Charge 6 battery charging issue

[LWillimott]

Have noticed my charge 6 battery life has recently become very short. It is less than 18 months old and not sure what to do about it.

A couple of times I have plugged my fitbit in to find it thinks it already had 20% charge but this appears to have now got significantly worse.

Yesterday I awoke to find that once again my fitbit had given a low battery notification at about 2am but then was completely flat when I woke up.

Upon plugging it in to the charger it booted up and said it had 68% charge. Put it back on and looked through a few of the screens on it noticing the display was flickering a bit, then within a few minutes it turned itself off again apparently with flat battery. Plugged it back into the charger when it again claimed 67% battery life, so left it to charge up to 100% before wearing it.

This morning my fitbit was once again out of battery. Plugged it in to the charger, it booted up and claimed 91% battery, put it back on and 2 mins later it has turned itself off apparently flat battery again, Plugged into charger boots up again claiming 91% battery.

Software all appears up to date. 

[RiekoC]

Hello @LWillimott 

When my Charge 5 started having rapid battery loss, I restarted and recharged my device multiple times over several days. As soon as I saw a rapid drop in battery, I restarted my Charge 5 and put it on the charger until it was back to 100%, often doing this multiple times in a day. Eventually, this process got my device "unstuck" and the battery went back to lasting 6-7 days. Although there's no guarantee that this will work for your Charge 6, it might be worth a try.

[LWillimott]

Thank you for your reply, did you ever have it come up with a seemingly impossible amount of charge when you plugged it in?

This morning I once again had a low battery warning but managed to get it one charge before it had turned itself off, although it did read 0% when I plugged it in, so think that is progress perhaps. Having put it on late afternoon it's only dropped to 87% so will see where we get to tomorrow. 

[RiekoC]

Hello @LWillimott 

I didn't see an impossible amount of charge on my Charge 5 when I plugged it in. As soon as I saw a big drop in battery, like going from 98% to 80% in 30 minutes, I restarted the device and put it on the charger. There were a few days when I was doing this almost every hour or every 2 hours until the big drop in battery power stopped. 

[KarlieG]

I had this EXACT issue starting about 2 months ago when my charge 6 was about 18 months old. I reached out to support...did ALL the things. They told me my battery was malfunctioning but SORRY! you are outside the warranty window. Here is a coupon to buy another. I really like this tracker and don't want a smartwatch but I am indignant that the answer is "replace it" even with a coupon it feels borderline unethical I should need to replace it less than 2 years in. Still very angry. Have not replaced it and more problems are sufacing with it. Sorry to not have a solution Im just super duper disappointed in fitbit/google in this moment. 

[LWillimott]

Yeah, I'm not keen to go and spend a lot of money on something that might now only last 18mths before the battery plays up again.  What annoys me most about the whole situation is that the battery is such a key component of it, as in if you can't replace or recharge it the thing is useless but the warranty is treating it more like a disposable item.

Mine is still limping along, but honestly if it sends the app a low battery notification at say 2am it's dead by the time I wake up, so the amount of non use time because of the battery life is starting to make me wonder if it's worth it.