Garmin Edge Battery Q

I have an Edge 530, as does my wife. They’re on the same software version and, as far as I can see, have the same settings applied. But, the battery in mine lasts way longer. It seems like the battery in my wife’s unit runs down when not in use, where as mine barely changes. I can leave mine at say 60% and come back to it a few days later at like 57%, while hers is down under 40%.

Anyone got an idea what may be causing it and how to fix? Hers is newer than mine too which is most annoying.

Is it actually being powered off or switched to “Sleep”? When I do a long press on the power button I am presented with three options; Sleep, Set Bike Alarm and Power Off. If I choose the latter, battery seems to stay well charged. If I choose the first option, it slowly runs down over a few days.

Yes, that’s a tricky one. We both just quickly press the power button. Will try powering off as an experiment.

Could be a Bluetooth issue with connectingto the phone?

I have started turning Bluetooth off on long rides. Battery lasts a lot longer and all I am not bothered about text notifications etc

I have this issue with my Garmin. I would love to know what’s causing it. I have tried turning it off completely or just leaving it on standby and that seems to make no difference. I’ve done a lot of searching and plenty of people have this issue.

I have to remember to keep charging it, even on weeks where I don’t use it much.

I think they can sometimes wake from ‘off’ to sleep if the buttons get knocked. I tend to make sure I charge mine before I go out as I’ve had occasions where it’s flat !

I had that with mine where I’d accidentally put it to sleep rather then turning it off. Thankfully I found this before I was due to start my ride and charged it up fully from completely flat!

Garmin batteries also have a habit of being fine, fine fine, average, crap. All of my previous Garmins started off brilliantly and then gradually degraded almost without me noticing until they suddenly dropped off a cliff edge. Went from lasting 8hrs to lasting 3hrs in the space of a few weeks.

You can get replacement batteries for them (or have them sent off and repaired).

Quickest check before any of that though – have a look at the backlight settings. Is it on for longer than it needs to be? Is it on in the background without you / your wife noticing? If the unit has been left on standby, it can “wake up” if moved at which point the backlight will come on, it’ll start hunting for satellites and all of that uses a lot of battery.

This happens with the edge 130 Sophie uses. Battery drains very quickly overnight. Not a clue why.

I think it was an 810 or 820 I had that had terrible battery life anyway but then had the most stupid feature ever in that unplugging it from the charger would, after a few seconds delay so you didn’t notice, turn the unit on!  It would then go into standby with the screen off and drain the battery before the next ride.

I had to unplug it, wait 20 seconds for it to fully power on and then turn it off.

My Edge 530 is brilliant in comparison though. The first thing to try is to actually power it off rather than put it in sleep (I thought clicking the button quickly didn’t even put it in sleep, it just turned the screen off).

Actually… Have you got different auto sleep settings? Maybe you’re both turning the screen off and yours auto-sleeps after 10 minutes so barely uses the battery, while the other unit is set to sleep after a few hours, or never, so is burning through the battery.

checked the 130. went from 100% to 36% overnight.

went from 100% to 36% overnight.

That’s considerable! So far, fully switching off seems to be working. Turned off at full charge on Tuesday morning, still has full charge now. Possibly problem solved, though why mine doesn’t seem to need properly switched off I’ve no idea. The experiment continues.

why mine doesn’t seem to need properly switched off I’ve no idea

It might be worth going through the various settings on both devices simultaneously to see if there are any differences. Could be down to which GPS signals are being picked up, is Bluetooth enables for messaging etc, is the device within range of a Bluetooth phone while being stored…

checked the 130. went from 100% to 36% overnight.

Are you actually switching it off, or putting it in sleep or just turning the screen off with a quick press of the power button?