GPS Battery life: No way 13 hours!

With the exception of one run, I posted total hours which provides the key information deemed to be USEFUL. But below, I have re-posted the events with the pace detail inBOLD. The advertised claim for the VA3 is 13hours (w/GPS & HR). I'm seeing less than 5hr with everything turned except GPS & HR. My FR630 yielded 10% for 1h20m or roughly a 10 mile run. The VA3 is consuming ~28% for the same.
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Cliftonmiller: I apologize, did not see hours of gps used -- thanks for bold!

looks like your battery consumption is (at best) half as good as advertised. Basically, Garmin claims approx. 7.7% loss per 1 hour of gps. From what I see, your best result was 14% battery loss for 1.3 hrs. of gps use, but other runs were much worse.

I am too new with VA3 and have been getting weird results. Either using 8% over course of 12 hours (not good) or 2% overnight (I can live with)

comparing apples-oranges:
My old VA consistently uses 10%/hr for gps activities. With normal everyday use (bluetooth, notifications, alarm, occasional use of backlight, etc), it only uses about 5%/day -- which is great.

If I have time, I will call Garmin today and ask them directly what settings I need to get 13 hrs of gps use.

If you're averaging 8% during a 12 hr period and 2% during sleep you're getting 10% over a 20-24 hr period? That's 8-10 days without GPS. Those numbers are great.

If I have time, I will call Garmin today and ask them directly what settings I need to get 13 hrs of gps use.

Can you post back what they tell you or if they acknowledged it and are working on a fix?
Thanks

godolphins - No biggy, adding in pace per run helps to be a little more detailed vs. the total time approach I presented.

My observations, albeit not really scientific, gave me enough of a gauge to conclude that the VA3 is only good for ~5hrs GPS/HR. That leaves me not willing to trust the VA3 for extended solid state running 20, 26.2 or 50K. Some would say I should move to the 935 or FX5 for the better battery life, but therein lies 3 rubs:

1.) The 935/FX5 are geared for a different market segment at twice the price
2.) Garmin has yet to release the successor in the Forerunner series, i.e., the FR245/645 - the "middle ground"
3.) Garmin advertised the VA3 with "up to 13hrs" battery GPS & HRM - FALSE

The VA3 is a bit of a compromise watch in that it is multi-sport watch that is broad category, but limited depth in each function. Accurately advertising it as "Up to 6hrs" and one could recognize it to be more of a general enthusiast watch and compromise or not. However, overstating the battery life and eliminating the Forerunner offerings, Garmin expanded the target market to include would be Forerunner buyers (like me) who at a minimum count on the battery life.

In short, yes, I'm butt hurt and should get over it, but I feel duped.

Stepping off my soap box, I would be very interested to know what you ( godolphins ) hear form Garmin on the optimum settings for ~13hrs. Please let us know!!

Ok, so I HAD to call Garmin b/c I did a lunch swim and had an issue (see below**).

While I had Garmin on the phone, I asked what settings I needed to get 13 hrs of gps/hr recording. She referred me to the manual, which basically says:

Reduce the backlight timeout

• Reduce the backlight brightness
  
• Turn off Bluetooth[SUP]®
[/SUP] wireless technology when you are not using connected features

• Turn off activity tracking
  
• Limit the smartphone notifications the device displays
  
• Stop broadcasting heart rate data to paired Garmin[SUP]®
[/SUP] devices

• Turn off wrist-based heart rate monitoring
  

So, sorry, I think these are not new ideas...

** issue today -- after swim, watch went into a never-ending "saving" spiral screen. I turned off watch (held button down for 20 secs). When I turned on watch, it recorded the swim and transferred to app. HOWEVER, I set pool size to 25y and watch transferred data to phone in meters. So, instead of 1700y (what I actually swam), it shows up in garmin connect as 1875y (the near equiv. of 1700m). very weird.

my experience with battery life after first week, i wanna say it seem that the actually battery % readings are off itself. Battery lasted 4.5 days with 3 GPS activity(about 6h worth) and couple of gym 1h stints. Brightness at 30% and i keep autolock on and no sideswype. However i fully recharged the battery to 100%..took it off and 2h later it was 88% ( i though really?) went to sleep wake up 87% whole day passed(bout 10000 steps) and 12h later at 82% gone to gym when i connected HRM strap did 5k run, 20min on row machine and some free weights. When i get home the battery is at 79%! so it took 9% on busy day but now 24 later its at 67% so 12% on rest day when i virtually did nothing! this is too much inconsistency regarding the battery readings, i think its just not showing the real charge at all...so i ignore it :)

Ok, so I HAD to call Garmin b/c I did a lunch swim and had an issue (see below**).

While I had Garmin on the phone, I asked what settings I needed to get 13 hrs of gps/hr recording. She referred me to the manual, which basically says:

Reduce the backlight timeout

• Reduce the backlight brightness
  
• Turn off Bluetooth[SUP]®
[/SUP] wireless technology when you are not using connected features

• Turn off activity tracking
  
• Limit the smartphone notifications the device displays
  
• Stop broadcasting heart rate data to paired Garmin[SUP]®
[/SUP] devices

• Turn off wrist-based heart rate monitoring
  

So, sorry, I think these are not new ideas...

** issue today -- after swim, watch went into a never-ending "saving" spiral screen. I turned off watch (held button down for 20 secs). When I turned on watch, it recorded the swim and transferred to app. HOWEVER, I set pool size to 25y and watch transferred data to phone in meters. So, instead of 1700y (what I actually swam), it shows up in garmin connect as 1875y (the near equiv. of 1700m). very weird.

So basically you may as well just carry a GPS with you.. what is the point if you can't use the HRM?

If you want to have consistent 13 hrs with GPS, you should have bought a 935 or something in the f5 family (or a non wearable Garmin). This is the 3rd generation of the va I've had, and without "charge on the go", I think anything more than 8hrs with GPS is a bonus.

the va3 is basically a mid range device.

So basically you may as well just carry a GPS with you.. what is the point if you can't use the HRM?

I'm sure Garmin's advertised GPS hours were based on using GPS only. Should users want to use GPS with HR monitoring, Bluetooth, paired sensors, etc., that's their choice, but the battery is going to drain that much faster. They never advertised "X" number of GPS hrs while using other features. It's not any different then a car manufactory stating highway miles per gallon. If it says 22 mpg hwy, you can bet you won't get that if travelling hills with the AC on. It seems misleading, but it's not false advertisement if they can do it under controlled conditions. Will any of us charge our VA3's to 100% turn off everything except GPS and lie the watch down without movement? Of course not, but I'm guessing if we were to do so, we may come close to that 13 hrs.

It's not any different then a car manufactory stating highway miles per gallon. If it says 22 mpg hwy, you can bet you won't get that if travelling hills with the AC on. It seems misleading, but it's not false advertisement if they can do it under controlled conditions. .

Huh? If car mftr says 22 mpg hwy, you will get it with all normal conditions -- such as driving speed limit and not towing motorhome. If Garmin says 13 hrs. gps, you should get with normal use and I would say use of HR for a watch whose MAIN FEATURE is oHR would be normal condition. I would agree that broadcasting HR would not be normal (and would expect battery drain).

All said and done, I agree with NancyJocoy above -- we should get at least 10 hrs of gps WITH HR