battery life?

Mike: My 660 drains down at about the same pace.

Yes it could be normal if your playing and pressing a lot the buttons for an hour.

If your are using normally , i mean playing 5 or 6 times an hour , the battery will be good for 4,5 hours.

More you will charge the battery , more she will be.

Good test for the battery is to go with a full charge and wait until she go to down. Note the time.

If you get more than 5 hours its normal. The battery had no problem.

It wastes tons of battery when the backlight is on. I've got mine set to time out after a minute and the battery life last significantly more now. When I hear a voice prompt, I quickly tap the screen and turn the light on to see where I'm going but otherwise, it just stays off.

I set my backlight to 30 seconds or so, and keep it dim. also WAAS setting consumes more power.

Boy I can tell you I am not too impressed with the battery life of my NUVI 680..on a recent trip here to San Diego we ran out of battery just going to a few places and the Zoo...maybe and I say maybe 1.5 hours worth of service total...What a crock of *%$@*...5-6 hours of Battery life....It's a good thing they are not manufacturing Pace Makers!!! They will be getting a call from me when we get back home..My sons PSP played 2 movies and 4 games on and off the airplane and the whole trip to the zoo etc..and it still has power left!!
Arrrgghhhh

Yeah the 350 is suppose to have a 8 hour life, but it only has about 3 or 4. I have noticed that the following really consume power...

1) High brightness
2) WAAS on
3) MP3 playback
4) Being in route mode vs. map mode.

I just turn it off when not actually needed for navigation. It still holds any route that I have planned, and I use it more as an occasional reference than an actual guide.

I have never yet seen an electronic device that got the advertised battery life when used as 99% of people will use them. These tests are usually run at optimum or near optimum usage levels... the average user is rarely that conservative. If I needed a true handheld GPS, then that's what I'd get. Auto GPS are really only marginally useful useful in pedestrian mode. Planning a full day walking tour of someplace like Florence, Italy is just about guaranteed to drain the battery before you have made half the tour. You have to use good conservation techniques to have any chance at all, and that means turning it off whenever possible.

Of course, you could always use the power cord at all times and don't worry about the battery life. That is what I do, but that would be too simple...lol.

I too was interested in actual battery life on my new 660. Turning on the unit with full charge, screen "stays on", waas enabled, and just sitting on my desk without gps active it lasted about 2.5 hrs. I had discharded and recharged the battery several times prior to this experiment. When the unit shut down there was approx. 1/4 battery life showing. This is hardly near the advertised lifespan. I frequently take a trip averaging 6 hrs one way and if I didn't have access to a plug-in power supply/recharge I would be without the use of my gps.

Regards, Joker

Yeah, i think to get the adverstized life, you will have to have the waas off, screen and volume all the way down, and power save on. No route mode as well.

...that automotive GPSr's have a battery more for the occasional foray than for regular excursion use with it. They are really designed to be used with external power. If I ever plan on traveling where I anticipate a lot of walking time, I'll get a good handheld.

Also, since Brightness consumes more power, it would be fair to extrapolate that Daytime mode consumes more battery life than Nighttime mode.

I have seen threads here before discussing external batteries as backups. If battery life is a problem for you, You may want to do research on it. Some people have made their own, and there is one available for purchase.

As someone mentioned these units are meant to be used plugged in to the car battery for extended use. There are ways to minimize the loss of battery life. Lithium batteries typically last a couple of years or about 500 recharges. Not letting the battery fully discharge before recharging will extend the life. Charging from a half discharge state counts as only 1/2 recharge. Too bad be have to send these units back to Garmin to replace the battery.

Yes it is too bad for us but great for Garmin since that is a source of residual income on previously sold units.

When the time comes for my Nuvi to get a new battery, I'll replace it myself. I'm sure it will be well out of warranty by then, so there's no reason to be afraid of opening it up. My original PDA (an old, black-and-white Ipaq 3135) is still going strong, on its second battery. Based on the information I've seen on other forums (including photos) I don't think changing the Nuvi's battery would be any more difficult than changing the Ipaq's (and that was not difficult at all).

