netman9718

Upon reading and seeing for myself the 520 battery life is about 5.5 hrs. Yesterday during a club century around 4.5 hours my 520 advised my battery is low. At 5.5 hours while at a rest stop it quit. I was able to turn strava on my cell phone to log the remainder of the ride.
A week or so ago I rode with a group and I seen one of the guys had a 520 like mine. We chatted as we rode and he told me the first thing he suggested I do was go in and delete the 'indoor' and 'racing' modes. He said there are other things I could delete. By then we ramped up our speed and my mind was elsewhere.
Yesterday I was riding the century with a pro who told me that the there is so much going on with the 520 internally that he was not surprised my battery crapped out.
I am learning more and more about the 520 and would like to learn more about getting more time out of the battery. I have had mine for about a month now. One thing about yesterdays ride when we would stop and fill up our water bottles I am unsure on how to pause the unit. So it ran the whole time while riding and stopping for breaks. That is no big deal as I seen on strava it had total time and ride time separated.
What are some suggestions and tips to get more time out of the battery? Will deleting some of the modes save battery life? What do you think the maximum time one can get with a 520?
I have the screen brightness on 90%
I don't mind buying a gadget to boost the battery if needed. Any thoughts there?
Thanks in advance

Adonis72

I don't typically ride that long where its ever a problem however you could turn the brightness down to at least 80 and turn off live segments. I have a portable battery charger that I can bring too and its pretty light and charges fairly fast if needed for a very long ride.

PepeM

Is your backlight always on? If so, you could turn it off. I have my backlight off and brightness at 30% and get 10+ hours run time. I've never had an issue looking at it either. Might be an issue if you have ten fields showing at the same time, but I usually only have four and it works for me.

LUW

The more fields you have running, the more power drainage. For a long ride kill everything that you really don't need and on the screen only keep what you really need to know. And it doesn't matter if you have it on a different screen and not on the screen that is actively showing: all that info will still drain energy, since the unit thinks you will want to access the info so it will keep everything ready when needed. I have a 810, so maybe I'm saying nonsense, but I'm pretty sure you can momentarily pause the unit when you stop, which will also save some battery. And if it's linked to your cell, keep your cell always in BT range, because if the unit looses contact it will start actively scanning for the cell, which also draws energy. But the most important is too get your screen brightness as low as possible because high brightness is an hemorrhage to your battery.

TakingMyTime

Definitely turn the screen brightness down. I run mine at 70%. I've never ridden more than 3 hours but even then I still have at least 56% power remaining.

Turn the Blue Tooth off until you need it.

f4rrest

Glad I have a 510 then.

texbiker

Turn your screen brightness down to 60 or 70%. Also are you using Bluetooth features? Turn off Bluetooth. Are you recording the ride data with the Smart or 1 sec? Smart uses less power. I ride for 3+ hours with the 520 being on 4+ hours and have 70% to 80% battery left at the end.

netman9718

My daily rides of two hours or so the battery is no problem. I wanted to see how the battery lasted. So I made a couple hour ride and then powered the unit off and left it on my bike overnight. The next day I powered up and rode. About half way through the unit flashed low battery. I finished up with another two plus hour ride on the same charge without it shutting down. So yesterday was a extreme use above normal. I plan on several centurys this summer and wanted to get the unit dialed in. I do know I have the phone/text feature activated which I never use. I have several features activated that I most likely will never use. I am a strava premium user and have a lot of segments on the unit. I do know when I'm doing a century the last thing I'm thinking is hitting a segment so I need to shut that down on the longer rides. Dial the lighting down to 60-70 % and shut the bluetooth off.

netman9718

Tex i'm not sure how I'm recording the ride. When I get home I stop the ride, it ask if I want to save the ride and I say yes. I go in and its on the home computer. Not sure if thats through Garmin Connect or Strava. I have my cell bluetooth turned off but the Garmin bluetooh is on. I have a heart monitor and Duotrap going. I'm new to the gadgets and learning more about my riding and fitness everyday.
Is there another approach to saving my rides to Strava via the 520?

dim

get a handlebar bag such as this:



and get an external battery charger such as this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RAVPower-26...6800mAh+3-Port

you can ride several days and nights with your garmin switched on whilst plugged to the charger ... you can also charge your phone, your ipod etc etc .... if you dont get a handlebar bag, you can have it in your pocket, connected to the Garmin.... and the handlebar bag is very usefull so store your food/cell phone etc

Chandne

I used my 520 for a few rides before returning it for a 510 (I prefer the 510's touchscreen) and it easily gave me around 15 hours but my backlight is off except for 30 seconds. I also turned bluetooth off, syncing only after my ride. 5.5 hours seems awful low, unless your backlight is on for a long time, as well as bluetooth.

