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Battery question

PackyP

PackyP

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 29, 2016
121
67
I always wonder how everyone gets 2-3 days of battery. I bought my sport model 5 months ago, and I charge my watch overnight and usually take it off the charger around 7:30am. I generally work out for 35-40 mins a day and the only alerts I have turned on are texts, FB messenger, Instagram. My watch is usually around 20% or less by 10pm. I have unpaired and re-paired and its always been the same. Im running 2.2.2 currently and it is the same as previous iOS builds. There is just no way I would ever get more than one day out of it.
 
Julien said:
Define 'everyone'. I'm someone and I charge every night and usually have 10% to 25% left when I take it off.
Click to expand...

Just seems like a see that all the time in this forum. Go look around and you will see tons of "oh I get 2-3 days on a charge."

Glad I am not the only one that barely gets a day out of mine.
 
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Do you have the 38mm or 42mm model?

But my experience is the same with my 38mm sport when going to the gym for 45-60 minutes. Especially when I use my bt headphones.
 
I have the 42mm. Its nothing that I can't live with, I was just curious.
 
My guess is that you are doing activities that trigger the screen to come on over and over. Like during your workout. Turning the screen on is probably the biggest battery draw. I'm one of those people where the watch is usually about 60% at the end of the day.
 
Apple Watch Software 2.2.2 seems to have GREATLY improved my battery life. I'm a casual user, but by now I usually have 75% - 80% power remaining. Since 2.2.2 I have 90%.
 
PackyP said:
I always wonder how everyone gets 2-3 days of battery. I bought my sport model 5 months ago, and I charge my watch overnight and usually take it off the charger around 7:30am. I generally work out for 35-40 mins a day and the only alerts I have turned on are texts, FB messenger, Instagram. My watch is usually around 20% or less by 10pm. I have unpaired and re-paired and its always been the same. Im running 2.2.2 currently and it is the same as previous iOS builds. There is just no way I would ever get more than one day out of it.
Click to expand...

Those getting 2-3 days do NOT exercise. I used to get 35 hours battery life easily...but now that i regularly exercise (30-45 min), i get 20-30% by end of day. I charge it while eating dinner & showering and then wear it for bed.
 
PackyP said:
I always wonder how everyone gets 2-3 days of battery.
Click to expand...
Usually, if I'm not doing much in a day, I'll have 75-80% left when I go to bed. When I exercise I typically do that by walking, 4.5km or more, so if I remember to start the workout app I'll have like 55-60% battery left at bedtime.

I read somewhere that if a user has dark skin the pulse-oximeter draws more power than for users with light skin, so that could affect battery levels.

It's interesting to note that the watch seems to draw much more power when you're out and about even if you're not running an exercise app that uses the pulse sensors; a while ago I forgot to charge my watch at night (a long walk with the workout app brought battery down to about 60% when I went to bed.) The day after I should only have burnt about 20% additional battery capacity (since that's my usual daily quota), but the walk I took that day (not remembering to run the exercise app) must have taken down battery a lot, because I was at 8% when I went to bed that day; the lowest I've ever been for the year I've owned this thing...

So if you're moving a lot even if you don't exercise, that might also affect battery life - or so I speculate anyhow.
 
I have a 42mm Stainless and I consider myself a light to less-than-moderate user and when I take it off the charger in the morning at 100% around 8:30, by the time I get home at 7 I have about 65 or so percent left. Put it on the stand, not on the charger, put it on airplane mode, disconnect from my phone, and the next morning it's about 55% or so, use it throughout the next day, and by the time I get home at 7 I have about 20% or so left.

I'm very happy with the battery life, I don't have to charge it every night if I don't want to. I don't work out with it, just my daily 4,000-6,000 steps, Facebook Messenger notifications, mail notifications, don't get too many texts, check weather via The Weather Channel App.
 
TyG8 said:
I have a 42mm Stainless and I consider myself a light to less-than-moderate user and when I take it off the charger in the morning at 100% around 8:30, by the time I get home at 7 I have about 65 or so percent left. Put it on the stand, not on the charger, put it on airplane mode, disconnect from my phone, and the next morning it's about 55% or so, use it throughout the next day, and by the time I get home at 7 I have about 20% or so left.

I'm very happy with the battery life, I don't have to charge it every night if I don't want to. I don't work out with it, just my daily 4,000-6,000 steps, Facebook Messenger notifications, mail notifications, don't get too many texts, check weather via The Weather Channel App.
Click to expand...

Why would you not charge it?
 
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Thai said:
According to MOST "experts," running down the battery to low % may not be as good as just topping off frequently.
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I'm not running it down to 3% or anything, usually it's around 15-20% by the time I put either the phone or watch on the charger.
 
TyG8 said:
I'm not running it down to 3% or anything, usually it's around 15-20% by the time I put either the phone or watch on the charger.
Click to expand...

But why not workout with it? Why not wear it to sleep and see how your heart rate is throughout the day and night? And if you want, there are plenty of sleep monitoring apps. Heart rate monitoring by Watch also gives it more accuracy in calculating your calories burned. Why not use it for its intended purpose that you spend money on?

