Blaze battery draining fast

[Alex_the_blazeu]

Hi everybody! I don't usually uses blaze while I work. I put it on the table. After about four hours, the blaze turned to 60% batteries from 100%. Any power-down mode can I use in the blaze?

Moderator edit: Clarified subject

[SleeplessInAbby]

I have tried all of the steps in the article you have referred to. I even have a second charger that I have tried, thinking the charger was going. Today my battery lasted 2 hours with a full charge and then died. I have owned it for just 16 months and I’m very frustrated. 

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @SleeplessInAbby , thank you for sharing all this information and confirming that you already tried the steps suggested in the articles. 

I've gone ahead and sent your information to the Customer Support team for further assistance with this, so you should be getting a reply soon. 

I hope everything goes well, keep me posted.  

[merc1954]

IIt appears there are allot of Blaze owners ( I have two ) that have the same issues with the batteries.  I have posted and tried all the fixes recommended with no success.  I didn't get a referral to support.  Seems quite inconsistent on the solutions to our problems with the Blaze.  25% discount doesn't solve our problems.  Throwing more money on a new watch, that isn't supported very well doesn't make for loyal customers.  I have  over $500.00 rapped up in the Blaze and add on products.  

[soldermonkey]

If you see my recent post, I recommend changing the battery yourself. Mere mortals really can do it.

[merc1954]

What battery does it take?  I need to get my jeweler set out.. 

[soldermonkey]

enter "fitbit blaze battery" in fleabay search and you'll get many hits. Those are typically 120 mAh batteries vs the original 160's, so I expect the blaze will kill those batteries in a year or less, but I'm willing to change the battery every once in a while.

[LuciaFitbit]

Hello @merc1954, thank you for sharing your feedback regarding Blaze and support. Please apologize the delay in my response. I got in contact with support and they confirmed that you opened a case with them to report this situation. If you need any further assistance, they will be glad to keep on handling this situation with you. 

@soldermonkey thank you for your participation. Please apologize the delay in my response. In this case we don't recommend following these procedures. It is important to know that our warranty does not cover any product or part of a Fitbit product that has been serviced, altered, refurbished, or modified by anyone who is not authorized by Fitbit. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

[NatalieJackman]

---

@LuciaFitbit wrote:

@soldermonkey thank you for your participation. Please apologize the delay in my response. In this case we don't recommend following these procedures. It is important to know that our warranty does not cover any product or part of a Fitbit product that has been serviced, altered, refurbished, or modified by anyone who is not authorized by Fitbit. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

---

But Fitbit refuses to replace the battery paid or in warranty.

Changing the battery shouldn’t be a warranty voiding situation. This really calls into question if consumer electronics should be forced into something similar that auto makers agreed to willingly in the 2018 model year in all 50 states which is the right to repair.

[PhDerp]

Hi @soldermonkey You seem very smart and I wonder if we can problem solve this together. I am by no means a tech or mechanical whiz, but I read your thoughtful comments and perceptiveness re: "the battery issue" which is really a firmware issue. I contacted support several times and literally all I want to do, is get in contact with a coder on their team to see if this can be fixed.

Here are a couple of notes I've made on my Blaze, organized by what seem to be big and smaller issues, and I was hoping you would help me confirm if your device behaves in a similar way.

1) The FitBit does not read its own battery correctly in several different scenarios.

1a) When it is dead, if plugged into a charger and left on the charger itself, it boots up but somehow reads a 100% charge. (I will get back to this point on how to get a proper battery reading)

1b) If I do a soft reset (god knows why they didn't make it have a hard reset) it sometimes starts up with 0% battery/low battery when I am 80-90% this is not the case.

1c) Even if the battery has a charge, it will fail to turn on sometimes, because *I think* it reads a dead battery and won't start up. This issue has caused me to have inconsistent results with soft resets. Also, I find that it will fail to turn on because it reads dead battery, but then for no reason whatsoever it will sometimes turn on when I have not put it to on the charger... Coincidence? OR Bad programming that has messed up the firmware?

2) The FitBit has serious sync/Bluetooth connection issues.

The most serious battery issues/premature shut down problems I encounter are when there is a pairable, bluetooth device nearby. I have not personally had any problems with syncing between devices, however I find that as soon as the screen goes to sleep from inactivity, if there is a bluetooth device nearby, it will simply shut down. Oddly, my device will still say that it has a connection with the FitBit, until I try to wake it from sleep, which somehow shuts it down. This is the worst when it is linked to my phone. If I remove it from my phone and sync it to my computer, I appear to get some more life out of the device (something about having any sync-able Bluetooth connection near the device causes it to shut down).

