Hammerhead Karoo 3: How Long Does the Battery Last in Real Use?
Question: how long does the Karoo 3 last on average on a single charge cycle?
or in other words: how can I set the Karoo 3 to last as long as possible on a single charge cycle?
does anyone have experience with this?
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Hi Everyone,
I want to express my gratitude for sharing your thoughts and questions with us. Our team has been working diligently to test the performance and gather insights, and we truly appreciate your patience during this process. You can find more detailed information in the release notes, and we hope it addresses your concerns.
Karoo Software Build Version: 1.516.1983 -
Hi guys ,
I have had my Karoo 3 now since the middle of January. On average, I have experienced a battery usage of about 8 - 10 % per hour. In most cases, it has been very sunny and rather cold (I sometimes rode in 0° C temperatures, which also pulls more power out of the battery). I rarely use map view and mostly have data pages on display.
That being said, it would seem like 10 - 12 hours would be realistic, which for me, is more than enough. I would expect a better battery performance as the weather gets warmer.
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@tomasz.kaniewski
thanks for these results.
But what would interest me is what your display looked like?
Black numbers with a white background (light mode) or
white numbers with a black background (dark mode).Are there also differences in the battery load?
The question is also, which view is easier to read at a display brightness of 20 %?
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I tried both modes, light and the dark, on the Karoo 2 and the new Karoo, but to be honest I didn't notice much difference in battery runtime.
I think it's a matter of personal preference which mode you prefer, I find the light mode better to read (on the Karoo 2 I was using 40% brightness, which is about the same as the 20% you mentioned on the new Karoo). Others will see this differently..
The new Karoo will never be a battery champion, that is simply not possible with this type of display and system. Even the small Bolt 2 lasts longer than the new Karoo. On the other hand, the Garmin Edge Explore 2 is in the same ballpark as the new Karoo, so the new Karoo is more than adequate for everyday use (which is my kind of use).
I can confirm the numbers from @Tomasz.kaniewski (after a check of my own fit.files), as my new Karoo usually lasts about 10-13 hours when the screen is set to auto mode and connected to 4-5 sensors (speed, cadence, HR, and front - and backlight including radar) and some map interaction. It depends on the number of radar and other alerts and messages, map-interactions, whether I'm following a route, whether I'm riding mostly in the sun or not (since the display is set to auto mode) or what the temperature is, whether it 's closer to 10 or 13 hours. And as mentioned in the other thread, the new Karoo still seems to drain the battery a bit faster in the last 25% (with battery saver mode disabled).
And a very I important side note: my estimated battery runtimes are calculated using only the time the Karoo is active recording a ride. Since I don't power off the Karoo during short or middle breaks and I have activated auto-pause and set the sleep display to 5 minutes, the total time in which the Karoo (especially the screen) is somehow active is slightly longer and therefore also the battery life. If you take this into account, the battery life is in an range between 12 and +15 hours.
So with the new Karoo I have no worries to start wherever I want to ride as long as the device is 80-90% charged. It will last the whole day without me having to change any of my preferred settings. That's all I wanted from the new Karoo in terms of battery life, as the Karoo 2 was a bit shaky in that regard. But I'm not a bikepacker, they might see things differently.
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Today first ride with my Specialed Vafo SL.
Riding time completed with pause 2:12 h, driving 1:33 h. Start with 62 % and finished with 32 %. Over 40 % for 2 hours.
In my whole life I don‘t own a device with such a so bad battery time.
On Thursday I will do a 170 KM gravel ride, I think 10-12 hours. On the road. I‘m sure that this is not possible with a full battery 🙄
I must pack a powerbank in my pocket and that is worse.
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Yesterday evening I rode with automatic backlight. Full ride time was 3:40, battery consumption ~25% (100% -> 75%). Riding in the evening and at night means minimal backlight. I rode without a route, speed, cadence, heart rate and radar sensors were connected. The screen mainly displayed data fields. So such a small load for the device. During daytime riding with stronger backlight and navigation on, the consumption will increase significantly.
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When riding on a bright and very sunny day the Karoo draws about 10% out of my battery per hour.
Auto brightness is always on and there are no sensors connected. For my activities that is more than sufficient and I must say that the readability of the display is excellent in all conditions. -
Today I had gravel ride 3:53 elapsed time, 3:41 moving time. Battery start from 100%, end on 43% !!!
Screen backlight was manually set on ~10%. Ride with navigation and maybe 3-5 small changing of the route. Only speed & cadence sensors were connected. It first times I have so big battery consumption!
One thing was different today than usual, I had enabled showing previous rides in the 'Tilehunting' extension by Timklge.
@Timklge do you have any knowledge about energy consumption by your extension?
@HH Team is it possible to check the energy consumption (like in Android smartphones) of the system and individual components? Hardware - divided into screen, bt, wifi, gps connections and individual active sensors and searching for those from the list. Software - including installed extensions? -
Mine drains 8-10% per hour with navigation and I live track all my rides. The sensors I have connected are SRAM Red AXS with Power Meter, Polar H10 HRM and Garmin Varia 515. I use the Epic Ride Weather extension, VinHKE custom data fields, lap tracking every 20km and the Reminder extension (drink every 30 mins and eat every 40mins). I get minimal phone notifications, which I control through a custom focus mode. I have 6 screens configured (including map) and several have a mix of graphical and data only fields. I keep the screen on auto brightness and I interact with screens via the SRAM hood buttons.
I think this a fairly heavy load and the battery drain is acceptable. I do a fair number of Gran Fondo's lasting between 4 and 6 hours and don't feel like I am at risk of total drain. As the weather gets warmer I would expect to see a slight improvement.
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In my experience, weather conditions and daylight sunshine play a major role. Just came back from an early morning ride. During the 1st hour when the sun was barely out, battery consumption was about 6 % (which relates to a 16-hour battery life as advertised by Hammerhead), but with full brightness the battery drains about 10% an hour. Auto-brightness is always on. So, even during an extremely bright day, you should get about 10 hours of operating time. I doubt that a lot of riders out there need more.
I agree with Frank. Temperatures definitely play a role and during the summer months battery life should be better
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@Gregory Gregory
I can confirm battery consumtion up to 15%/hour with @Timlge statshuning extension. After disable it, the battery consumtion is ~8%/hour.
this is very interesting because @Timlge writes to me
Do you use the activity line drawing feature? That's rather unoptimized and likely has a big battery impact because it goes through all your activities and clips the path to the currently viewed tile area every time that changes, and this uses a lot of cpu even on the k3. I don't use it myself and am not sure anyone does, so I have not spent the effort to optimize it yet
On my device, I have it enabled all the time though because it's not intrusive. Together with the headwind, reminder, powerbar, routegraph and spintunes extensions I experience about 10 % battery usage per hour depending on the screen brightness, and there's not much difference compared to without any extensions.
I have deactivated the "activity line drawing", but the battery discharge does not change.
I will delete the Extension and test again. -
Hi :-)
yesterday I tested Karoo3 on a long, over 9h route. I started with a level of 99% and ended with a critical 14%, after which I connected it to a powerbank. I am attaching a image file with the time and battery breakdown over time.
start: 11.05.202507:32:38 - 99%
end (before: connecting to the power bank): 18:16:05 - 14%it's not bad, although I expected a bit longer operating time on one charging cycle (I'm writing as an ex-Garmin user) but for a change it charges quickly and that makes me happy :)
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