For what you do, a Garmin Vivosmart or Fitbit Alta can do the same for cheap. Use your Apple Watch to the fullest! :)
 
TyG8 said:
If I can go 2 days, why not? Same thing for my 6+, battery easily lasts 2 days, so I'll just charge it when it's around 20%. One of the main reasons I got the + over the regular 6 was for the battery life.
Click to expand...

My question is why? You must have lots of free time looking and worrying about what percentage where if you just charge it all night you need not worry. I guess if you have nothing else to worry about . . . get married and have a few kids and you will be handing the so important iPhone to your baby in hopes of getting a few minutes of peace and quite!
 
Thai said:
But why not workout with it? Why not wear it to sleep and see how your heart rate is throughout the day and night? And if you want, there are plenty of sleep monitoring apps. Heart rate monitoring by Watch also gives it more accuracy in calculating your calories burned. Why not use it for its intended purpose that you spend money on?

For what you do, a Garmin Vivosmart or Fitbit Alta can do the same for cheap. Use your Apple Watch to the fullest! :)
Click to expand...

Newtons Apple said:
My question is why? You must have lots of free time looking and worrying about what percentage where if you just charge it all night you need not worry. I guess if you have nothing else to worry about . . . get married and have a few kids and you will be handing the so important iPhone to your baby in hopes of getting a few minutes of peace and quite!
Click to expand...

You guys sure are concerned how I use my Apple Watch, aren't you? I'll use it how I want to use it.

I replied letting the O.P. know how I use my watch and how I get good battery life out of it.
 
Day 2 and without charging last night - I took off my watch and left it on the kitchen counter - and I have 67% power remaining. It's almost 5:00PM. This is casual use, but still I'm getting WAAAAAY better battery life than with the previous software version.
 
rambo47 said:
Day 2 and without charging last night - I took off my watch and left it on the kitchen counter - and I have 67% power remaining. It's almost 5:00PM. This is casual use, but still I'm getting WAAAAAY better battery life than with the previous software version.
Click to expand...
So your avatar is of the Workout App's running person which should indicate you workout. Do you remove your :apple:Watch when you workout and use another watch and/or keep the Workout app off?

Seems kind of odd to use that avatar and not use the Workout app.
 
TyG8 said:
I have a 42mm Stainless and I consider myself a light to less-than-moderate user and when I take it off the charger in the morning at 100% around 8:30, by the time I get home at 7 I have about 65 or so percent left. Put it on the stand, not on the charger, put it on airplane mode, disconnect from my phone, and the next morning it's about 55% or so, use it throughout the next day, and by the time I get home at 7 I have about 20% or so left.

I'm very happy with the battery life, I don't have to charge it every night if I don't want to. I don't work out with it, just my daily 4,000-6,000 steps, Facebook Messenger notifications, mail notifications, don't get too many texts, check weather via The Weather Channel App.
Click to expand...

...funnily, I used to do the same exact thing with my 42mm Space Grey watch. I'd charge it over night, and wear it from 6:45am til around 7pm each day. I would normally only lose about 20% during the day so when I got home, would take it off and just put the watch into 'Power Reserve' mode, without charging it, until the next morning. I could sometimes get 3 days use from my watch, before it needed re-charging again. I will admit though that I would always have the battery percentage, showing on the watch face, so I could keep a track of it all the time.

Now, though, its just as easy to stick it on the charger every night (the charger is on my night stand), so I never need to worry about the battery and I do not ever need to have the battery percentage showing on the watch face neither.
;)
 
Dino F said:
...funnily, I used to do the same exact thing with my 42mm Space Grey watch. I'd charge it over night, and wear it from 6:45am til around 7pm each day. I would normally only lose about 20% during the day so when I got home, would take it off and just put the watch into 'Power Reserve' mode, without charging it, until the next morning. I could sometimes get 3 days use from my watch, before it needed re-charging again. I will admit though that I would always have the battery percentage, showing on the watch face, so I could keep a track of it all the time.

Now, though, its just as easy to stick it on the charger every night (the charger is on my night stand), so I never need to worry about the battery and I do not ever need to have the battery percentage showing on the watch face neither.
;)
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I'm sure I'll probably get to that point sometime, and I'm so used to having battery life at the top right of my screens of other devices, that's where I currently have it on my watch face. :D
 
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TyG8 said:
If I can go 2 days, why not? Same thing for my 6+, battery easily lasts 2 days, so I'll just charge it when it's around 20%. One of the main reasons I got the + over the regular 6 was for the battery life.
Click to expand...

Ignoring the argument about what is better for the battery's long-term health: I would be much more likely to forget to charge my watch if it wasn't part of my nightly routine. I charge it every night out of habit (I have a watch and iPhone charging stand on my night table), and after a little more than a year of wearing the watch the battery has never run completely out.

I did go for 2.5 days without charging it once while camping, but I put it in Low Power mode for the last night/day.

I wear mine for 16 to 18 hours per day and it usually has 30-40% left and if I include a one or two hour workout that will drop to around 20% or so.

Sean
 
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