Garmin 520 replacement battery

davidof

has anyone tried replacing their garmin battery? Mine original battery doesn't hold much of a charge. It seems the original battery is 520 maH but I see some advertise by Chinese vendors claiming 2300 mAh - I know battery technology has improved but this seems a bit wishful.

pblakeney

I changed the battery in my 705 a long time ago. It worked, but only for a year or so.

This is probably completely irrelevant.

gethinceri

Not difficult with the right tools. re-sealing against water ingress has been my worry with the 2 I’ve done. On the 2nd I never used it if I knew it was going to rain because I knew I’d done a shit job.

molteni_man

I contacted Garmin themselves about exactly this with my old 520 battery. I mentioned sustainability in my email and how I had also been a long-standing Garmin customer. They weren’t able to replace the battery, but did give me a something towards the purchase of a new unit. I got the 530 which has a fantastic battery life compared to the 520 and has proved to be ultra reliable and has maintained this battery life very well. My wife has been running my old 520 for a couple of years and it will need replacement soon as doesn’t last long at all now.

davidof

What capacity replacement batteries did you fit?

gethinceri

I don’t recall, but I suspect like for like.

davidof

Ok I've ordered the 2800 mAh battery, as it is Aliexpress it won't arrive for ages and it will probably catch fire when I charge it. Watch this space.

daniel_b

It's just been despatched........

dabber

I think I'm at the point where I'll end up replacing my 520. Apart from the battery getting a bit shorter lived I've got a bit of tape over the on/off button as the plastic is broken away and there's a bit of a hole appearing in the opposite side of the case. Can't complain as that was mainly caused when I embedded it (and myself) in an earthy, gravelly mound when mtbing a couple of years ago. It's limped on pretty well since then although I did need to get one of those stick on replacement twist mounting bits.

I'm debating getting a Garmin Edge Explore 2 as I don't need any of the more fancy metrics.

wakemalcolm

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106198#Comment_21106198

Good time to buy an Explore 2.

I've just pulled the trigger at GBP208 so am expecting the price to plummet now.

dabber

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106199#Comment_21106199

Thanks... yes, I saw Amazon have them on at around that price which seems pretty good. From what I've read it seems a pretty decent device and the battery life if supposed to be better than the original Explore (1).

pblakeney

Garmin 530 is currently £189 if that's of any interest.

wakemalcolm

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106200#Comment_21106200

I think the battery life has doubled from 1 to 2.

One thing to note is that if you don't buy into the integrated under mount extender battery option at the start, there's no upgrade path. It's not an issue for me as I don't do audaxes or bikepacking races (and wouldn't mind running a cable from a bar bag to hook up a generic power bank if I did).

dabber

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106204#Comment_21106204

Thanks.... Yes, I was aware of the lack of an upgrade path but, like you, I don't do mega rides.