3) The charging software is totally.... plucked. I have found that if I start my device with a partial charge/the correct battery reading (which is to put it on the charging dock once so the logo appears, then lift slightly, then close it into the cradle) if I leave it on for approximately 4 minutes, it tells me the battery is completely full. This is obviously incorrect. If I do lift it every couple of minutes from the dock before it reads out 100%, it does incrementally charge. Can't tell if this is a charging issue, or battery reading issue.

4) There appears to be some kind of "deep sleep" issue. So for a short period, my device can be woken up from sleep and used normally, with a proper drain of the charge. However, if I leave it for too long and it enters what seems to be "hibernate" mode, it won't be woken up and has to be placed on the charger to turn on. As in point 3) the Bluetooth connection on my phone says it is still in sync oddly. 

That is all for now, below are my scratch pad notes about it, please let me know if you can confirm that some of these things are happening to you too!

Alex

 To obtain partial charge/correct readings

When the device is off, then pressing it on to the charger lightly but several times will turn it back on with the correct battery (if put just into the charger to turn on, will say full battery)

Notes  when partial/correct battery charge is shown

Shut down via menu | Power on 50% | Any sleep dies

Sync at 50% | Sleep dies

100% |Sleep dies

Hard reset | Device on (with partial charge) | Sync | Bluetooth off= lasts past sleep 

If sleep-dies, before use, needs hard reset? Seems to not last any longer than a few minutes | Synced multiple times, tried with and without bluetooth around, keep dying

changed screen face to default | linked only to computer (not phone) | hard reset = shows dead battery | shut down on charger | woke with partial charge | currently working

 Sleeping the screen when nothing pairable is close will turn it off completely if not synced recently. if just synced, will last for about 30 minutes before shutting off

Sleeping with a pairable device allows normal wake and gradual drain of battery for a short period, before it shuts off;

when low battery signal (even if battery is not low) will wake from sleep or soft reset consistently

Problems with factory resets; maybe just because it is PC and not iPhone paired? Still cant get a consistent factory reset

Hi ,

I am relatively impatient (but, rather I tell myself I am perceptive and intelligent) and have not waited until the battery has completely drained before diagnosing and noticing other important details. I have completed all steps except the latter parts of step 6, as well as 7-8.

1) It seems that if the FitBit is synced to anything and is pushing data whether the computer, or the phone, it will prematurely drain (i.e., die) despite having a charge. It may be data pushing regarding battery life?... It is hard to isolate what data-push is causing the issue. Removing it from any Bluetooth pairing device (not having a dongle in my computer, and not having Bluetooth on my phone) allows the battery to behave very reliably and drain at what seems to be a standard rate.

                    1a) I know that it did in fact have a charge which I am sure of but am having a hard time putting into words what I saw... Basically, the FitBit would either show 0% battery, or 100% battery both of which I knew to be incorrect. Occasionally however, after a bunch of resets, it should show a "half charge" battery which I found to be accurate. I found that if I saw a half battery charge, and began to charge the device,but removing it briefly from the charger before 4 minutes passed, it wouldn't just jump, incorrectly, up to 100% battery. Otherwise, if it was half charged or no charge, and I left it on the charger for longer than 4 minutes it would eventually just jump up to 100%. Instead, if I keep removing it every couple of minutes, it will incrementally increased in charge, which presumably, is the actual battery life.

                    1b) If the battery shows, 0%, half/partial charge (correct value) or 100% charge (which is artificial and incorrect, from leaving the FitBit on the charger) when I remove it from the charging dock, it dies after less than 5 minutes. Except when there are no bluetooth devices to sync to. then if I have a correct charge reading (half/partial charge) oreven if I have an artificial, inflated 100% reading from leaving it on the dock for more than 4 minutes, then it drains at a standard rate (and it actually recalibrates the 100% reading to the correct one after a brief period).  If there is any bluetooth connection though it will automatically shut off prematurely.

2) One other interesting thing to note was that linking it to the computer allows me to see the option of Bluetooth classic in the Settings menu on the device (to be turned on for pairing or turned off). In contrast, when it was linked to my phone I don't have it in the Settings menu.

3) Leaving the device on a dock for more than 4 minutes will always artificially inflate the battery value to 100% regardless of whether there are bluetooth linked devices around. As in point 1b) though, if I take it off the dock with nothing to sync around, it drops/recalibrates the battery to the correct amount.

This is almost definitely a software conflict issue (push data), as well as a device firmware issue (i.e., charging dock time).

I look forward to your response and would love to hear from an actual developer to see if any of my observations or intuitions are correct (as a researcher, you always want some certainty from your observations and data....). I would be interested to see if I was accurately identifying parts of code relating to the firmware/software interactions (clock-related battery calibration or charging time, data push/syncing, iOS vs. windows platform syncing)

Cheers,

Alex

Moderator edit: Format

[MykieB]

Judging by some of the replies: turn off this, that, turn off all day sync, turn off notifications, blah, blah, blah. If you turn off all those, u basically have a digital watch u paid 200 for. Don't know about y'all, but I can give Walmart $12 and have a decent digital watch.... The versa sucks.had mine less than 3 months and battery dies inside of 6 hours. Just a gimmick that we the people apparently fell for. Sad....

