Amidst the launch of Garmin’s new Edge 550 & Edge 850 cycling GPS units, there’s one detail that went slightly unnoticed. Or at least, unmentioned: It actually features a user-replaceable battery. Or more specifically, user serviceable battery. This allows a user to replace the battery down the road, should there be some sort of significant battery degradation.
Note that this is *NOT* designed to be used for swapping the battery on a super-long ride or such (use battery saver for that). Meaning, this is not a GoPro battery swap. This is a service-oriented feature, designed for some number of years from now, if your battery isn’t doing the battery thing very well anymore.
Sadly, for my review, I had entirely forgotten about this ‘feature’ when I had discussed it on a side tangent with them many months ago. But hey, now I have an excuse to take apart the Edge after the review…ya know…just in case I break something.
Now it should be noted that the reason Garmin is doing this is to stay compliant with upcoming EU regulations on February 17th, 2027 that will require user replaceable batteries, and that said battery swap can be done with common tools, and that the battery is made available by the company. With a typical 2-year refresh cycle for Edge units, this would still be well within the date realm of when Garmin would be making new Edge 550/850 units, which is to say nothing of how many years they still tend to make older devices even after a new device is announced. Heck, they were still making Garmin Edge 530 devices until somewhat recently (which is why they quietly switched that to a USB-C port, to stay compliant with other EU regulations there).
In any case, let’s go take apart an Edge 850. I could do the Edge 550, but given I haven’t quite finished hitting ‘publish’ on my review yet (just some final editing), I don’t want to accidentally break that one.
How it works:
First up, again, this is not designed for daily battery swaps. It’s instead designed for a long-term battery replacement scenario. Garmin says there isn’t any change or such with the battery cycle count on their devices, and they expect they’ll still continue to last as they always have (plenty of people have much older Edge devices). Thus, given the launch right now, you can’t yet get a new Edge 550/850 battery from Garmin. Instead, that’ll come at some point down the road, and would be done as a service part (e.g. ones you buy off of Garmin’s site, or from Garmin support, or what-not). Akin to any other service part you can get from Garmin today.
With that noted, on the back, you’ll find 6 Torx screws. These appear to be either T3 or T4 screws, both of the bits I had from a $3 dollar-store jewelry screw driver worked just fine.
Then, once inside you’ll simply remove the four tiny Philips-head screws that hold the battery case in:
Finally, you’ll need to remove the little connector that attaches to the battery. DO NOT PULL IT STRAIGHT OUT. Instead, it lifts up vertically. I just simply stuck a flat-blade screwdriver in there, and it very easily popped out.
And with that, your battery is out, and ready to swap to a new battery (once those become available). You can watch the video where I reverse the steps and put it back in, taking care to ensure the o-ring is properly in the channel.
Then, just to prove it was done properly, I decided to toss it in the pool for a while:
All that’s covered in the video too. Nifty, huh?
Wrap-Up:
While some folks like to give the EU a hard time for regulations, we’ve seen time and time again that these regulations are mostly doing good things for technology and sports tech. Sure, some of the new EU regulations on encrypted wireless connection requirements are probably a bit misguided in their application for certain areas (including reducing features that users actually like), but many of the user serviceability pieces are awesome for consumers. I’ll take a 80-90% win rate in this case.
We don’t of course know what Garmin’s battery cost/price will be, though, if the tech world at large does what they normally do, there would at worst be some random 3rd party battery provider option for a reasonable price. The number of crazy unique batteries that you can find on Amazon from 3rd party companies for all manner of older devices always astounds me.
With that – thanks for reading!
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If both T3 and T4 fit, always take the larger one.
Most times with Torx, the size one number to small fits. But it’s easy then to either strip the tool or worse, the screw. And then the fitting size doesn’t fit anymore because the inner points of the star profile are burred into the place the screwdriver has to go.
Good call!
Thank you EU! That is great!
This is absolutely great, and for me the standout feature that will get me over the fence. Even though I hate the pricing of this thing, I will very likely get one relatively soon.
Also, some obligatory kudos to the EU. This should have been a regulation a decade ago!
Thanks for going the extra mile and testing this Ray!
Nice! This is also a case of Edge 1050?
No, it’s not.
I suspect if Garmin follows a typical 2-year cycle for their Edge 10×0 series, that’d put a replacement for the Edge 1050 next spring/summer, so, well ahead of the deadline. And even then, Garmin typically doesn’t keep making those top-end Edge ones as long as they do the other products.
So a new Edge 1060 would cover them there.
Thanks for reply, it makes sense.
“Now it should be noted that the reason Garmin is doing this is to stay compliant with upcoming EU regulations on February 17th, 2027 that will require user replaceable batteries, and that said battery swap can be done with common tools, and that the battery is made available by the company.”
Does this mean that the newly released Fenix 8 Pro also features easily replaceable battery, or that it will not be sold in a year and a half anymore?
Not to anyone’s knowledge. My bet here is twofold:
1) Garmin finally got to their goal this year of an annual release cycle for Fenix. This was the first time they snapped to 12 months. They were hovering in the 14-18 month range for a long time.
2) Thus, a Fenix 9 would come out likely next August.
3) And as such, while that might limit their ability to keep making Fenix 8 Pro units into 2027, they also might be betting a bit on two other factors:
A) The EU delaying things (as it often does)
B) Finally figuring out their Fenix E lineup, as the cheaper alternative. Right now, they use their Gen minus 1 as the cheaper alternative (a strategy they have formally acknledged in recent earnings calls). But, long-term, I feel like the E variants is the long-term thing.
Most Garmin watches can still be opened, they use the typical heat activated glue. I stuck my old on face down on a 3dprinter bed and it popped off easily.
Nice pool water temperature :P
This makes me far more interested in the 850 – I reckon someone will release a higher capacity battery at some point.
Thanks Ray as always.
How about new Rally (or Assioma) Pedal based powermeters? Are they also required to be servicable by the end user?
I don’t believe they count. I’ve gotta re-read the regulations, but there was some sort of carve-out for devices that required super-high levels of sealing.
Amidst all the stressful news of the world this, at least, is a bright spot. Thank you Garmin!
Does this new regulation mean anything toward the release of a new Varia radar taillight (with replaceable battery, and finally USB-C) in the near future?
One of my favorite products, but battery fade is real, and it’s literally the only micro-USB item left in my house.
And I’d love to have a 24+-hour battery.