Garmin Edge 520 battery life dropping

londoncommuter

Has anyone else had their 520 battery life start to drop? I got mine in November 2015 so just over a year old and I'm guessing I've used it for maybe 60 rides.

This morning the battery was down to 14% after a 4.5 hour ride so the battery would probably have lasted just over 5 hours in total.

I was using mapping (although switched to non-map screens for maybe 20% of the time)
Backlight set to zero
Bluetooth not enabled
Recording set to 1 second
HRM connected but no speed or cadence sensor
GPS and GLONASS enabled

I'm sure I used to get loads more out of it but do you fellow 520 users agree that's not normal? It's now at the level where it does impact on rides as I want to be able to follow routes for 6 hours or so (ideally with some backlight for early starts) without being dumped in the middle of nowhere.

I charge it after every ride when I upload using an old fashioned cable which I suppose is never great for looking after batteries.

Outside of the warranty now so has anyone had any success replacing the battery themselves?

londoncommuter

Ouch, I thought I'd contact Garmin and this popped up:

We estimate it will cost approximately £76.64 GBP for a repair or replacement. Would you like to make a service request for your device?

Pretty pricey for 13 months use.

mamba80

you could try completely discharging it, let it run down, after it switches OFF, keep swt 'ing it back ON until it wont start up anymore, then recharge as per normal, let it discharge now and then if this works.

there is something on WW about changing batteries on a 500.

V. poor service from Garmin as its only 13 months old, 77 plus PnP is almost 1/2 the price of a new unit.

cougie

Battery life drops in the cold. Maybe try a silicon cover if you havent one already? Slightly cheaper.

jgsi

GLONASS on a 520 is pretty battery needy... turn that off to see if you get more life.

londoncommuter

Thanks for the tip so far. Garmin advice is to use smart recording and just GPS but I wasn't sure how much difference they should make. A review of the Edge 1000 says the below so you're right that GLONASS seems to be needy:

"While Garmin claims a battery life of 15 hours, this is based on using it in the lowest battery-using configuration, meaning no Glonass and no navigation. In our experience, we found the battery to last just over five hours when using Glonass and navigation."

Having said that though, none of this was a problem when my unit was new and the battery life has taken a real dive in a pretty short space of time.

drshoe

I've had mine for longer and it definitely lasts a lot longer than that, probably more around 10hr with HRM and GLONASS, in the winter too. If that helps.

hambini

I've used mine for the same lengthish of time (December 2015) and the same thing is happening. I originally put it down to the cold but I think the battery is just losing it's charge. My typical ride to work is 40 mins (20km) and it hangs at 3% for 3 or 4 journeys. Previously it would just deplete in a linear fashion.

londoncommuter

hambini wrote:

I've used mine for the same lengthish of time (December 2015) and the same thing is happening. I originally put it down to the cold but I think the battery is just losing it's charge. My typical ride to work is 40 mins (20km) and it hangs at 3% for 3 or 4 journeys. Previously it would just deplete in a linear fashion.

Sorry, do you mean it's the reading so it's showing 3% but doesn't actually run out shortly after that?

hambini

yep that's right, it depletes from 100% to 3% quite quickly then hangs around at 3% for ages before finally going flat. That kind of response suggests a battery that is ageing.

ZMC888

I'm on my 2nd Garmin Edge 520 (February 2016). I used it intensively until early November and luckily I got a warranty replacement last week. Took 6 weeks of phoning and frustration.

It's not you, I had mine set-up with everything running and it dropped from 15 hours (winter) to 12 hours (summer) and then to 8 hours (Autumn). Now I have a new one and it's like a completely different thing. More accurate and back to 15 hours battery life, and where I am it's about max 0c, so it's not really temperature.

These units work quite well but they are fragile. If you ride say over 15 hours (which is quite a lot) a week I think the unit might last a year, less use would certainly mean longer life. For anyone reading this that wants the max use out of their 520 get a silicone case and save it for longer summer rides, let your smart-phone do the commuting/winter grunt-work.

dee4life2005

Had the same with mine, 100 down to 9% in about 4hrs ... had to abort a century ride. Thought there was something up but realised I had the backlight set to always on ... switch to "30seconds" and my next 4hr ride had 71% battery left.
I wonder if a recent firmware setting has messed with the backlight setting?

bernithebiker

The battery on my 520 is becoming noticeably weaker (1 year now) but not really a major issue yet.

