Battery lasting <24 hours

No
Mine is down 38% in 88h with backlight off, no gps and some gym, so should last 8+ days without gps

No, it's definitely not the expected battery life. I charged my VA3 to 100% last night, turned off Bluetooth and just completed an hour long strength training workout myself. I'm 3 hours behind you, (it's 9AM), and I'm at 91%. Are you using an IQ watch face? It's possible an IQ app/widget you may have downloaded isn't playing nicely and running in the background causing the extreme battery drain. You can remove IQ apps/widgets one at a time and test to see if one of them is the culprit. If that doesn't help, I would exchange my watch because you may have a faulty battery. Because of the actions you've already taken, I believe what I have mentioned would be the only cause of your problem.

Are you using an IQ watch face? It's possible an IQ app/widget you may have downloaded isn't playing nicely and running in the background causing the extreme battery drain. You can remove IQ apps/widgets one at a time and test to see if one of them is the culprit.

I'm running the SC8 IQ watch face which I love. I will turn it off to see if it could be causing the battery drain in the meantime. Thanks for the helpful suggestion.

That's horrible battery life. I like to charge my watch every night (just habit), then put it on to sleep. By the end of the next day, I'll have 90+%. If I do a 2 hour ride with HR transmitted to my 510, it will drain maybe another 3 or 4 percent. I don't typically use the watch's GPS, so my battery life will vary from those who do.

Went to sleep at 50%. Woke up at 7%. Two days of charge total, with just one hour-long workout. Can a firmware update fix this?

I charged mine at 8am it is now 11:15am and the battery is down to 86% - no gps, just notifications and some 'playing' with the watch. Not I was expecting and quite honestly unacceptable. I am hoping it will 'settle' in in a few days, or it will go back.

Had the same on the first day but after a reboot and a recharge to 100% it's at 20% after five and a half days. No gps use yet but I have played with it a lot. Very happy with about a week of battery. My VAHR used to last 7-9 days without gps.

Just bought mine 12 days ago. First 10 days were awesome. running with GPS about 35 min per day, my battery needs recharging after 4 days. Since yesterday, the battery is running almost 90% per day... I didn't change anything. I contacted Garmin Support and they asked me to delete some folder in my watch (with the USB cable) to see if it was some Connected IQ apps. I don't think that's the problem but I did it anyway.

We recommend any users experiencing excessive battery drain perform a hard reset on the device (hold power button until vivoactive 3 powers down) to help remedy this. We are actively investigating this issue for a permanent solution.

Mine used to be fine but now, like other reports, drains completely in a day, I thought it coincided with the version 2.50 software update.I did download a watch face but have gone back to the standard one in case.