Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
You'll support the site, and get ad-free DCR! Plus, you'll be more awesome. Click above for all the details. Oh, and you can sign-up for the newsletter here!
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
-
5 Easy Steps To The Site
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
How about battery drain time? link to forums.garmin.com
No issues with that. I dove into the battery drain metrics in my Fenix 7 Pro & Epix Pro reviews, both for sports as well as daily usage.
I have noticed that my Enduro 2 charges super quickly. Despite using it for a huge amount of Ironman training, it will essentially last forever if I only ever charge it when I’m showering.
Nice! So the Amazon pucks still work/fit with the larger Elevate sensor?
Yep! Just barely though.
I’m at a loss. This is all I got.
link to youtube.com
Pun intended.
I admire the lengths you go to quantify these matters for us. Now I can look at my legacy Epix 2 while charging and say “I always knew you were slow”.
I looked up that load meter you linked to and in the results found an item that should be on your test bench, primarily becuase it’s sold by a company named “MakerHawk” with a product name of “MakerFire”.
“USB Multimeter USB Voltmeter Ammeter Load Tester USB Voltage Current PD Battery Power Capacity Charger Digital Type C Meter Tester Color LCD Display Cable Resistance QC2.0/3.0/4.0 MTK”
link to amazon.com
I like that – since it appears to measure the total mAh too!
If you really want to get geeky, drive the watches with exactly 5.00 volts with a variable DC power supply since power banks’ voltage can vary, sometimes even on different ports, much less between different units. At the very least, confirm all the ports are at the same voltage. USB voltage tolerance is ±5%, which can proportionally throw off charging rates.
Actually, if you really want to get into the weeds, log current and voltage to compute power and battery capacity (do that either digitally or with a voltmeter that includes power measurement), and cross correlate that with the percentage capacity reported by the watch.
Is it (still) a good practise to not go below ~20% and not over ~80% when charging?
Yes, this is a good practice for Li-Ion batteries.
I try not to drain it to 0% but always top up fully. Got better things to do than watching if the battery is 80% or 85% or 90%. Never had any issues with batteries and if charging to 80% gives you 50 more cycles, I don’t really care as long as the watch is capable of doing 200 cycles. It will still last five years :)
Not to spoil the fun, but is it really bad if charging to 100% takes for example 2 hours in stead of 1?
I mean, you just have it charged and do something else, right?
And if you do wait for it because you want to go running, partially carging is OK.
Or am I missing something?
Yeah, I actually prefer slower Fenix charging. I mean you have to do it every 1-2 weeks so it’s better to do it slower and not strain your battery.
Generally speaking, the whole ‘fast charging is bad thing’ is a legacy of yesteryear, and not current devices. There’s plenty of articles out there that dive into it, and exactly why things have changed, but the TLDR version is that power/battery management has gotten really advanced in the last couple years.
I agree with Eugene if his point is that 90% -> 100% being slow is a non-issue, this is almost always no problem. But of course how long you have to wait before starting a workout if you just noticed battery is too low is a real issue, where you are waiting on the charging, so how fast it goes from say 5% to 20% or so is often relevant.
Well, yes and no.
Things being equal, slower charging and discharging (and shallower cycling) always results in better cycle life.
Its just chemistry and physics, charging causes damage to the cell and slower means less damage.
Battery technology hasn’t really changed though.
All that’s really changed is what the user sees and/or can do.
This can be optional charging limits, reduced charging rates (as seen here), and even lying to the user.
Hi! Nice test but I suspect you have to expand it even more…
I always had the feeling my Epix charged quite quickly on my USB dock (compared to girlfriend’s fenix 6S). So I did a quick check with a USB tester: It charged 1.8W with QuickCharge2 (indicated by the tester) @50% battery with the standard USB-A to Garmin cable. That’s double the value you got in your test with USB-C PD. I could imagine that the quite old QC is supported by the Epix but not the newer PowerDelivery.
Interesting – what was your total time?
These numbers match my less-scientific results across a wide variety of random chargers over the last few months (for Pro series), and last 1.5 years for non-Pro.
As I never do a full cycle (only 30%-85%) on my Li-Ion gadgets to prevent as much battery life as possible I don’t know. I could make a time lapse for this range though if this would help you.
I think if you would redo (*sigh*) the test above with a charger that also supports QC you’ll get different results. But if that’s worth the hassle…
I just bought an Epix 2 non-pro. After the announcement about the Pro I spotted a massive markdown on the steel version which made it £90 less than the FR 965. I too used QuickCharge2 and did my second charge today. I also started at 30%. Here are the times I recorded. Would have recorded more details but I only just read this post.
30% to 80% 32mins
80% to 90% 12mins
90% to 100% 44mins
So 1hr32min from 30 to 100%.
I can’t find any reference to QuickCharge2 on the Garmin website.
I read also about the fact that a Li-Ion lives longer with a 30%- 80% cycle.
But what does it mean lives longer?
More possible cycles?
But when I use only 50% from a capacity I have to charge it twice as much.
That means if a Li-Ion will work for 1000 cycles at 0- 100%
and 2000 cycles at 30- 80% I ‘ve no real win.
Thanks
Thanks Ray, this is really useful information, that is impossible to find elsewhere!
Not sure how you managed to get a typo in your plot though, it says 1:50:00 where I assume 0:50:00 should be :D.
Does anyone know if the Epix Pro can be charged during an activity without having the activity end? I do ultras that can take well over 24 hours. I currently have a Forerunner 245. During long ultras, I’ll slip it off, plug it into a small portable charger, and continue running with it in my pack until it has enough juice to put back on my wrist. It doesn’t record HR during this time (obviously) but it continues the activity so I can see pace/distance, etc.
With some Garmin models the activity ends once you plug into a charger, so you lose what you’re doing while charging. Then you have to start a new activity once the watch is unplugged from the charger. I am considering upgrading to the 42mm Epix Pro, but imagine I’d need to charge on the go for some of my longer activities. I won’t upgrade if I can’t charge on the go.
I can confirm it works as you want it to on the 42 mm Epix Pro.
My 42 mm Epix Pro was down to 18%. I went out, started an activity, after 5 minutes attached a charging puck and a small inexpensive power pack and just held it all in my hand, carried on for 10 minutes, removed the puck, put the watch back on my wrist, and continued home and then stopped the activity.
The recorded activity covers the whole route, with a GPS trace and with pace+cadence being captured as well during the charging time. During the approx 10 minutes the charger was attached, the battery increased from 18% to 32%.
Thanks! While I’d love to have one of the models with longer battery life, the 47mm+ watches have lugs that go beyond my wrist bones. Knowing I can charge the 42mm on the go (and so quickly) is helpful. That’s also big time improvement for charging over the Forerunner 245.
Only just seen this, but, watts = amp x volts
So where you don’t know the voltage, calculate watts/amps.
For the Fenix 7 (non-pro), it’s 5.1v