datlas 

I bought this unit when it came out 2-3 years ago. It has been reliable but battery life has always been sucky. It’s supposed to last 12+ hours but I usually get 5. On today’s ride it died after only 4 hours. I have NO sensors or devices connected to drain the battery other than my iphone.

Anyone else use this unit and found a good solution?

asgelle

Did you call Garmin support?

datlas 

I plan to next week. Closed on weekends.

asgelle

When I had the problem, tech support told me to delete a few files from the unit and that solved it. I’m afraid I don’t remember which files it was.

tntyz

Some Garmin units were doing a poor job of reporting battery. Run it down to zero, then turn it off and back on, Keep doing this until it won't come back on at all. Do a full charge.

How's your cell coverage where you ride? There's been some discussions about poor cell coverage causing the Garmin to constantly reconnect blue tooth which in turn drains the battery. You could try a ride without your phone connected to see what happens to the battery life.

A more drastic option is to do a full factory reset. You loose your setup and accumulated data, but it may help.

Digger Goreman

Paper maps?

aplcr0331

When my wife was having battery problems with her 810 we found it was an issue with the unit repeatedly trying to find Garmin Connect on her phone. Once we quit connecting to GC it improved a great deal, and turn off BT on the unit too since you don’t connect sensors anyway.

Maybe not connecting it to your phone will help you as well?

Are you on the latest firmware? I’ve heard of battery issues on the 130 for a while Garmin might have addressed the issue in a new firmware update.

datlas 

Thanks for the tips. Do have new firmware. Can try running without phone connection to see if that helps. Will try to contact Garmin support for other solutions.

Not going back to paper maps.

Iride01 

How do you charge it? Are you certain you are getting a full charge. Battery meters on these devices guess the battery capacity based on voltage profiles looking at very small fractions of a volt. So if you are unplugging the device as soon as the battery meter say 100%, then maybe it's not fully charged. I leave my 10 year old edge 500 plugged into my PC after uploading the ride data till I go to bed that evening. Might be six to eight hours or more. And it seems to have every bit of battery capacity it had when new.

Also, sensors like power, wheel, cadence and HR don't drain the device battery. The device only listens to them, never talks to them. What does drain a battery is backlighting. Also anything that requires it to transmit, like sending data to a phone app.

kissTheApex

Just FYI, read somewhere that their 800 phone line is limited and/or off due to covid19, and the best way to address support issues is thru web chat.

Steve B.

That tells you your speed or distance traveled in what way ?

Don't get me wrong, I love maps and read them during breakfast. Drives my wife nuts, but sometimes you want the correct tool for the job.

Cyclist0108

i have the 130. I live and ride where cell phone coverage is spotty to nonexistent. I have the battery problem as well. (I also connect a radar to it.)

yamsyamsyams

My 130 let’s me upwards of 8 hours. Connect cadence and HR, but leave BT off. Otherwise I’m sitting at about 6 hours with BT on.

Amt0571

Etrex series GPS. Runs on AAs and lasts for a loooooong time on them. It doesn't support the Varia Radar though (but I don't care), and it's a bit thicker and heavier (I care even less). They also have a stable system that doesn't make you lose data in the middle of a ride.

Can't understand why people keep buying devices whose battery can't be easily replaced and after 3 years it lasts nothing.

Seattle Forrest

This might be an acceptable solution if you ride a penny farthing.

datlas 

I had online chat with Garmin support. They said I could try deleting unused files but that’s about it.

They told me I could exchange my unit for a factory refurbished unit, which I might consider but will try it on some longer rides with Bluetooth off on my iPhone as I expect this may be a battery drain. If that does not solve the problem I may send the unit back.

Iride01 

Do you need it connected to your cell phone? If so, then try removing the app and reinstalling it. And if you loaded other Garmin apps to try connecting with that device but don't use them, make sure they are not running in the background still. Remove them if you don't need them for anything else.

Still, the biggie is back lighting. Do you use it? Do you have to use it? On my Garmin 500, I can usually tilt the handlebar mount to give me an angle that I can see the display without having to use any back lighting at all.

And make sure you a charging it long enough. Don't go by the little battery meter they show you.

Bmach

Check your backlight setting. That really drains the battery.

RGMN

Garmin released a new firmware, v 3.70, with the following updates:

Changes made from version 3.60 to 3.70:

• Fix recovery advisor not syncing to other Garmin devices
• Prevent odometer from showing distance from discarding activities
• Improve battery life while paired to a phone
• Improve radar error handling
• Update for CIQ security

The firmware is available at https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fit...-now-available

Pop N Wood

Can you hook a cell phone back up battery to it while riding? Consider a small handle bar bag with a wire to the unit.

Cyclist0108

Not easily, because of where the port is. I think you can take it off the mount and charge it while it continues to record the ride, but I haven't tried it.

I actually upgraded to the 130 because I was frustrated by the battery life of the 25. (i.e., it can be a lot worse).

I've also noticed that the charge indicator can report 50% charge (when it should be fully charged) and then a few minutes later report a 100% charge. My Edge 25 never reported anything better than an 80% charge (4 bars out of 5).

datlas 

Note the newer 130+ gives a battery PERCENTAGE rather than just the bars, which I think is a good upgrade.

Too we can't get that from the firmware update.

datlas 

Bump.

My battery life has gone from bad to worse, which I expect is due to age. Now lasting only about 3 hours, the ONLY connections I have are BT for my Phone and Varia radar, which I consider both essential. I retried all the tricks for battery life as well. No improvement. I contacted Garmin and they did say they could exchange out a "refurbished" 130 (presumably with a new/fresh battery) for my old unit for $50. I really do need the unit to work for my longer rides which are typically 4-5 hours. I don't really want a fancier GPS unit so I did take them on their offer and am hoping the new unit will meet my needs.

Will update after I get new unit. I am also open to other suggestions, but don't want to pay $300+ for a larger and fancier GPS unit, although that may eventually happen in the future.

tntyz

I had an Edge 500 then a 520 which both exhibited shortened battery life when using the connection to the phone. My solution was to stop using the Edge to phone connection. To handle "incident detection", installed the Road ID app on my iPhone which tracks if you've been stationary for 5 minutes and then sends a distress signal. I guess you have to have a phone that has GPS.

What other features do you feel are essential that require the phone connection? Though $50 is a reasonably priced solution.

Iride01 

Are you just going by the battery percentage shown on the device or running it till it actually dies? I never pay attention to the battery meters on any of these devices as they don't actually measure the capacity going in or out. They just simply rely on a voltage profile to make an assumption.