Garmin Edge 1000 Battery Life

TheHound

I'm looking to get the garmin edge 1000 but all the reviews and comments from when it was released say that the batter life is shoddy.

There isn't too much recent information or discussion, so...

Has there been any firmware updates or anything that have improved battery life? If not I'll just get the 810.

Thanks.

neal1984

I've not had a problem with mine. Done a 7+ hour ride and still had 20% left.

marcusjb

General vibe in the long-distance community is it just isn't up to the job for long rides.

An 800 or 810 will last around 10-12 hours depending on whether you are using it to navigate (and then whether you are using gpx or tcx to do that).

A small back up battery like the Anker Astro E1 will charge an Edge 4-5 times. So plenty enough for a good long ride.

The problem with the 1000 is it has a not dissimilar size battery to the 800/810 (I believe it is 1200 mAh compared to 1000 in the 800/810), but there's so much other stuff going on that even with a backup battery, you're pretty limited on the longer rides.

Nice looking bit of kit and there are people using them for longer rides, but most people are sticking with the 800/810.

(I realise those using GPS for more than a few hours at most are a little niche for the manufacturers to pay attention to - however, 7 hours and the thing had got to 20%? 7 hours is not exactly very long, particularly in summer!)

NeXXus

Like the 800 and 810 map screens, brightness,backlight and GPS/GLONASS and probably bluetooth are the power consumers.

The battery is definitely not as good as marcus says above. If planning a really long 'un, it would definitely be worth taking a backup or a method of charging

stueys

Got one recently after having had an 800 for a long while. 1000 has some nice features, I've only been on a 5 HR ride with it so far and that killed 50% of the battery, so anything over 9 hrs would make me nervous. Is that a problem for me? Being honest only 2 or 3 rides a year. Which I've kept my old 800 for.

Other than that the device is a nice upgrade. Though I think Garmin segments has been poorly implemented.

apreading

As we all know from our phones too - the last 20% goes much quicker than the first 20%, so I would not take comfort in only having that much left after 7 hours. And I wouldnt expect it to last even that well following a route with the map on constant display - that always reduces the life, and if you arent doing this why would you need the better screen of the 1000?

MattFT

Just did a 9 hour ride with mine and got down to 1%! Turning off bluetooth, GLONASS and routing allowed the last 15% to last me much longer. In the future if I was planning something bit I'd turn off glonass from the start.

apreading

Thing is, with all that turned off you may as well have a Garmin 200???

TheHound

Cheers guys.

Decided to go with the 810 for 100 squid less. From what I read there was a software update that gave it a lot of the same features as the 100 anyway.

wongataa

apreading wrote:

Thing is, with all that turned off you may as well have a Garmin 200???

Apart from the fact you can use ANT+ sensors.

banditvic

Just bought a 1000 from Rose Bikes £314 For the Bundle Heart rate Cadence and speed sensor.

99thmonkey

Mine uses around 10% an hour so a good 9-10 hours, thats enough for me most days!

Bar Shaker

If your turn off Glonass and view the data page (it automatically goes to map page when you need to do something at a junction) then you pretty much double battery life.

I did the Essex Spring Lambs in a total time of just under 7 hours (I love a good food stop) and had 60% remaining at the end.

I am using the Di2, HR and separate speed and cadence ANT+ sensors, so lots for it to talk to.

craigr

marcusjb wrote:

A small back up battery like the Anker Astro E1 will charge an Edge 4-5 times. So plenty enough for a good long ride.

Thanks, is it possible though to charge/run off usb power and cycle at same time?

markhewitt1978

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19621145#p19621145]craigr[/url] wrote:

marcusjb wrote:

A small back up battery like the Anker Astro E1 will charge an Edge 4-5 times. So plenty enough for a good long ride.

Thanks, is it possible though to charge/run off usb power and cycle at same time?

This is what I want to know too, plus how could you ride at the same time? Unless it would be ok in your pocket for a little while.

Several times I've been close to pulling the trigger on a 1000 but the battery life issue has always stopped me.

freezing77

Yes you can charge and ride at the same time, the difficulty is if you have an out front mount you cannot plug the cable in.

