Back a month or so ago, I ordered a mini 3rd-party Garmin charging battery bank. I can’t remember if I stumbled upon it myself on Amazon or if a DCR reader pointed me at it. Either way, way-back-when, I ordered it and have been using it on and off over the last while. But I’m not entirely sure it’s really for everyone. Or at least, why you’d buy it.
Now, I’ll preface this by saying I’m generally fully on “Team Buy All the Chargers and Battery Banks”. If there’s any issue I have, it’s buying things to charge my devices. Probably cause I’m stuck charging so many things, I’m always looking to ensure I’ve got juice. For example, I continue to use tons of the 3rd-party charging pucks, Garmin charging stands, and even Garmin USB-C keychain adapters.
Long-term, some of these cheap products work well, and sometimes they don’t. Just like Garmin’s own charging cables. I have more of those than I can count, including many of the newerish USB-C ones, even one right next to me that barely holds on to the watch. But instead of Garmin’s own charging cables costing $20-$25, most 3rd-party charging cables/situations are like 2-4 units for $9.
In any event…back to this mini battery pack. Here’s what’s in the box:
The thing is roughly the size of a square Oreo, if square Oreos were to exist. For better or worse, they don’t.
It’s a bit chunkier in thickness though, but it does have a leash. In thinking about it, I could see a leash being debatably useful for dunking Oreos in milk. Food for thought.
The specs on the unit are 1,200mAh, meaning that with most Garmin watches having about a 300-500mAh battery (depending on the unit/case size), so something like a Fenix 8 47mm, you’d be able to charge roughly 3-4 times.
In my testing, after topping off the battery bank and then fully charging an empty Fenix 8 Pro 47mm, it showed 2/3rds battery remaining (but the battery indicators are only 3 dots, so fairly imprecise). It has a USB-C port on the side and an LED battery indicator too. There’s also a button to start charging. In terms of charging time for the battery pack itself, it appears to be about 1 hour and 15 minutes, based on discharging it fully, and then watching as it charges to steady-blue LEDs.
So when it comes to using it, you simply plop your watch onto it, and off it goes. In most cases, this works fine for all the units I’ve stuck on it thus far:
However, it won’t hold on there permanently if jostled. It’s not MagSafe or such. You can wrap the watch around the unit, like your wrist, and that works for watches with slightly smaller straps (like the Garmin Bounce 2), but for longer straps, I find even on the tightest option, there’s still a bit of play there, which would get bonked if in a backpack or such.
Now, you can use hair ties or rubber bands to make it stay there, which is what I do. With three daughters and a wife, I’ve got more of these things floating about than I could ever count. I fail to understand how my daughters can go to school each day with their hair in a ponytail, another one or two on their wrists, and then return home with none and their hair removed from said ponytail. All with no knowledge of how that happened. Point being, the only way to hold the watch on there during movement is with some sort of rubber band/hair tie.
When it comes to charging, I charged two Fenix 8 Pro 48mm watches side-by-side from zero, and they charged at exactly the same rate from start to finish. Garmin’s newer watches take roughly an hour to get most of the way there (~90%, quite linear charging), before trickle charging the remaining/final 10% over roughly another 25-30 minutes. Older watches take 3-5 business days to complete charging, regardless of method. Either way, all of them charge with very low power demands compared to a phone or laptop, so all of this is relatively trivial.
When it comes to charging the pod itself, you’d do that via USB-C cable. Which gets to my first annoyance – I can’t use the same port to charge other devices. Meaning, I can’t use the Garmin watch charging bank to randomly charge anything else via that USB-C port. Which would make it *MUCH* more interesting as a backup battery bank in a hiking bag or such. When I’m hiking on multi-day treks, I generally keep a smaller power bank in my bag, which I literally mark with tape as emergency use only. It’s specifically designed in case my other battery bank (and phone) dies, and then I specifically get myself in trouble and need my phone. It’s not for simply charging my phone because I need to take more photos. It’s there as an emergency backup.
All of which then segues into the last challenge here: Given the sorta-chunky size, and price, limited holding strength, and relatively limited capacity, it seems to make *far* more sense to just get a lipstick power bank, even one with a built-in USB-C cable, and then a Garmin to USB-C adapter if you wanted to.
