# Garmin 820 battery issues?



## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

I got this Garmin about a year ago, and until recently it has been very good. Recently I can’t get it to last for a 2 hour ride, it just turns itself off.

I thought maybe it was a settings issue so I turned off all of the alerts and notifications. Did a couple laps at the local trail and it died again 1/2 way through the second lap (12 miles total).

Any suggestions to help battery life?


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## thasingletrackmastah (Nov 15, 2005)

Do you have the backlight on all the time?


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## Lone Rager (Dec 13, 2013)

Yeah. Turn the backlight off, run GPS only without Glonass or Galileo and turn off bluetooth and wifi. That might help some but it sounds like your battery is going south. 820 were never very good in the battery life department in the first place. You can google "garmin 820 battery replacement" and find replacement batteries and instructions for replacing them. It is somewhat involved and delicate involving soldering. Another option is contact Garmin support and see what they might do for you. I recently got my out-of-warranty 820 replaced for free due to the well known screen halo issue. If you have the screen halo problem, ask about fixing that and they may do the same for you.


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## Forest Rider (Oct 29, 2018)

I saw a youtube video in the 'recommendations' for how to replace the 820 battery. What a coincidence! I didn't watch the video or I'd have it in my history to share here.


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## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

Thanks guys!

Yeah the first times the backlight was on, but last night I had everything off. I actually thought it turned off when I started to ride cause the screen was dark. But it was running and tracking me for a little over an hour before it died completely again. It is the fourth time in a row it hasn’t finished a ride.

I will check on the Battery replacement and may reach out to Garmin as well. It isn’t a year old and half the year it couldn’t be used due to weather closing the trails here.


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## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

Just an update to the thread...

It doesn’t seem like my issue is a battery issue, I have lost another couple of rides since the last post. What I have found is that there is actually plenty of battery left, but the unit is just shutting itself off. Garmin thinks I have something corrupted, so just did a factory reset and deleted everything. Gonna try tomorrow and see if it does any better.

Oh yeah, Garmin support also suggested that charging should only be done with their cable, and only from a PC. Not sure why either would make a difference, and the manual actually says a wall outlet may be used but that is what they told me.


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## kk2 (Sep 29, 2014)

My 820 is two years old. I have been using it in sub freezing temperatures now the battery lasts about half of what it used to. Winter it lasts only about two hours. Was going to get the 830. But I heard that the software issues are terrible.


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## Lone Rager (Dec 13, 2013)

I was an early adopter on the 820 and the software was terrible on that too. They got it mostly sorted after a couple of years and I expect they'll eventually get the 830 mostly sorted too. The emphasis should be placed on mostly as there will always be significant residual problems. 

You guys probably are aware that you can use any old cheap power stick/bank to power the 820 while riding. It's a kludgy workaround, and using it in the wet is probably inadvisable.


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## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

Well I only got one lap in today so not a real test after the reset... but it didn’t turn off and battery looked strong when I stopped.


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## kk2 (Sep 29, 2014)

Went for a long ride today. Did not have it go go to the sleep mode. HR cadence and speed sensor ON. The battery lasted 6hr and then it went to the sleep mode.


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## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

Mine isn’t going as well... went for a ride yesterday, did 17 miles of trail in about 2:15 and the Garvin turned off at about 12 miles. I was able to get it to power back on, but it had done a full shutdown during the ride.


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