Scummer

I have used my edge 520 on a 9hour ride with battery at 15% left. I have 9 data fields in my display, but no route was running. Bluetooth was enabled and connected to my cellphone.

Here is the ride so you can see it wasn't a fluke. All recorded with the 520.
Bike Ride Profile | Boom chacalaca near Zorneding | Times and Records | Strava

GuitarBob

This. I run mine w/o backlight (or auto-off after 15 sec) and get ~10 hours run time with everything else enabled with both cadence and HR sensors.

Wittyname

Started yesterday with 87% battery, 42% now after 6hr 45min in use yesterday. 30sec backlight, bluetooth on, cadence HR and speed sensors connected, following a course for ~6hrs of that

Backlight is the biggest battery hog

Hoonigan

My 520 lasts a long time with the max amount of data displaying, 3 Bluetooth sensors, and live tracking. I've never really payed attention to exactly how long but I think it would last about 10+ hours from 100-0. I don't let it get that low though. I don't have the backlight on as I ride during the day. I used it once at night and it drained the battery a lot. Make sure it's off or turns off soon.

Jazzguitar

I easily get 12-15 hours with multiple sensors including Vector 2 pedals. If you're only getting under 5 hours contact Garmin because there's something wrong with your device.

Doug28450

Turn GLONASS off and turn the backlight down.

RNAV

Yeah, something's wonky with your battery. I can commute all week to work -- one hour each way -- on one charge. That's 5 hours @ 40% brightness with backlight on full-time for pre-dawn commute to work, and 5 hours @ 70% brightness with backlight auto-off after 15 seconds. I have to recharge once for my weekend rides.

DrIsotope

As has been said, has to be the backlight. Mine is set to the default 15-sec auto-off, and with BT phone connection, Live Segments, HR, Power, and Speed sensors, I charge my 520 once/twice a week-- averaging ~15 hours riding per week. I charged Thursday, and the 520 has had ~12 hours of on time, with the battery now sitting at 37%. I'll charge it after tomorrow's ride.

Having the map screen active seems to accelerate battery drain a bit, but certainly not to such a degree as to drop battery life down below 6 hours.

gregf83 

This. How many fields you have displayed is just noise. Backlight is the biggest power drain.

K.Katso

Yeah, what the others said about the backlighting. I have two data screens each with 4 values, paired with PM, HR, and speed sensors and I get 12+ hours out of mine. In fact I "downgraded" from the 1000 to get better battery life. My 1000 gets more almost 7 hours so you should easily be able to get more than that. If not, you've probably got a defective unit.

bgrider

I think your battery is messed up somehow. The advertised battery life is something like 15 hours. I have never tried to ride 15 hours straight and dont anticipate doing so, but it should cover a full day of riding or a century just fine. My 520 is new to me and I've had it out for many 3-4 hour rides and dont think it has ever been below about 80% after a single ride. I can usually get all my weekday morning rides (approx 1 hour) and two weekend (3-4 hour) rides in on one charge, although I usually charge up before the weekend just because. Having battery life for century or day long rides was important to me and mine clearly will handle that. I have 8 data screens on my main screen, blue tooth to my phone for LiveTrack, 15 seconds backlight shut off, and I use the glonass satelite setting. I would return your unit to Garmin for repair. Or try not running the back light the whole time.

netman9718

I looked at my unit last night. I think every toggle was on. The default back light setting was 'on all the time' so I turned it to 15 seconds . I rode with the back light down to 60 percent yesterday so I left that there.
I full charged it and will start today and see how long the battery last.
I followed everyone's advice. I'm hoping this should take care of it.

Redbullet

"On all the time" was the issue. With 100% backlight permanent on, it lasts around 5 hours. With new setting 15 seconds "on", it should last for some 10-12 hours.

netman9718

That's what I was hoping to hear. Thanks everyone!