Battery Life: 60cs/csx Vs. Others

[gdragon34]

I have my search for a new toy narrowed down to the 60cx or the 60csx.

 

I don't mind paying an extra $40 or so for the CSX, I mostly mind the claimed 33% reduction in battery life that comes with it. I admit the real compass might be cool to have once in a while but I'm not sure if it's worth having the batteries die that much quicker.

 

Anyway, my question is: If the compass feature is shut off will the CSX have the same or nearly the same battery life as the non-S model?

 

thanks,

Josh

[+briansnat]

I'm sure it will help, but I doubt it will get to the level of the CX. There is also a barometric altimeter in the unit and I do't think that can be shut off. Of course I can't say anything for certain, having never done a comparison.

 

Perhaps you can call Garmin tech support and see what they say.

[+Team Cotati]

Who 'claims' that there is a 33% reduction in battery life? Garmin like others, usually state an approximate useful battery life for all their products on their web site's product info page. This number is not intended to be all inclusive under all operating conditions using all possible battery types. However, it is usually good enough for comparisons.

[GeoBobC]

Garmin doesn't claim any difference between the two. They are both rated at 18 hours.

[+YuccaPatrol]

If you carry an extra set of rechargable batteries with you on any given day, you are not likely to ever have any real concerns with battery life.

 

If you go on an extended backpacking trip, etc, and don't want to carry enough batteries for every minute of the trip, you'll turn the unit on when needed and leave it off for more extended periods of time.

 

In normal daily use, I leave the compass and backlight on most all the time. Near the end of the day, I sometimes need to switch out my batteries.

Edited May 31, 2006 by YuccaPatrol

[+hogrod]

I can't beleive how good the battery life is in our legendC, garmin claims 36hrs, we get closer to 30 with some backlight use. I haven't used the 60cx enough yet to know what kind of battery life it really gets.

 

I will say that when I use energizer lithium E2 batterys in the legendC I got around 50hrs of battery life, then one day when caching they went from full charge on battery meter to 3bars down to low battery warning in about a 10minute period.

 

This was the only thing that bothered me about using lithium batterys, though it was probably the battery meter in the legendC that wasn't reading properly.( the lithiums showed full until their last 10minutes of use)

Edited May 31, 2006 by hogrod

[GlfWrVt]

I have had my CSx run for 20 hours on energizer rechargables with the compass off. I havent tested it with the compass on. I dont think 18 hours is to shabby.

 

Mark.

[gdragon34]

Garmin doesn't claim any difference between the two. They are both rated at 18 hours.

 

Hey how about that, you're absolutely right. I hadn't realized that. I based what I said on the 60c and 60cs having 30 and 20 hours respectively. Doesn't matter now since my 60csx is ordered.

 

thanks everybody.

[kb9nvh]

Also, the compass is nice but I really like the altimeter. You get a nice altitude profile. For a hiker or biker I would value this over the compass myself. I do like the compass when geocaching as you can trust it to point the right way when not moving...

 

Garmin doesn't claim any difference between the two. They are both rated at 18 hours.

 

Hey how about that, you're absolutely right. I hadn't realized that. I based what I said on the 60c and 60cs having 30 and 20 hours respectively. Doesn't matter now since my 60csx is ordered.

 

thanks everybody.