Battery repair only below 79%

[chfilm]

Hey,

I tried to have my 82% battery replaced on my Apple Watch 7, opened a case and shipped it to Apple. Today it came back, without any comment, but the battery didn’t get repaired.
I called again and they told me, that an Apple Watch battery can under no circumstances be replaced if it’s still above 80%. Doesn’t matter if I’m willing to pay, because they’re most likely gonna swap the entire watch and it makes no sense for them to open up a watch and repair the battery if it’s still „too good“.

Has anybody had a different or similar experience?

 

[Howard2k]

Yeah this is totally routine.

 

[chrfr]

Hey,

I tried to have my 82% battery replaced on my Apple Watch 7, opened a case and shipped it to Apple. Today it came back, without any comment, but the battery didn’t get repaired.
I called again and they told me, that an Apple Watch battery can under no circumstances be replaced if it’s still above 80%. Doesn’t matter if I’m willing to pay, because they’re most likely gonna swap the entire watch and it makes no sense for them to open up a watch and repair the battery if it’s still „too good“.

Has anybody had a different or similar experience?

Apple never opens your watch for a battery replacement- it's always just swapped out, and always at under 80%. There is no flexibility in them replacing the battery at 80% or above.

 

[deeddawg]

I'm surprised you were able to open a case. When I did battery replacement for my S6, I had to show that the watch was saying the battery needed servicing (which it does when it finally drops below 80%)

 

[chfilm]

I'm surprised you were able to open a case. When I did battery replacement for my S6, I had to show that the watch was saying the battery needed servicing (which it does when it finally drops below 80%)

It was really strange- they let me open a case and it even said that it would be 0€ thanks to EU regulations. And now it turned out that it was all an error on their end.

 

[russell_314]

It was really strange- they let me open a case and it even said that it would be 0€ thanks to EU regulations. And now it turned out that it was all an error on their end.

Do you think maybe EU regulations require them to open a case even if they know it doesn’t need repairs? In the USA that’s the first thing they check.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Not a surprise. Apple will not replace the battery until it reads 79% or less because you get a refurbished replacement watch. You have no choice but to wait till that threshold is met

 

[chfilm]

Do you think maybe EU regulations require them to open a case even if they know it doesn’t need repairs? In the USA that’s the first thing they check.

No they said themselves it was a server error in their end.. had I bought the watch directly from Apple and not Amazon, and had it dropped below 79% and was under the two year EU warranty, they had replaced it for free.

 

[Fahadx]

I had the same issue with my Series 5. Battery was above 80% so they wouldn’t replace it until it went below 80%. I had to wait till it hit 79% and then I had to pay I think $79 to replace it.

 

[chfilm]

I had the same issue with my Series 5. Battery was above 80% so they wouldn’t replace it until it went below 80%. I had to wait till it hit 79% and then I had to pay I think $79 to replace it.

Frustrating. The battery life at 82% is horrendous and barely gets me through a day!

 

[QCassidy352]

Yeah my S7 is at 83% and also barely lasts the day. Very annoying that they won’t offer a replacement at that level. I’d be happy to pay more if that’s what it takes for it to make economic sense for them.

 

[epitaphic]

The worse thing for a battery is to use up the last 20%. If only there were a way to automate a charge/discharge you'd be able to get it swapped relatively quickly.

 

[chfilm]

The worse thing for a battery is to use up the last 20%. If only there were a way to automate a charge/discharge you'd be able to get it swapped relatively quickly.

Well yeah it hits the 20% alarm every day now, but usually around bedtime, so sadly I’m not really using the last 20.. :/

 

[MarkX]

Well yeah it hits the 20% alarm every day now, but usually around bedtime, so sadly I’m not really using the last 20.. :/

So you’re making it to bed time and still have around 20%. Seems like the watch is still performing as it should then

 

[epitaphic]

So you’re making it to bed time and still have around 20%. Seems like the watch is still performing as it should then

My S4, from fully charged, will just about manage a 1.5hr gym session with Spotify on headphones and promptly dies 😅

Battery health at 83%

 

[mjpearce023]

If you turn off optimize charging and leave it all night on the charger you can drop the battery health pretty quickly. I’ve gotten 2% off mine in the last week doing this.

 

[chfilm]

So you’re making it to bed time and still have around 20%. Seems like the watch is still performing as it should then

Not really.. I went to bed today with just 10% left and I didn’t work out or anything. That’s the thing, it still works but not if I excercise or -god beware- cycle a bit during the day and then have the crazy thought to go to a bar late at night😑😑.

