Hi
Looking at getting an edge 1000 but bit worried about battery life.
Will it run on the bars with a battery pack plugged in ?
Cheers

If I remember correctly, yes – I attached a battery pack to it for 10-15 minutes while stopped in a longish ride and I think I was able to fiddle with the navigation screens and all. Will confirm when I get home.

How long are you planning on riding? !

Okay maybe an Edge 1000 uses more battery, but my 510 goes for 20 hours or so. Longest I’ve done is a 10 hour and half the battery gone. Admitted a more basic model.

Though I would guess it will depend if you are pairing it with the phone app to live sync. I can see that will drain battery more.

Anyway, whole reason I got a Garmin was to save battery life of my phone.

What I’ve done with my 510 for long, i.e. overnight, rides where I’m bivvying is to save the first day’s ride then recharge using an external battery then start a second ride the following morning. When back home use something like fitfiletools.com to stitch the two activities together.

Some of the Edge series seem to have problems with the number of recording points on big rides with riders occasionally noting that an activity gets corrupted but I’ve not had this happen myself so it could have been fixed with one of the firmware upgrades.

I used my 810 with an external battery for the Dirty Reiver. The main thing to watch out for (at least on the 810) is that the Garmin will power down when the external supply is removed (or goes flat), you get 15 odd seconds to cancel the power down, but would be annoying if you didn’t notice it.. I just ran on an external battery until the external battery light went red (last 25%) then unplugged and cancelled the power down.

Yes it will. Be sure to switch off bluetooth, wifi etc to maximise battery life

Cheers Guys
Some good tips there. Is the edge 1000 worth it over the 810 ?

Yes, it does – have done exactly that on long Audax rides. Depending on usage, I find I get about 8-10 hours out of a full battery – you’d get much more if not using the mapping screen as that seems to be the one which drains the battery most.

Outdoor tech battery pack is my suggestion, BTW.

Yep, I’ve also done it with mine. I just used Mrs njee20’s mobile phone power pack thing, was fine. Finished the SDW and the Garmin was still showing 100%. Did a 23 hour road ride and did need to recharge the external battery halfway through, but it charged quicker than the Garmin ran down, so no issues.

IMO it is worth the extra over the 810, the screen is much nicer, and obviously bigger, the wifi is nice to have too, makes the connectivity thing far more seemless. Ymmv of course.

I’ve used the 810 powered by the dynamo and cache. Only issue is when you disconnect or stop for too long its asks you if it can power off and gives to 15 seconds to cancel. Not really a big issue as it doesn’t lose the ride.

I would suggest, so you don’t lose rides is to work to a maximum of 200km for recording and for gpx tracks. As over this it works 90% of the time but do you run the risk of it crashing and losing the ride (strava!!!)

The 810 has better battery life over the 1000 (bigger screen), and does almost all the the stuff the 1000 does. The thing I don’t like about the 810 is the mini usb charging as it means you need an extra cable and that you can’t get phone notifications.

I’m using an 800 but at the weekend was running an external battery. A standard 3600mah one ran for 24 hours before I needed to change it. I had the mapping screen on a lot of the time. If you have the simple speed screens on the battery lasts a lot longer. So good if you are doing a 24h race rather than navigating a road ride you would be fine. Also turning the brightness down (on mine plugging in a power source bumps it to max!). You can also turn off the sound, Bluetooth etc. to preserve power.

Few points – I agree regarding the resetting the ride. I’d reset at intervals as well. 200miles is fine. 300 is dubious. At the weekend 2 of 5 garmins made it to 440 without crashing – 2 failed due to water damage and 1 crashed. 1000 and 810 made it. 810 and 2 800s didn’t. Also when plotting long routes this can be an issue. We had to split the ride up into three segments to stop it crashing. I believe this is a niche garmin issue as I don’t do many 440mile rides and to be honest, one is enough for me.

Be careful with the usb socket if running a battery. I think mine got water damaged at the weekend as I had the rubber flap open to plug in the charger while riding. Also if you are on rough roads/offroad there is potential to damage it that way too.

810 is less power hungry than the 1000 but not much. With both if you are on a long ride you’d need/want a power pack.

When doing more casual road rides I keep the charger in my pocket and just charge it up in the café. 30 minutes with the battery is very effective.

I have and Anker one bought from amazon.

saving this 🙂

I’ve one of these https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Compact-Waterproof-Dustproof-Compatible-Smartphones/dp/B00K3EUE90 it will recharge an iPhone and a Garmin 510 from one charge – I’ve one of those multi-headed USB cables so I can do both at once.

fwiw the 1000 seems to have much better battery life if you:
* turn off autobrightness
* don’t display the map, use a data field and move to map when you need it
* Lock the screen so you have to use buttons

Otherwise battery pack time

I kept mine going for a 24 hour event fine by making sure i used a “charge only” cable not a data one (when data cable is attached it wants to reset a lot of the time) and making sure the battery was attached from the start. So i had Garmin on stem and small battery in a tri-bag on the top tube, with battery at front and space still for 3-4 gels and my phone.