There is an adaptor cable that may allow this i.e. one with an "up" mini usb connector.

http://www.netstoredirect.com/startech-com-usb-cables/272789-startech-com-usb2-0-a-mini-usb2-0-b-0-5m-0065030851350.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwndqrBRC16IyeqPicp3ASJAB-vB-c0D6e8HhjFRjpMicEz76MGoGGOrRmxfB22kckAPM5GhoCw9Lw_wcB

philbar72

So in the last 3 months I’ve done liege Bastogne Liege, tour of Flanders, and several 100+ mile rides and the Ditchling devil with the 1000. My tip is to do the following.

1) Disable glonass
2) Have the screen in its lowest brightness setting
3) Disable Bluetooth and Wlan
4) Get a tecknet micro usb charger that sits in a behind the stem mounted saddle bag. Ensure that you attach it when the battery goes below 20% and switch the screen down when its attached, as the screen will default to max brightness. It weighs next to nothing. It also can charge your battery around 4 times fully before you need to replace it.

On a London to Brighton and back ride, or The TOF I’m fine and don’t need the charger. On a longer than 110 mile trip I do need the charger. It worked excellently at LBL. If you are audaxing, then the 1000 makes a great deal of sense. The map is easier to view and faster to react than an 800-810, its less crash prone with the latest software…

stueys

I recently bought a 1000 as an upgrade to my 800, the battery lift concerned me and I toyed with an 810. The two factors that swayed me to a 1000 where (a) the battery life is only going to be an issue for me 3-4 rides a year max. 95% of my stuff is 1-2 hours on the turbo and a 5-6 hour ride on a sunday. (b) the 810 is 3 (4?) years old and is probably close to dropping off the firmware upgrade list and be replace.

Pleased with the 1000 so far, it seems to be running at 8/10% battery an hour. That's with screen brightness on auto, glonass on and wifi off, running power and heart monitor sensors.

Bar Shaker

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19621297#p19621297]freezing77[/url] wrote:

Yes you can charge and ride at the same time, the difficulty is if you have an out front mount you cannot plug the cable in.

There is an adaptor cable that may allow this i.e. one with an "up" mini usb connector.

http://www.netstoredirect.com/startech-com-usb-cables/272789-startech-com-usb2-0-a-mini-usb2-0-b-0-5m-0065030851350.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwndqrBRC16IyeqPicp3ASJAB-vB-c0D6e8HhjFRjpMicEz76MGoGGOrRmxfB22kckAPM5GhoCw9Lw_wcB

That's the wrong plug end in your photo. That said, are you certain that you can't plug in a standard lead with the Garmin 1000 in it's Out Front mount?

I'm willing to bet my right arm that you can, especially as the socket is on the other side to the mount arm.

freezing77

You may be correct this fits the edge 800 and etrex series. They are mini usb,as opposed to micro usb for the 1000.

markhewitt1978

I've no shortage of battery packs and the likes, but could you take the 1000 off it's mount and put it into your back pocket to charge? That would seem the easiest way to go about it - at the expense of being able to see the computer for a while of course.

The concern I would have with that is would putting it in your pocket push buttons on the screen? So can you lock it out for a while? How long would an external charger take to bring it up from say, 10% to 50%?

Like most range anxiety issues, I would only need anything more maybe 2-3 times a year, but those times are going to be the big important rides where it's extra critical the GPS tracker doesn't let me down.

Bar Shaker

When I used to use my iPhone (now that's a story about battery anxiety!) I used a small external battery and slid it half up my bib leg, so it was held in place by the rubber band. This worked fine.

Looking at my 1000 last night, I could have lost my arm. The handlebar obscures the charging socket with the Garmin mount. A K-Edge mount would be fine to charge from, using the standard lead.

This is a bit of a non issue for me though. I have had my 1000 running for nearly 15 hours on some long touring rides and it's never got below 10% remaining.

stueys

Thought I would add that I took the Garmin out on a 6hr 30 min ride today. With screen on brightness 2, Bluetooth/wifi/glonas off, I saw 50% battery left at the end. Assuming the last 50% drops faster than the first than that's not far off the 800 battery life. I've only every done one ride that's gone past 12 hrs so this is more than sufficient for me without an external battery.