Which isn’t to say there is no audience for this unit. For example, there are two core use cases I see:
1) The first case is actually myself, though I only just realized this. The Garmin Bounce kids’ watches last about 2 days, which means you charge them every other night. If we forget, and don’t realize it till the morning, it’s often too late to charge it enough to get through all the kids’ afterschool activities. Whereas this solves that, because I can throw this in the backpack (with a hair tie), and they’re good to go.
2) The second case is simply when you might not want someone else stealing your power bank and discharging it (e.g., within your family). Given this *ONLY* charges Garmin watches, and won’t charge anything else, it kinda limits power-bank-theft (by other family members). Kinda like making your food too spicy for others in your family to enjoy.
Beyond that, I think just lipstick-size chargers are probably the way to go, since they are multipurpose.
With that – thanks for reading!
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Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
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I've also put together a quick list of some of my favorite or most compatible accessories for this unit:
Garmin USB-C Adapters (4-Pack)
Garmin USB-C Charging Puck
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Garmin developers got bored after creating dozens of watches and features.
This isn’t made by Garmin
Doesn’t mean it’s not true though
I bought one of these and used it during a 100 miler last fall. It worked great and helped my FR955 make it all the way through the race.
Great to hear!
Same watch, same use case! Came to the comments specifically to post this. It can just fit under my watch on my wrist. I lose HR but still have stats at a glance. Pick up at a drop bag mid race and drop off at the next.
Will Garmin ever update their Edge Battery pack? It’s now almost 9 years old…
Explain why they keep putting connectors to charge via it on all their bike computer’s while not supporting it with ways to charge it from it.
(I’d take a 3rd party battery pack with USB c too lol)
Totally agree. Especially given the reduction in battery life in the x50 series. Seems like such a relatively straightforward thing, even moreso given the amount of effort they go to add the charging connectors on the underside, but then give us a pretty crappy battery bank to pair with it.
And while we’re at it…start selling the Garmin Edge Remote again too (to trigger the bike bell).
I would probably get the Garmin Edge Remote for my 1050 if they sold it again. There must be a work around other than buying a n actual bike bell.
The original software with tap screen then tap small bike bell button wasn’t much good. I had to look down at the screen just as the potential collision was imminent. I can do the current double tap without looking down, it works well. I did look for the edge remote before the software upgrade.
Yeah, using it with SRAM buttons just works so much better.
The edge remote is still for sale in the Netherlands.
Yeah, though not by Garmin themselves (to consumers or distributors or retailers). Really only by retailers that stumbled on a box while cleaning out their storage room. 😂
They’re available to buy on amazon.de and amazon.es
I have one on my home bike and holiday home bike, but keep toying with buying spares for future n+1 bikes while they are still available.
Personally I find the idea of a dedicated power bank really appealing. Much more relaxing than thinking that the phone consumed everything and now you can’t recharge the watch anymore.
Would it fit under the watch on a wrist? If so, it could be useful for endurance althetes looking to have continuous GPS over a few days.
Technically yes, but I’d highly advice against it.
Given it’s a lithium-ion battery (like other battery banks), they can have extremely rare thermal runaway issues. It’s one thing for your battery bank to have that on a table or a backpack. It’s another thing to become a firework that’s literally strapped to your wrist, melting the very band to your skin that you’re trying to undo.
I’d suggest instead sticking it in the forward pockets of a hydration vest (which also gives it more airflow).
I ended up purchasing an Anker Zolo battery bank that will primarily charge my iPhone using magsafe but i attached one of those usb-c -> Garmin adapters to the cord of the charger. That way I always have a Garmin cord, a usb-c cord and a magsafe charger in one small package.
This is the charger I purchased (currently unavailable).
link to amazon.com
Exactly. I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find a lipstick-sized charge with a built-in USB-C cord, to then attach the Garmin adapter to (but still use for phone/etc). I got distracted and ended up buying other totally unnecessary items, so I closed the tabs before I did more damage.
