I hope a fix is coming soon!

    PS: running the 3.13 beta. Deactivated automatic backlight now
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    My test

    Total test duration: 6 days

    HR 24/7: on
    Light on rotation: on
    No running sessions

    Notifications on: 25% battery used by day, on a 3 days test.
    Notifications off: 15% battery used by day, on a 3 days test.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Total test duration: 6 days

    HR 24/7: on
    Light on rotation: on
    No running sessions

    Notifications on: 25% battery used by day, on a 3 days test.
    Notifications off: 15% battery used by day, on a 3 days test.


    So for the first test, after 3 days you had 25% left, and for the second, after 3 days you had 55% left? Were there any running or similar GPS activities during that time?

    Could you try turing the light on rotation off (and perhaps for alerts) and see if that makes a difference?

    Thanks!