Garmin Instinct Solar Low Battery

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Yesterday just as I was telling the Garmin Instinct to start tracking I noticed that I had 20 or less percent of battery left so I considered turning around, to swap to another device. I didn’t, and I just went for a 12km walk. During the walk I was more focused on keeping the watch face facing into the sun, to keep the sun powering the watch and it worked.

I really expected the watch to die. I had about 20 percent battery and that is what is used during a usual walk. I think that the strong sun, as well as me actively trying to keep my wrist facing into the sun helped give the watch enough power not to die.

First time

Usually I always keep my devices charged. As soon as I see them dip to 30 percent I usually charge them. In this case though, I didn’t, so I really depended on the sun to keep the device powered, and it worked.

The Alternate Plan

The alternative that I considered was to take off the watch, strap it to the back and have it count steps, rather than track the activity with the GPS and more. I know that in this mode the battery can last for weeks, when the sun is shining, as it is doing at the moment. With Solar watches, in theory, you never need to charge, them, especially if you use them as a step counter and nothing else.

Just Enough Power

I believe that the watch, with the sun we had yesterday, generates just enough power to keep itself running whilst tracking, with little left over, if anything for actual charging. It went from eight hours down to three hours but I suspect it would have died, if the weather had been overcast and if I had not kept the watch facing the sun.

I don’t recommend letting the battery get so low, I just carried out an experiment, since the opportunity presented itself. I was also tracking with the Apple watch on the other wrist so I would not have lost the track. It would just have taken more effort to keep things up to date.

And Finally

I need to get back to doing more interesting things. I’m walking around in circles, so although I track everything I do, it isn’t interesting to look at on a map, because these are walks I do regularly.