I’ve tried and failed to find a lipstick style with USB C – shame. But its very useful having a battery bank that uses a removeable 18650 battery. I carry one as a spare for my fenix headtorch, so being able to use that for charging too is a great weight saver. This little battery is like buying a single use kitchen toy – should be avoided at all cost.
Does it do pass through charging? Can it be used in place of a puck while plugged into a power source itself?
It can, however, it does not do data passthrough.
Would it be feasible to use for untra(trail) running? I.e. charging with the power unit + watch on the wrist? Or will this be too unstable?
I have always wondered why I could not find such a solution.
Realistically, very, very long battery life in Sports watches are only strictly necessary in extreme/ultra events and I would prefer a smaller watch the other 360 days/year.
Now I have an Enduro 2 for these races – but day to day I prefer my old, smaller, lighter FR 945… If I could only væhave a small “Garmin Puck power bank” :-)
Check out my comment just above on the risks putting it against your skin.
I wonder if Garmin will switch to wireless charging or flat contacts? I like not having to take my Whoop off to charge. Google is half there but one still has to take the watch off.
If you want a cylinder charge there is also the Nitecore NPB1 5,000 mAh or NPB2 10,000 mAh which are IP68 rated – 2m for 30 minutes. The NPB1 or NPB2 also powers for the HU60 headlamp – which includes a wireless remote.
As for protecting your food – anchovies on your half of the pizza often works well.
The Whoop charging solutions is of course super compelling, but they don’t have the screen in the way, so the wireless charging there can be super focused.
I wonder why Garmin has never expanded the MARQ’s magnetic charging to other product lines. I’ve never seen or used it, so I don’t know if there are any issues specifically for that method. Those USB-C adapters have been fairly reliable over the couple of years I’ve been using them.
When I asked way-back-when, if that’d become the standard, they basically said it was expensive AF.
Garmins are expensive af so it would be nice to see expensive features ;)
Agreed, the number one reason (by a large margin) why I would replace my VivoActive 4s is the finicky connector.
Most every time now it takes an endless amount of wiggling and applying a little pressure here, then there, then back again etc before the charging icon appears on the watch. And then you still can’t be sure it charges… If the percentage does not climb within 2 minutes the watch is fooling you into believing it is charging while it actually _dis_charging faster than with normal use…
Love the watch, hate the charging (and yes, I own numerous cables, both original and 3rd party). And not buying the new versions because they are expensive af.
Still testing the Fenix 8 Pro?
Indeed. Every day I start off my morning trying to get that review finished (among many others), but by lunch I’ve gone off and found other squirrels instead (such as this post).
Getting older reviews off my plate is always tough.
Garmins are expensive af so it would be nice to see where it goes.
I guess that these days, the contacts aren’t so much for linking to the ancient charge pack but for linking to the main battery on an ebike through the “Edge Power mount”.
In the years of x30 and x40 Edge runtimes, there simply wasn’t much need for extra batteries. Perhaps now with the x50 runtime shrink, there’s enough market for an adventurous this party to make a pack contacting to the quarter lounge pins? Preferably one that does not attach to the underside of a special Garmin mount that nobody uses but between mount and Edge, like those Ravemen lights.
did you try the Venu X1. I notice the pucks do NOT work with the X1
Just checked, works. Picture attached. It holds just fine in a static situation (desk/etc), but does more easilsy pop-off if moved, due to the slightly weird sensor bump on the X1. That said, a rubber band easily solved it (note that the stock X1 strap is too long to hit the other velcro section, so that actually doesn’t tighten here).
I can see a use case for something like this for ultra-runners and back-of-the-pack age group hacks like me doing a full Ironman: my Fenix 8s gets somewhere around 16 hours of GPS (and now that I look at the battery information page, I see that it’s “up to 16 hours with always on display” for all satellite systems plus multi-band mode, so I could probably tweak it to get it over the 17 hour line by using only GPS – guessing it’s currently configured for multi-band and all satellite systems.)
But you make a very good point about thermal runaway, which leads to me thinking about a charging cable that has the connector on a 90 degree angle, allowing it to snake out from underneath the watch while it’s still on the wrist, leading to presumably some sort of power bank in a hydration vest. It’d have to be long enough to run up the arm, over the shoulder, and then into the vest – but it could work. I’d likely set the vest up with the power bank and cable, and plug the watch into it while in T2.