Moderator edit: language

[PhDerp]

@MykieB I wish they would make the code open source, then at least we could ask community developers to help debug or fix whatever is going on. This is the pits

[Kdstra2]

So, to be clear, Fitbit cannot repair the Blaze. Replacement is rare and the laughable 25% off coupon you give is not redeemable on new fitbits. 

But we should not replace the battery ourselves because it voids the warranty we don’t have anymore. 

What I’m hearing is, “Don’t attempt to repair our product. Instead, please discard your tracker yearly and continue paying us $200 annually. Thank you for choosing Fitbit for your wearable tracker subscription.”

I’ve bought flashlights for $10 that lasted me ten times longer than this. I’ve stayed so loyal to you guys for six years almost, four fitbits...what a waste of customer loyalty. You can have great customer service and a faulty product or you can have a fantastic product that doesn’t require much customer service. You can’t have a bad product and bad service. 

But what do I know, I’m who keeps you guys in business. 

Moderator edit: Language

[tonitambourine]

Someone buy this gal a beer! Great post.

[Cgee23]

Same problem as everyone else. I am done with Fitbit. This is my third tracker they all have had problems. From bands tearing up to not staying changed. The 25% off is laughable I can't wear this thing for more than 2 days before it dies. I will never buy another Fitbit again

[LuciaFitbit]

@NatalieJackman nice to hear from you again. Please apologize the delay in my response. Thank you for your comments concerning our warranty. For more information regarding our guidelines, please visit the following link: Returns & Warranty.

@PhDerp nice to hear from you again. Please apologize the delay in my response. I am glad to hear that you're already in contact with support. Thank you for sharing all these details from what you've found out. We also appreciate all what you've tried to solve this situation. Please let me know how everything goes with support.

@MykieB welcome to the Fitbit Community! Please apologize the delay in my response. The suggestions you mentioned should help to increase the battery life. How much battery these features drain, depends on how often you use them. I have some suggestions that can also help you to increase your Versa's battery life. First you should try charging your Versa with another port. A UL-certified wall charger will also work. You can also try performing a restart and changing the clock face. Let me know how everything goes. 

@Kdstra2 and @Cgee23 welcome to the Fitbit Community! @tonitambourine nice to hear from you again. Please apologize the delay in my response. Thank you for your feedback regarding our products and warranty. We appreciate it, since it helps us to improve the quality of our products and service. 

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you. 

[Anthea_C]

Same problem here.  Battery charged over night - this morning states it is full.  3 hours later fitbit has died.  Blaze is about 16 months old and was fine up until about 6 weeks ago and it has become progressively worse to the point that it is useless to me now

[soldermonkey]

I believe the design flaw in the Blaze isn't that it uses too much power, but rather its battery charging circuit isn't babying the LiPo battery properly, hence the premature battery failures everyone is seeing.

Once your battery is toast, solutions are to replace the battery, or toss it and buy a different brand, one the mfr supports properly.

If you have a working Blaze, the absolute last thing you should do is leave it in the charger for hours on end, esp overnight. I think that's when the defective charge control circuit does its damage... basically boils the electrolyte out of the battery. NEVER leave the Blaze unattended in the charger; it takes only 10-15 minute to charge, so keep an eye on it and remove as soon as it reports full.  That will maximize what life your current battery has left. But eventually it's replace battery or switch brand.

[Rob-HPTC]

I have had a Fitbit Blaze since last December. After about 12 months the display started to discolor and the battery life dropped to 24 hours. The battery life continued to decline and recently the product started shutting down for no reason. I called customer service who said they were sorry but that the product was out of warranty and they could only offer me a 25% discount on a new product.

I spoke to the manager of the Customer Service department who said that he could not help and no replacement after 12 months is their firm policy. I asked for his supervisor and he said allowing me to speak with his supervisor is also against policy.

I went to the Trustpilot website and discovered that 77% of the comments rated Fitbit customer service as poor or bad. My rating would be incompetent.

This product is clearly defective and the company is obligated to stand behind it and not hide behind the age-old "not our policy" excuse. It is not my policy to put up with bad products and bad customer service. Can someone please provide me the contact information of a person in a decision-making position who I can address this problem with.

[amandaantczak8]

I am having the same issue all of a sudden. Nothing has changed with how I am charging, wearing, or using it. 

[Adfernz]

I was told inclement weather could be a cause. I live in Southern California where it rarely rains and never goes below 40*. But ok...

Adfernz