 

[Snide]

My series 7's battery health was stuck at 80% for at least 6 months, and I was starting to think there was something fishy going on. I checked it the other day and it was 78%. FINALLY! 🎉💃🕺

As per usual, I had to unpair the watch to initiate the Express Replacement service. In the meantime I'm using my series 5 SBSS, but would rather not take it swimming or cycling, as it doesn't have AppleCare. I'm wondering if I could simply re-pair the series 7 and use it until the package arrives. Any reason not to do this? Please advise.

 

[chfilm]

My series 7's battery health was stuck at 80% for at least 6 months, and I was starting to think there was something fishy going on. I checked it the other day and it was 78%. FINALLY! 🎉💃🕺

As per usual, I had to unpair the watch to initiate the Express Replacement service. In the meantime I'm using my series 5 SBSS, but would rather not take it swimming or cycling, as it doesn't have AppleCare. I'm wondering if I could simply re-pair the series 7 and use it until the package arrives. Any reason not to do this? Please advise.

yes you can re-pair it!

 

[geepondy]

Another interesting twist in the Apple watch battery replacement saga. My S7 battery life is down to 80 percent (stuck at 82 percent for a long time, now recently dropped to 80) and like others am having a hard time making it thru the day. I visited the Apple store Genius bar where the tech I spoke with added another interesting wrinkle. He said they can not authorize a battery service (like others mention, he said the watch is actually replaced) until the watch fails diagnostic testing. He said diagnostic failure is not really dependent on the battery health level but usually fails when there is a sharp sudden drop off, not a gradual decline. He said he has seen some watches with battery life in the low 70s that still pass diagnostics. Has anyone else heard of this? He also said the new series 10 do not come with a installed blood oxygen sensor at all which I had thought this feature was enabled in non-USA watches.

 

[perezr10]

Another interesting twist in the Apple watch battery replacement saga. My S7 battery life is down to 80 percent (stuck at 82 percent for a long time, now recently dropped to 80) and like others am having a hard time making it thru the day. I visited the Apple store Genius bar where the tech I spoke with added another interesting wrinkle. He said they can not authorize a battery service (like others mention, he said the watch is actually replaced) until the watch fails diagnostic testing. He said diagnostic failure is not really dependent on the battery health level but usually fails when there is a sharp sudden drop off, not a gradual decline. He said he has seen some watches with battery life in the low 70s that still pass diagnostics. Has anyone else heard of this? He also said the new series 10 do not come with a installed blood oxygen sensor at all which I had thought this feature was enabled in non-USA watches.

When your watch needs a battery replacement it’ll say so when you check Battery Health. For me that always happens when it gets to 79%. But it shouldn’t by any kind of surprise as to what Apple is going to say.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Another interesting twist in the Apple watch battery replacement saga. My S7 battery life is down to 80 percent (stuck at 82 percent for a long time, now recently dropped to 80) and like others am having a hard time making it thru the day. I visited the Apple store Genius bar where the tech I spoke with added another interesting wrinkle. He said they can not authorize a battery service (like others mention, he said the watch is actually replaced) until the watch fails diagnostic testing. He said diagnostic failure is not really dependent on the battery health level but usually fails when there is a sharp sudden drop off, not a gradual decline. He said he has seen some watches with battery life in the low 70s that still pass diagnostics. Has anyone else heard of this? He also said the new series 10 do not come with a installed blood oxygen sensor at all which I had thought this feature was enabled in non-USA watches.

When my S6 hit 79% I had the "service battery" notification show in the battery section. I took it to the Apple Store and they had no issues replacing it. I wouldn't see why they wouldn't replace the watch as long as the battery reads 79% or lower using their diagnostic equipment. There is no mention of having any other requirements to qualify

 

[Moukee]

I got an iPhone battery replaced twice at above 80%, they don't allow that with the Apple Watch?!

This is bad as the capacity indication is just an estimate and also because Watch battery life doesn't exactly have that much headroom to begin with.

 

[epitaphic]

I got an iPhone battery replaced twice at above 80%, they don't allow that with the Apple Watch?!

This is bad as the capacity indication is just an estimate and also because Watch battery life doesn't exactly have that much headroom to begin with.

They don't replace the battery on the watch, you get a new watch. So the process is more stringent

 

[chfilm]

In the meantime I turned off optimized charging and am down 1% to 81%…. Waiting patiently for it to drop 2% more… 🤓