BATTERY LIFE on Karoo 2
Answered
COMPLETELY DISAPPOINTED ... I bought the Karoo 2 b/c of it's amazing navigation screen to guide me on long adventures. Yesterday I rode 132 miles (212km) and the Karoo 2 died at the 7th hour. I had a Garmin Varia connected for safety and a blinking headlight also for safety and the navigation on b/c it was a new route and I needed to follow the planned route. Display was at 50%.
What's the point of this great Navigation display if it can't last longer than 7 hours. Quite frankly it's really useless at this point for me.
Stan Germán, Princeton Junction, NJ USA
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Karoo 2 is estimated to achieve between 7 and 14+ hours of battery life depending on the features employed during usage. Below are some tips and tricks to maximize battery life for those longer rides.
*Backlight brightness - is the real deal-maker / breaker 🙄
https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/articles/360056878514-Karoo-2-Battery-Life-Expectations
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Yeah, for long adventures I am finding I worry about the battery and end up taking a battery bank. The most I can see getting out of the device, even with the backlight at the lowest setting, is about 10 hours and if it starts re-routing it drains battery fast. The battery in the unit is big, so trying to keep this thing charged away from the power grid is more challenging than my other devices.
D
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Hey Stan,
Sorry to hear about your ride being cut short due to a high battery drain, As Gerard mentioned the Karoo 2 does give a battery performance between 7-14 hours based on the usage.
We have also seen that as the Karoo 2 ( especially units fresh out of the box) start to track better battery performances as they go through multiple charging/discharging cycles.
I do see that Abhishek from our team is working with you to understand if the battery drain rate is abnormal. I am sure we will work towards giving you the best solution :)
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I wonder what the reason is that for some people with similar setups the battery live is fine and for others it is so bad. I can't believe that it only depends on the number of turns in your route etc. BTW does it could really help to do a factory reset? (I am not that keen setting up everything from scratch again.)
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I did a factory reset after a firmware update (the one with the option to choose between black/white screens). After the update battery drain increased a lot (18% per hour). Factory reset did improve it (12% per hour), but it never went back to the percentages of 8% per hour before the firmware update.
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For me replacing the graphical heart rate data field with a normal (digits only) field helped with battery drain a lot. I like this "bubble" shaped heart rate field, but I like better battery life even more.
But with similar setups maybe the problem lies within the quality of the battery used in K2?
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@Akhil regarding the "Karoo 2 Battery Life Expectations" post. Is it sufficient to be on another page than the map or a page with graphical HR field or does the inclusion in one profile already leads to the mentioned higher drains? And, it is sufficient to just disable mobile date (sim) or do I have to actually remove it from the K2 as somehow indicated in the above mentioned post?
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My experience from last weekend:
Reading all the comments on battery life on the forum, I was quite afraid for my first long MTB ride this weekend. I mounted an extra powerbank on my handlebars, but I did not need it at all.Did a MTB ride of 8h on the bike, 9h travel time (= the Karoo2 was on for 9h) with navigation and heart rate monitor connected and still had 40% on arrival. My screen brightness was at about 15%.
My co-rider had same setup but with screen brightness at about 50% and only had 14% battery left on arrival.
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I have just finished a 4,500km tour over 50 days. Each day I cycled between 4 and 6 hours with no more than 7 hours total usage whilst using cadence sensor, hrm & varia radar (rear light flashing). iPhone was connected (although this randomly drops in and out). Backlight was down to about 20% and battery save was on all the time. Roads and routes used were mostly very quiet with only occasional traffic. TBT was main purpose given complexity of route but individual turns were usually several km apart or very closely grouped together (ie TBT came on intermittently or in a short concentrated bunch).
I am seriously disappointed in the battery life: every day, the unit needed to be recharged to be used the following day (thank goodness I thought to bring two charging battery packs otherwise it would have been a disaster); cycling for 5-6 hours pushed the battery to the last 10%; cycling over 6 hours drained the battery completely so that it died mid-ride and entire rides were lost and not recorded (anything over 110km). After 1 month, I seriously considered ditching it and buying a wahoo.
Battery life has to be improved. At the very least, it needs to be able to be recharged whilst in use. Otherwise, it is useless as a multi-day device.
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Just back from a six-hour ride with the K2 and I've still got at 50% battery life left. I had the turn by turn navigation turned on and the main route map showing for the whole ride. I also had a TIckr fit bluetooth monitor connected. The only change I made was to turn down the screen brightness to 15% and turn off wifi and mobile data.
I am really pleased with the battery life on the K2 - my old Garmin got me about four hours even without the HR strap attached.
Now, I need beer and a nap. 100km on gravel has all but killed me!
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Just got my new Karoo 2 after upgrading from a Karoo 1.....great features, but unfortunately the battery died 30 miles into a 58 mile gravel ride. Unacceptable for sure, regardless of what features I had turned on. For the record, the dirt ride profile had one map and then four data functions on the 2nd screen. Brightness was about half way......had a Hammerhead HR monitor on, as well as a Varia light/radar. My old Karoo 1 had decent battery life, as it would last about 90 miles.....charging the K2 as we speak as it showed 0% battery. Will do the factory reset and try again, otherwise it will be sent back for replacement. Wanted to brag about the new unit to my riding buddies, but had to bite my tongue.
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