revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Nordboy wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2026 9:51 am Before I went fully apple watch i had a couple of Amazfit watches which were pretty good indeed. And they're a good price as well for what they are.

Count Steer wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2026 8:52 pm Garmin Instinct E?

I have an Instinct Solar that's 3+ years old and this looks like a non-solar, older model (there's an Instinct 2 series now). Well pleased with it and the Garmin app is OK. The solar charging is, for me, a waste of time...the watch is under my sleeve most of the time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Smartwa ... B0G1C2GK24

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:00 pm

Count Steer wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2026 8:52 pm Garmin Instinct E?

I have an Instinct Solar that's 3+ years old and this looks like a non-solar, older model (there's an Instinct 2 series now). Well pleased with it and the Garmin app is OK. The solar charging is, for me, a waste of time...the watch is under my sleeve most of the time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Smartwa ... B0G1C2GK24

The “solar” part of Garmins seems to do very little . Mine needs charging every couple of days

Count Steer wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:25 pm
2 days seems a bit - are you constantly running the pulse oximeter? I never use it - it hammers the battery. (I've got a proper one and my blood oxygen isn't a problem so it gets measured only if I feel ill).

Smartwatch: Up to 16 days
Battery saver watch mode: Up to 40 days
GPS: up to 24 hours
All Satellite Systems: 16 hours
Max battery GPS mode: up to 50 hours
Expedition GPS Activity: Up to 20 days

Horse wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 1:56 pm

Count Steer wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:25 pm
2 days seems a bit - are you constantly running the pulse oximeter? I never use it - it hammers the battery. (I've got a proper one and my blood oxygen isn't a problem so it gets measured only if I feel ill).

From the link you posted earlier (not solar IIRC):

Smartwatch: Up to 16 days
Battery saver watch mode: Up to 40 days
GPS: up to 24 hours
All Satellite Systems: 16 hours
Max battery GPS mode: up to 50 hours
Expedition GPS Activity: Up to 20 days

Count Steer wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:25 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:00 pm

Count Steer wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2026 8:52 pm Garmin Instinct E?

I have an Instinct Solar that's 3+ years old and this looks like a non-solar, older model (there's an Instinct 2 series now). Well pleased with it and the Garmin app is OK. The solar charging is, for me, a waste of time...the watch is under my sleeve most of the time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Smartwa ... B0G1C2GK24

The “solar” part of Garmins seems to do very little . Mine needs charging every couple of days

Mine stopped solar charging and I can't be bothered to do the required software update because I get 20+ days per charge. (Less if I use the GPS function to track a walk for an hour or two - every hour knocks off about a day).

2 days seems a bit - are you constantly running the pulse oximeter? I never use it - it hammers the battery. (I've got a proper one and my blood oxygen isn't a problem so it gets measured only if I feel ill).

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:38 pm

Count Steer wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:25 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:00 pm

The “solar” part of Garmins seems to do very little . Mine needs charging every couple of days

Mine stopped solar charging and I can't be bothered to do the required software update because I get 20+ days per charge. (Less if I use the GPS function to track a walk for an hour or two - every hour knocks off about a day).

2 days seems a bit - are you constantly running the pulse oximeter? I never use it - it hammers the battery. (I've got a proper one and my blood oxygen isn't a problem so it gets measured only if I feel ill).

I never knew it had that setting !! Just found out how to turn it off as it was running all the time

Count Steer wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 7:38 am

Mr Moofo wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:38 pm

Count Steer wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 12:25 pm

Mine stopped solar charging and I can't be bothered to do the required software update because I get 20+ days per charge. (Less if I use the GPS function to track a walk for an hour or two - every hour knocks off about a day).

2 days seems a bit - are you constantly running the pulse oximeter? I never use it - it hammers the battery. (I've got a proper one and my blood oxygen isn't a problem so it gets measured only if I feel ill).

I never knew it had that setting !! Just found out how to turn it off as it was running all the time

Be interesting to see how that affects battery life. Got anything else permanently running? Mine monitors pulse constantly but that doesn't impact on the battery that much.

Pirahna wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:07 am My Garmin Forerunner 965 continuously monitors my pulse and typically used 4% battery a day if I don't track anything. I don't sleep wearing it.

Count Steer wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:15 am

Pirahna wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:07 am My Garmin Forerunner 965 continuously monitors my pulse and typically used 4% battery a day if I don't track anything. I don't sleep wearing it.

I do currently monitor my sleep/resting pulse/'battery charge' and get similar. Not too surprising really since everything seems to be calculated from pulse - there's not much else that gets measured apart from temperature and altitude (which doesn't change much on a normal night ).

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 1:35 pm

Count Steer wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:15 am

Pirahna wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:07 am My Garmin Forerunner 965 continuously monitors my pulse and typically used 4% battery a day if I don't track anything. I don't sleep wearing it.

I do currently monitor my sleep/resting pulse/'battery charge' and get similar. Not too surprising really since everything seems to be calculated from pulse - there's not much else that gets measured apart from temperature and altitude (which doesn't change much on a normal night ).

Mine is used for HR, distance, steps , “garmin calories “ used. it is also programmed for local tides and weather. Outside of that, there is not a lot i need to know. Altitude in the South Downs is up and down so rarely more than 400 m
And too be honest. i have no idea what the thing i turned off did !!

Count Steer wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 2:33 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 1:35 pm

Count Steer wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:15 am

I do currently monitor my sleep/resting pulse/'battery charge' and get similar. Not too surprising really since everything seems to be calculated from pulse - there's not much else that gets measured apart from temperature and altitude (which doesn't change much on a normal night ).

Mine is used for HR, distance, steps , “garmin calories “ used. it is also programmed for local tides and weather. Outside of that, there is not a lot i need to know. Altitude in the South Downs is up and down so rarely more than 400 m
And too be honest. i have no idea what the thing i turned off did !!

I do the steps and calories thing, so, unless the tides thing (I suspect mine has rudimentary weather in there somewhere too) uses a lot of juice you should be getting rather more days per charge. the pulse oximeter tells you (roughly) how well your blood is oxygenated. For most of us it's just more data to gather and ignore. Even if you've got emphysemia - in which case a) you know you have a tricky relationship with oxygen and b) you'd probably have a better device to measure it!

The altitude is involved in the calorie count - there's a 'how many 'floors' have you climbed?' daily log in there.

So, be interesting to see what happens.

Mr Moofo wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 3:31 pm
Been wearing today a battery is at 96% - but i haven’t had it actually recording anything !