Garmin Forerunner 305 Review (part 3) – Battery life
Since writing abut how the Garmin Forerunner 305 is charged I’ve been concerned about the battery life of the wrist unit.
On a couple of occasions I’ve put the wrist unit on to start a run just to be greeted with the ‘Battery level low’ warning sign!
Now, it’s nice it tells me… but once this warning appears it seams that the batteries have only about 5 to 10 minutes left. This concerned me, as I normally leave the unit plugged in to my USB port after transferring data. I was worried that I had a faulty unit.
The manual says to charge the unit for at least 3 hours before first using it… but instead I decided to follow my male instinct and only charge the unit until the ‘fully charged’ message appeared. So, yesterday afternoon I plugged the wrist unit directly in to a wall socket and left it there for about 5 hours.
After about an hour of charging via the wall socket the ‘fully charged’ message once again appeared, but this time I ignored it and left the unit plugged in.
The test came this morning – as I decided to take the wrist unit with me on a business trip from my home in Kent to Bristol. I thought it would test the unit’s battery power to the full, as a train journey would mean lots of searching for satellites, lots of speed changes, lots of direction changes, and therefore lots of writing to the memory.
Anyway, 7 hours 16 minutes and 240.9 miles later the unit is still going and is showing 2 out of 4 bars on the battery level indicator.
Panic over then… I should have been more patient before first using the Garmin. From now on I’ll also be charging the unit by the wall socket as much as possible, rather than relying on my USB port. And I’ll also not pay too much attention to the ‘Fully charged’ message!
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(This entry was posted on March 3rd, 2008.)
Posted by: AndrewE
on March 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Are you plugging it into a powered usb slot? Some slots e.g. those on a keyboard for example can’t carry much voltage. If you plug it directly into the back of your computer you should see better results.
I’m still waiting for mine to be delivered so this is just hypothetical of course.
Posted by: mart
on March 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Hi Andrew,
I’ve got a MacBook – which only has two USB ports on its side panel.
To be honest, I haven’t got a clue how they’re powered! There must be some power going through them as they have charged the unit to some degree.
What you’re saying does make sense though. Let me know how you get on when you get yours.
Regards,
mart
Posted by: Des
on April 1st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Did your Mac go to sleep ? With the iPod Touch it discharges if the ac goes to sleep whilst connected…
Posted by: mart
on April 2nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Hi Des,
Yes – it definitely went to sleep… so that could well be what happened.
Thanks for that info.
Mart
Posted by: franz wein
on April 4th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Hi
charging the fr305 unit is not a big problem, you can also use every USB-charge with no limiter up to 500mA. Then is the charging time about 3h. – no problems will occure. If you charge the battery with a lower power then you need more charging time of course.
I’m use the fr305 about 1 year – 3-4 times in the week without any problem.
with best regards
franz
Posted by: Scottie
on October 4th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Does the power adaptor for the 305 accept both 120v (US) and 230v (UK) power? I know that the pin configuration on the pugs will be be different, but, if I get one from the States, will I need a simple plug/pin converter, or a step-down transformer to use the A/C charger?
Posted by: mart
on October 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Hi,
Mine came with a two pin adapter… so I guess you shouldn’t have a problem?
See my review…
http://addictedtorunning.co.uk/running-garmin-forerunner-305/garmin-forerunner-305-review-whats-in-the-box
Regards,
Martyn
Posted by: Susie
on November 8th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I bought a 305 in April of this year & run at least five days a week. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a 205. (Training for a marathon & am doing run/walks. One is to measure actual distance RAN & the other to measure actual distance COVERED. I know the 205/305s have a multi sport option, but that’s a bit cumbersome for my purpose. Plus, having two units insures I *should* have a working unit, even if one fails.) Anyway, I love the units but the battery charging is very problematic, IME. The watches do not fit tightly into the charger, so if they get slightly bumped, they can disconnect & you may not even realize it. Also, multiple times, I’ve left them hooked up to the powered usb outlet on my computer over night & the next day, when I turn them on, “LOW BATTERY”. VERY, VERY FRUSTRATING. I think sometimes, when hooked to the computer, they may auto power on & be expending more power than they are getting from the USB, so they drain the battery when left overnight like this. So the battery life is not the greatest (ok, when fully charged, I’ve had them on for ~4 hours with no problem. But if it’s fully charged & you unhook it, turn it off & put it in a drawer & don’t use it for a couple of days, don’t expect it to be ok for a two hour run w/o charging it again) and the charging system is problematic. Combine these two problems & you end up with a device that shows you “low battery” a more than acceptable number of times, IMO. I do love these units and from what I’ve seen, they are less pricey than many other GPS watches. For my purposes, they are also very easy to use when you’re very tired and the display is easy to read, even in direct sunlight. I also like being able to customize what data is displayed. But Garmin really needs to work on the battery life and/or build a more fail safe charging system. Another advantage about having two of these is if I have them both charging, I *should* be able to have one of them juiced enough for my daily runs. On the days when doing the longer run/walks when I’ll be using both units, I can no longer depend upon hooking them up the night before. So a couple of hours before my run, I hook them up & regularly check up on them to make sure they are still charging.
Posted by: Skip Grover
on December 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Thanks for the write up. I just bought the 305 two
days ago. Charged it for 4 hours that night and started my
morning route the next day. Within a hour and 10 min. the low batt.
came on ? Will try ignoring the full charge window and leave it charge over night. Thanks to your comments I will try again ?
Posted by: Garmin Forerunner GPS
on December 26th, 2009 at 3:07 am
What a great review you have here. And for me, the main attraction of Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver is the health monitoring tools.
Posted by: Bill Hopkins
on February 4th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
good review. I had a 305 for 3 years.my experience is that when you get the battery low warning, it actually means battery finished in about 2 mins.
good info ref battery charging complete, ill ignore that in future.
Posted by: mike
on February 4th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Had my 305 for about 3 years now and have used it very regularly. Now, after a full charge while powered off on the cradle, the low battery warning comes on after 10 minutes and the battery dies completely after 2 hours. I had to replace the cradle a while back because the PC wouldn’t detect the 305 when plugged in, and I wonder if it also ruined the battery. My options now are to send it back to Garmin for an out-of-warranty replacement battery, or buy a 310XT which has a proper battery life.
Anyone else with similar experience?