Battery Life

[+bobbart]

I have a 60CS which is supposed to have 20 hrs battery life - lucky if I 3. any ideas ?

[+Seek+Hide]

Lithium - About 50 searches on the 1st set of batteries and still going strong.

Rechargeables may be more economical (and green) in the long-run... But now I use lithium batteries exclusively in my Garmin legend, palm pilot, and Kodak digital camera. I started out using rechargeables in the camera, took about 1500 pictures the first year I had it, but it seemed like I was always needing to swap out a freshly charged set at the most inopportune time.

[+Mudfrog]

Check your backlight setting. It may be on constantly and that would make a big difference on battery life. Also, turn off the built in compass when you arent actually using it. It's not needed for 99% of the caches out there.

 

Don't buy cheap batteries,, them things arent worth anything. For alkalines, Energizer's work good but i would recommend getting rehargeables with a good charger. Again, the Energizer brand NIMHs work real good!

[+The Blind Acorn]

I use Energizer disposables (I know it's bad for the environment), and get many hours of usage. Tried Energizer rechargeables in GPS, it didn't work any longer, plus I've noticed these batteries have a short lifespan. Used them in digital camera in the past too without much success.

[+Prime Suspect]

I have a 60CS which is supposed to have 20 hrs battery life - lucky if I 3. any ideas ?

That's a theoretical maximum, which probably applies if the power-saver mode is on, compass is off, WAAS is off, and the backlight is used sparingly or not at all. All of those things increase power usage, to one degree or another. I get a good 9 or 10 hours out of my Vista, using 2500 mAh rechargeable NiMHs. I don't use power-saver, may or may not have WAAS turned on, and only turn on the compass when I need it (it has single-button activation, so it's not really a hassle).

[+JakeBond]

I have the legend cx and my batts last nearly 20 hours. i use the backlight sparingly and rarely have it on for more than 3-4 hours at a time. I recomend using duracells promax professional or enegizer industrial alkaline.

[codeman3]

I have the same problem with my explorist 300 I get maybe 5 hours max, the back lit only comes on when I want, and I have turned off the electronic compass, I use energizer fresh batteries everytime and Im not really in the cold that much. So I know what you feel like

[+Mudfrog]

I use Energizer disposables (I know it's bad for the environment), and get many hours of usage. Tried Energizer rechargeables in GPS, it didn't work any longer, plus I've noticed these batteries have a short lifespan. Used them in digital camera in the past too without much success.

 

This is puzzling. You're probably right about the NIMHs not working any longer in your GPSr. I probably get about 8 hours out of them on my Garmin 76s which is probably a little less than when using alkalines. But in my experience, they are the only way to go in digital camera applications.

 

It may be possible that your charger wasn't working properly. Some chargers don't work as well as others and i think some may even be harmful to batteries, causing them to bite the dust prematurely. I've been running Energizer NIMHs for over two years now and i havnt had to toss any of them yet! They have definitely paid for themselves a few times over!

[+briansnat]

3 sounds like there is something way wrong. I get 12 easily out of new alkalines in my 60CS and that's without battery saver on.

Edited May 14, 2006 by briansnat

[4wheelin_fool]

Check your backlight setting. It may be on constantly and that would make a big difference on battery life...

I agree. This can be a problem as the backlight is hard to notice if it is on at times(outdoors, bright sunlight) The backlight will drain the batteries the quickest. Also, if you use cheap batteries, they are not worth it. I prefer Duracell. Batteries which cost half as much do not even last half as long.

[+Trail Buzzards]

Sounds like you got your batteries from one of those discount places. My wife purchased an 8-pak of "high performance Power (2850mAh)" batteries for $1.99 for her Magellan STP. The batteries went from full charge to totally dead within 3 hours.

[+Prime Suspect]

Sounds like you got your batteries from one of those discount places. My wife purchased an 8-pak of "high performance Power (2850mAh)" batteries for $1.99 for her Magellan STP. The batteries went from full charge to totally dead within 3 hours.

 

You just misunderstood the packaging. "2850mAh" was the sum of all 8 batteries!

[+Ichabod]

I have a 60CS as well and use rechargeables. I haven't really tracked the hours, but typically, I only change out batteries every three to four weeks. I use a power supply adapter while in the car, so only run on batteries from the car to the cache.

[+headybrew]

Whenever I see these threads on batteries, I'm happy to tout the joys of NIMH rechargables. I get great performance with them in my 60CSX. Even if you don't care about the environment, they're simply the cheapest way to go.

 

Just be sure to set your GPSR to use them in the settings, or else it will falsely report "low battery" too early. Also, not all NIMH batteries are created equal. Get the highest mah rating you can. I've had good results with the lower 1800mah batteries, but much better results with 2500mah bats.

 

This is currently the cheapest way to go by far. A charger with 4 batteries is only about $15 if you shop around. You can always have the second set in the charger and you never have to worry about running out of power.

[+Night Stalker]

I haven't had any problems with my 2500 NIMH batteries until recently. I do a lot of navigating in car with my 60CS. I have my GPS plugged into the lighter. When I disconnect to hunt a cache I find that my batteries are dead. Don't know what is going on, but I have started removing my batteries when I want to navigate in a car.

[+StarBrand]

On my 60C, I can easily get about 12 - 15 hours on a set of batteries with WAAS and no battery saver but I rarely if ever use the backlight. On a good set of 2400mah rechargeables, I usually get 10 - 12 hours.

[+kentuckygirls]

Whenever I see these threads on batteries, I'm happy to tout the joys of NIMH rechargables. I get great performance with them in my 60CSX. Even if you don't care about the environment, they're simply the cheapest way to go.

 

Just be sure to set your GPSR to use them in the settings, or else it will falsely report "low battery" too early. Also, not all NIMH batteries are created equal. Get the highest mah rating you can. I've had good results with the lower 1800mah batteries, but much better results with 2500mah bats.

 

This is currently the cheapest way to go by far. A charger with 4 batteries is only about $15 if you shop around. You can always have the second set in the charger and you never have to worry about running out of power.

 

We are also finding this to be true, although we use 2000mah batteries. We bought an off brand at Wal-Mart that had 4 batteries and a charger for 16 or 17 dollars. We've been using them in the GPSr (Map60c) and the camera for about a year now with great results.

 

As someone else in this thread brought up it might be that your charger is faulty. Maybe you could try a different charger.