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EXCELENT Battery Life - VA3

dddbbb9
over 6 years ago

Hello! I would like to post my recommendations on how to use Vivoactive 3 so that it gives you maximum battery life. (Firmware 6.2 or 6.3)

My watch consumes about 0.3 - 0.45 %/hr on daytime and 0.2 - 0.3 %/hr on night-time. On average it lasts about 7-8 days. Even longer if I don't use at all any activities (running, walking ...).

1. Don't use AUTO ACTIVITY START (check in watch setting!)

2. Use a watchface that doesn't  have secconds (digital or analog) - if you can, disable the seconds (hand or numbers) in the watchface settings. I use ANALOG SWITCH - watchface and I have disabled allmost anything in the watchface settings --->>>

3. Keep the watch for about 30 min longer charging after it reached 100%

4. Restart the watch - at times.

THIS IS MY USAGE WITHOUT GPS (walking, running, cycling etc.). With GPS the usage is high - my watch lasts about 2-3 days. Slight smile - or lower

 * Remaining ~18.8d displayed here will eventualy get lower in time and it will show you the real estimate. (I use BETTERY WIDGET)

  • 0 over 6 years ago
    dddbbb9 said:
    3. This the most important! - always keep the watch for about 30 min longer charging after it reached 100%

    Wrong. Totaly wrong.

    Lithium rechargeables are full, when they are full. 100% is 100%. This is no NiMh! In fact it is best to stop charging around 90%, the lithium cell ages a lot from 90-100% and drops it percentages very fast from 100%-90%.

  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to MB201

    What I have wrote is from my experience with my watch and I have found out that this is the optimum way. I have tried all sorts of things Slight smile.

  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to dddbbb9

    What MB201 writes is technically correct about Lithium batteries vs NiCads.  What dddbbb9 is seeing is very possible and can vary between devices.  if the battery is truly at 100% then it can't take any more and keeping on the charger won't do any good.  But when the watch says it is at 100% we assume the battery is truly full. Is it really?  Consumer electronics device battery gauge software is notoriously bad.  Detecting actually battery state simply by voltage profile in software is very hard to get exactly right.  The difference between 90% and 100% is so small, the batteries vary by more than that, and the inexpensive electronics is just not that accurate.  So when it says 100% it may not be.  My VA3 charges to 95% at a reasonable rate, then gets real slow for the last 5%.  It can take 30 minutes to go from 95 to 100%.  Does everyone else's have the same charging profile?  I doubt it.  For grins I'm going to give this idea a try and see if I get a little more charge in the watch.  It may work on some and not on others.

    BTW - I used to develop digital cameras.  I've got a lot of experience in battery state detection. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago in reply to mtsarpilot

    They taper off the charge rate intentionally in the last few percent as this is where all of battery aging occurs.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago

    I'm getting 1.2% usage per hour at the moment

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago

    Thank you for sharing this. 

    However, this still doesn't doesn't apply to some of us (myself included) - we were getting 5-7 days of battery life (without GPS use) and 2-3 days (with GPS use) prior to software version 6.20. 

    I have removed all 3rd party watch faces/widgets/field, using only stock Garmin watch face, reset the watch to default factory settings,  turned off everything (Bluetooth, Wrist HR, Activity tracking), and rapid battery drain issue still persists.

    Yesterday, I fully charged my VA3 to 100% around 11 pm last night, this morning when I woke up at 6 am, charge level was at 45%. 

    Below is the latest official reply from Garmin - they are still investigating the issue.

  • 0 over 6 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Ive had the same issue since Friday 5/31.  Used to get 5-7 days without GPS, 2-3 with.  I thought 6.30 would take care of the issue, but it did not, even though the changelog references "battery drain issue".  I hit up support today on chat.  they wanted to send me a replacement, but I dont think its hardware related.  They had be zip up the /GARMIN directory on my VA3 and email it to them for investigation.  No more news.  I hope a software fix comes soon.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago in reply to Former Member

    The recommendation given to me by support was to turn off Bluetooth, Notifications, Wrist-based Heart Rate Monitor and transmission of heart rate data!  That would make having this as a smartwatch kind of pointless.

  • 0 over 6 years ago

    Please post here your methods of prolonging your battery life.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago in reply to dddbbb9

    Use a different smart watch with less bugs in the software?

    Never let a software update happen if your current version of the software is acceptable.

    Turn the watch off

    Send the watch back for replacement under warranty as support had been suggesting - This won't necessarily prolong the battery life, but whilst it's away for a couple of week you won't actually know!

    My apologies for the sarcasm, but you should just be able to use it as a smart watch with reasonable battery life without having to follow lots of procedures to get that battery life.