I agree. Battery replacement is a DIY project if you can use a screw driver and perhaps a soldering iron.

By the time it is for me to replace the battery, I am sure that I will want to get a new GPSr anyways.

Absolutely! ...Gotta keep up with the latest, ya know.

i think my 360 is dying quicker than it used to

I agree with asianfire.

Battery life on the nuvi 660 is pretty dismal

What are your settings for:
Backlight Timeout? 30 seconds?
WAAS -- On/Off
Bluetooth -- Enabled/Disabled
Headphone or speakers?
Routing Mode or Map Mode?

Mine lasts for hours. When I'm walking or using it with my two-wheeled devices, I don't need all the bells and whistles turned on, and I certainly don't need to see the screen constantly. I don't need to have handsfree phone connection, or speakers that I can't hear over the ambient noise.

Even if you want to venture to replacing the battery, where are you going to buy it any way? Garmin? Battery Plus? Cost of new battery will probably be half of a new GPS. I have a Nuvi 660. By the time it needs a replacement battery, I probably will gather enough excuses to replace the GPS. Besides, I got to keep up with the Joneses or the Asianfires.

Check out
http://www.longlast-battery.com/productCart/pc/viewCategorie... where you can buy the battery for $30.

Now if Garmin only gave instructions for replacement. No screws on the case; looks like you need to pry it open. If you send it to Garmin for replacement, it won't be anywhere near $30.

Maybe we can develop instructions and post them here.

Check out this thread. It has some excellent information on nuvi battery replacement.

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56803&...

I am sure that it is pretty easy to replace the battery once you figure out how to get into it to replace it. That is my biggest fear, opening up the unit (since it has no screws) and breaking off a tab or something

unplugged I get about 1.3 hours of life, and sometimes much less. When I see 1/2 power bars, I know I'm in trouble.

Are you using WAAS or Normal for the GPS mode? It has been reported that using WAAS for GPS mode uses much more power !!!!

Garmin's battery life is no doubt just like many other companies set by marketing. Absolute dimest display, satellite or none, etc etc depending upon what is the least amount of consumed power. Top notch battery most likely hand picked. Then the marketing wand is waved and a number is published.

I usually divide the number by half and that seems to be in the ballpark.

I have replaced iPod batteries in an iPod 3G, and two 1G minis. All the replacement kits I got included the "tools" needed to open and replace the battery.

A quick Google turned up this web site (a sponsor link at the top of my "NUVI BATTERY REPLACEMENT" search):

" www.infinitybatteries.com/p-4758-garmin-nuvi-350-gps-battery... "

This is just the first one that popped up. If your Nuvi is out of warranty (like my iPods), and you don't want to spring for a new one, or you want to hand-me-down your old unit before springing for a new one (I gave my old iPod to my son, and got a new one for me!), this is the way to go. $30 or so for a battery and tools. All of the iPods I cracked open had the battery connected via a teeny-tiny plug. None every had the battery soldered.

As for battery life, my Nuvi came with the backlight option "Always On" as the default. I was getting lousy battery life. Battery life was advertized as 4-5 hours, after I turned off the backlight, and left WAAS off, I was getting that easily. I turn backlight on for 30 seconds, and WAAS on, and now get about 3-4 hours. I always have my charge plug handy, and my CTS keeps the power on to the cigarette plug always, so I can charge my unit with the engine off (though I rarely leave my nuvi in my car unattended). My wife's Accord turn the power to the plug off when the engine is off - a real pain.

As I drive, the backlight comes on automatically when a driving direction comes up. I do wish there was a way to have the backlight come on for POIs, like speed traps. Right now, all I get is a sound warning, and I have to hit the screen to see what the nuvi is warning me about.

According to a replacement battery site, opening the case on the 660 starts by removing the 2 tiny screws on the antenna, removing the antenna, and then removing two more screws that are revealed. I think the 360 is the same.

Didn't know that, will have to try when battery dies and it is out of warranty.