I have an Iphone 5S that is dying from weak battery too - seems us consumers have to learn to accept this 'disposability'.....:(

Watch out for the latest update too - it froze my 520 just as I was going out the door chasing the family to the beach, which scuppered that ride....

cooldad

dee4life2005 wrote:

Had the same with mine, 100 down to 9% in about 4hrs ... had to abort a century ride. Thought there was something up but realised I had the backlight set to always on ... switch to "30seconds" and my next 4hr ride had 71% battery left.
I wonder if a recent firmware setting has messed with the backlight setting?

I'm sure you can still ride a bicycle even without a Garmin on.

dee4life2005

cooldad wrote:

I'm sure you can still ride a bicycle even without a Garmin on.

Very true, although I like to record my milage to keep track of maintenance intervals for compontents etc. - doing >10k miles a year some of those jobs sneak up on you rather quickly.
Also doing the Rapha 500 so every mile counts, and wouldn't want to put in 30-40 miles without them "counting"

cooldad

Still seems little point in 'aborting' a ride just because you're not clocking up Rapha miles or some such sh1t. Seriously.

roger_merriman

Just really to add a data point, i use a 520 for commuting and town stuff, don't use any sensors but do use mapping and GLONASS etc. It's from November 15. No issues with battery life.

peat

dee4life2005 wrote:

Also doing the Rapha 500 so every mile counts, and wouldn't want to put in 30-40 miles without them "counting"

I get it, I log all my miles too. But, for future reference - you can add a manual entry to Strava. If you think the Garmin is about to die, stop and save the ride making a mental note of the distance etc, then just carry on with your ride. You know if you've done the distance or not, a poorly Garmin is a poor excuse for stopping a ride mate.

I'm not angry with you. Just disappointed.

jgsi

If my garmin has failed I have been known to walk home"..."."..."........"

DaveQB

This thread appears high in google when searching for Garmin Edge 520 and bad battery life. So I'll add my experience.

I have found the the best way to return battery performance is to totally drain the device to 0% and let it power off. Then charge up with a 2A power wall adapter. Twice I have get down to 4-5 hours of calculated battery life with my 520 and I then run this procedure which returns my calculated battery usage back to about 10 hours. Required about every 6 months.

PS I would strongly recommend leaving your phone (bluetooth) connected to keep the incident detection feature working, which can very well be a life saver. For me, it alerted my wife I had crashed, gave my exact location to her and even left her number on my 520 display allowing a concerned motorist to call her as I was too out of it.

cgfw201

DaveQB wrote:

This thread appears high in google when searching for Garmin Edge 520 and bad battery life. So I'll add my experience.

I have found the the best way to return battery performance is to totally drain the device to 0% and let it power off. Then charge up with a 2A power wall adapter. Twice I have get down to 4-5 hours of calculated battery life with my 520 and I then run this procedure which returns my calculated battery usage back to about 10 hours. Required about every 6 months.

PS I would strongly recommend leaving your phone (bluetooth) connected to keep the incident detection feature working, which can very well be a life saver. For me, it alerted my wife I had crashed, gave my exact location to her and even left her number on my 520 display allowing a concerned motorist to call her as I was too out of it.

I found the best way to fix mine in the end was to sell it on eBay and buy a Wahoo Bolt. Miles better (particularly the batter) and got it for less than I sold my old 520 for.

denkfaul

Had the same issues with 520 after around 6 months. A 4.5hr ride with power / hrm / routing / live tracking / low backlight would drain it entirely. Upgraded to an Elemnt Bolt and 6 months on an equivalent ride uses 30-40% battery.

cgfw201

it's a wonder garmin still has any customers based on the number of people who've made the wahoo upgrade on here (and increasingly out on the roads).

stevie63

cgfw201 wrote:

I found the best way to fix mine in the end was to sell it on eBay and buy a Wahoo Bolt. Miles better (particularly the batter) and got it for less than I sold my old 520 for.

Yep me too (well I got the larger Elemnt)

thegreatdivide

cgfw201 wrote:

it's a wonder garmin still has any customers based on the number of people who've made the wahoo upgrade on here (and increasingly out on the roads).

Is it? I hope you're not an analyst by trade.