I have a garmin 910XT and have not been able to figure out how to tell how much battery life is left (other than the small battery bar that generally shows ~33%, ~66%, or full. I like to let my device run to near empty, then charge all the way full to help maximize longevity of my battery.
My previous 310XT had a battery that slowly went bad, likely do to improper charging. By the end, it would only last about 10 hours and as soon as it said battery low, it would die… no real warning. I believe this happened because I would regularly charge up when battery was less than 25%.
I hate when my device dies part way through a workout and would like to learn a way to better estimate remaining battery life. Is there a way to see percent left, or even better, estimated time left (based on which components are on such as GPS, powermeter, HR, etc…)
As soon as I plug it in to charge, I see exactly what percent left, so I know that the watch can tell, I just don’t want to start a charge to see how much charge is left, that would defeat my purpose of not wanting to screw up my battery.
I have a 310XT. And while I occasionally run the battery down, you don’t have to as it is a Lithium Ion battery. They don’t have “memory” like the old NI-Cads did. My understanding is that over time they just don’t hold as much and all rechargeable batteries can only be recharged so many times (but that’s thousands of recharges).
Knowing the exact %age may not even be useful since often that number will not be linearly correlated with remaining time.
Charge it more often to reduce the likelihood of it dying mid-workout. As stated, Li-ion batteries don’t mind being charged frequently. I would advise to charge it and then unclip it when it is done. Sometimes, constantly topped-off batteries can get warm. That will reduce battery life…and possibly ignite.
I have had my 910xt for over a year and only had it die once. It was totally my fault and not due to the imprecise nature of the battery display. I didn’t check how much battery I had last time I uploaded data. I check my battery every time I upload data which is almost on a daily basis. When it drops to one bar, I charge it before my next session. I never have had any issues with battery life since that one time I forgot to charge it.