Garmin smartwatch battery replacement options

Has anyone had any good experiences of getting the battery in a Garmin watch (specifically a Fenix 6 Pro) replaced? My wife has given me her old watch after upgrading because it had gone from lasting a week to a day at best (and factory reset didn’t seem to do improve anything). Inline with the recent thread about thier customer services, when she contacted Garmin she got an offer that wasn’t much different from the STW members’ offer of a fairly steep price for a refurb, so she decided to upgrade; I’m keen to repair it if possible.

Initially Timpsons sounded hopeful on the phone saying they could do it, but taking it into a branch resulted in a bit of a “computer says no” moment when it couldn’t be booked in to their workshop by brand.

satnavspecialist.co.uk sound quite hopeful and list several Fenix watches on their site, but not the 6 Pro and they want the watch sent in to look at before they will give me a price – has anyone used them? advancedrepair.co.uk quote £90, but do at least specify that they use a genuine, new battery.

There seem to be various videos and instructions on DIY replacement iFixit makes it look reasonably straightforward, but the only replacement batteries I’ve found are from slightly suspect listings on ebay / aliexpress / etc. Does anyone have a source for a good, trusted battery? Has anyone done a DIY replacement and tested the waterproofing?

I see that CEX have just upped their warranties to 5 years. The option to replace it with one from them would at least make it someone else’s problem, I suppose.

Watching this with interest as I’d like to replace my Vivoactive 4 battery. The watch is fine and does everything I need it to but the battery life isn’t great. I can get by charging it a few times a week when I’m at my desk but it seems insane that it’s not easier to replace the battery.

I was under the impression it was all sealed so could be replaced. If it can be done for £90 then that sounds like a bargain. I’m still getting 11 days with some tracking for walks…but the walks are only about a half hour at a time and only 3 or 4 a week. If I don’t track I still get the 14 days between charges.

I replaced the battery on a Fenix 5s a year or so back and it was pretty straightforward. Needed a small torx to undo the four screws on the back and then it was just a matter of pulling bits out, disconnecting the battery, putting a new one in and putting it all back together. Got a “dodgy” battery from ebay, but it’s working as well as the original one.

The other Garmins seem to be a bit more complex as they are glued rather than screwed together, but the Fenix was pretty simple.

After speaking to Garmin support they concluded for the instinct it wasn’t possible

Thanks all, especially @roverpig – good to know (at least some of) the ebay batteries are decent. Have you got the watch wet since you changed the battery? I’m not a swimmer, but I can see it going on rides in the wet or worn when I’m doing the washing up.

I should really have provided some links, I think. And it’s too late to go back and edit my post so to hopefully save some Googling:

Satnav Specialist – Repair listed for a similar watch. Battery brand not stated though.

Advanced Repair – Considerably more expensive option, but listed for the correct model and specifies the battery used.

iFixit Guide – for a similar watch.

I should point out that I do work with computers and electronics, so taking things apart and soldering connections doesn’t worry me too much, though this is definitely at the fiddly end of what I could manage.

After speaking to Garmin support they concluded for the instinct it wasn’t possible

Have Garmin actually offered battery replacement for any products? I’ve not seen anyone reporting it offered as a service – only a refurb / discount being offered on a replacement.

no they don’t offer the battery replacement

Colleague replaced a battery in an old fenix 3. It was never very good after that and he ended up replacing for a fr265 about 6 months later.

Ifixit is good for this sort of stuff.

Eg https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Garmin+fenix+6X+Sapphire+Battery+Replacement/148356

I’d probably do it myself, if you don’t fancy it, sell it on eBay fully described to someone willing to do it?

Ifixit is good for this sort of stuff.

I’d probably do it myself,

That’s fine, it doesn’t look too dificult. However where would you get the battery to fit? From the above sample size of two, 50% of random batteries from the internet are great, 50% sound like they weren’t much cop. I’d rather not end up fitting a battery that’s no better and I don’t think Garmin will sell me a genuine new battery.

I replaced the battery in my Huawei watch with one from replacebase.co.uk . Inclung shipping and a decent quality T2 Torx driver it came to about 17 quid. No idea about the Garmin but I can recommend them as a source for a battery.

Some non genuine batteries are slightly different voltage to the originals and there is a risk of failure when charging or in use.

Also a 6X is different to a 6 being a larger watch so batteries may be different.

And lastly I don’t believe its possible to buy a genuine Garmin replacement battery so any labelled up as such are probably fakes

Satnav Specialist replaced the battery in my wife’s Garmin Edge 130. Excellent service. Highly recommended.

I replaced the battery in my Huawei watch with one from replacebase.co.uk . Inclung shipping and a decent quality T2 Torx driver it came to about 17 quid. No idea about the Garmin but I can recommend them as a source for a battery.

Cheers for that, just the sort of place I was looking for a link to!

Some non genuine batteries are slightly different voltage to the originals and there is a risk of failure when charging or in use.

I’ll admit that I’d seen people getting very wound up about that, but what I saw seemed to be rounds of Chinese Whispers from different people quoting voltage at different states of charge. Hmm, worth keeping an eye out for.

Satnav Specialist replaced the battery in my wife’s Garmin Edge 130. Excellent service. Highly recommended.

Ha! If you’d posted that an hour earlier, I’d probably have been swayed and just sent it off to them to be someone else’s problem. However I’ve now taken the face off the watch and the circuit board out partially to confirm the part number on the battery matches the battery that replacebase list for the Fenix 5 Pro (I’d seen it mentioned that both the 5 Pro and the 6 Pro use the battery with part number 361-00097-00, but wanted to confirm before odering). I also wanted to make sure I could take it apart and get it back together again. While the connectors were smaller, there’s nothing scary in there that would stop someone who was comfortable fitting parts in, say, a laptop, I don’t think.

Replace Base seem to list a genuine battery pulled from a new unit, which seems like a reasonable course of how a genuine battery is available.

I’ll report back once it’s arrived, I’ve fitted it and I see how the battery holds up. Thanks all!

OK, quick update. The battery arrived yesterday and I fitted it in the early afternoon and gave it a full charge. Since then the battery indecator has dropped from 21 days to 14, so at a rough guess this battery’s going to last about three days, better than the previous one, but not good.

I’ll give it a full cycle first though to see if that helps, if not I suspect I’ll be asking for a return / exchange.

Fitting the battery was quite a lot more fiddly than getting to it to read the number off it. There’s a tiny and very stiff connector on the battery itself and it requires quite a lot of force to release the battery from the glue, which is pretty nervewracking on a fairly soft battery full of nasty chemicals.