Extending Battery Life

Blacktemplar

Looking for some help/advice....

I have a Garmin Vivoactive that I use for cycling, walking & swimming, but I find that on a long ride (over 8-9 hours) the battery dies and I lose GPS tracking.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to extend runtime? I'm tackling the Mallorca 312 in April and want to be able to record the full ride, which at worst will take up to 14 hours (though I'm aiming for sub-12 )

I don't think it's practical to carry/use a spare battery booster as the watch charging cradle is pretty unwieldy, so I guess it's perhaps things like disabling Bluetooth, or altering GPS checking intervals (don't know if that's even possible).

Cheers

meanredspider

The usual suspects are all unnecessary radio (BLE, Ant etc) and backlighting

Blacktemplar

Yeah I think switching all unnecessary apps, Bluetooth etc off is a must, don't run cadence or HRM (I kinda know when my heart is about to burst out of my chest), and I'd read that even a watch face that has a second sweep or counter uses power.

I have considered ditching the watch and using Strava on the phone, but battery life on the iPhone after the latest iOS updates is shockingly bad. I reckon I'd be lucky to get 4-5 hours out of the phone at best when running GPS. I guess a battery extender is another option just for the phone, will see how much a decent one that doesn't weigh as much as a small house brick costs. Trying to minimise how much guff I carry with me, principally for the uphilly bits... and battery extender = less food

meanredspider

Or just borrow someone's longer-lasting Garmin watch...

chris_bass

would the charging clip be ok if you attached the watch to the handlebars? you could run a battery pack to it then (it it allows that whilst in use?).

bendertherobot

meanredspider wrote:

Or just borrow someone's longer-lasting Garmin watch...

This. Fenix 3 will handle it. Or just buy a Fenix 5

bernithebiker

Ride faster.

Bobbinogs

Perhaps just buy a Garmin 200? They are cheap as chips (as little as £50 brand new) and work pretty well, albeit basic. Battery life is quoted as 14 hours but the warm climate should help you maximise that (as long as you ensure backlighting is off, etc).

mrb123

The battery life on my Edge 520 seems to be vastly superior to my previous Edge 500.

Did a ride of over 5 hours yesterday, following which the battery was still showing as having 83% remaining so I'm sure it would comfortably handle a 14 hour shift.