How about it, Garmin?
You do not need Garmin for that. There are loads of those kinds of cables on Amazon etc.
Could you try it with an Instinct? I had an Instinct 2, now have a 2X, and neither are particularly compatible with puck style chargers – the strap doesn’t lie flat so there’s not enough space.
For ultras I just dump a powerbank+cable in the drop bags, and IME all ultras long enough for battery life to be an issue allow drop bags.
I don’t have the Instinct 2/2X handy at this second, but I do have both the Instinct E and Instinct 3 (large size) within reach, and both do fit. The larger 50mm Instinct 3 does kinda tilt slightly up like the Venu X1 in the comment picture above.
However, unlike the Venu X1, the holes on the band of the Instinct 3 actually allow you to really crank it down (even moreso than the Fenix 8 Pro), and so it holds really well like that. Photo attached of Instinct 3 50mm.
The day they make a watch with usb-c that you can charge on the run while having a long run on, i would give all my money
I think we will unfortunately have to wait still some years for it, because Garmin has still X² millions of these charging ports and other affected components in stock…
I don’t think Garmin will switch to a USB-C port on the watch itself because it would take up more space in the watch compared the current pogo pin connector. That’s space that could be used for the battery or other components.
In terms of charging on the run, what does a USB-C port give you that the current design doesn’t? You can charge on the go with the current design by connecting to the watch to a battery pack using the charging cable, right? Isn’t that how it would work with USB-C, except you’d use a standard USB-C cable?
Is it just the fact that you would prefer not to have to use Garmin’s proprietary cable?
If anything, I could see Garmin one day standardizing on wireless or magnetic charging. Knowing them, it will be 10 years from now, if ever.
I will say that one big downside of the current proprietary cable is that both first-party and third-party cables tend to wear out (at least ime), and when that happens you have to get another proprietary cable instead of using a standard USB cable that you have lying around.
Similar issue if you travel for a race but you forgot to bring your charging cable
USB-C wouldn’t work for a wearable of this nature. It’s not waterproof deep enough, and more critically, such ports easily get filled with all the yuck that comes with a sports watch: Mud, gunk, road dirt, sports gels, saltwater residue, etc…
And since the USB port is deeper, that wells in there and eventually kills the watch (mostly due to corrosion, since it doesn’t air out). Polar actually tried this with Micro-USB years ago, and ended absolutely horribly for all the reasons outlined above. To be clear, there are waterproof ports (your phone is one), but none designed to handle the depth and frequency of water immersion of a sports/outdoors focused watch.
Now, as noted, downside to Garmin’s specific cable, is that it’s finicky AF over time. I’m constantly throwing out cables that seem sketchy. But the upside is these days, if you were at a race (or even not at a race), and forgot your cable, it wouldn’t be hard to find someone with a cable. Even in a random city in Africa, you could sit in your hotel lobby for 10-15 mins and someone would walk through with a Garmin watch and likely let you borrow their cable.
When the garmin cable does not sit firm enough, just push together a bit the two springs on the cable and it usualy solves the problem.
Thanks for the report. Nice little gadget: to be honest: I don´t need it, but somehow my mind is telling me now: I want it, buy it! I am still fighting with myself. I have lots of power banks laying around here. Depanding on activity (and which technical stuff I carry around with me), I choose between 5000mAH, 10000mAH…, I have even the expensive Garmin charge power pack (for loading an Edge on the ride and for example a F8 at the same time (ok, it has only 3100mAH (if I am right)). With all the gadgets you’re always lugging around, you probably need a car battery with lots of charging cables… :)
Thanks, looks like it should work!
This is fun and everything, but is there any chance Garmin is going to add wireless charging to their watches soon? It’s the only upgrade I am looking for in my watch. The cords and the pucks wear out so quick and I feel like I am doing a circus balancing act when I am trying to get the charger and the watch to stay connected.
I bought one of these for a very specific use case. I was on hour ~24 of an ultra a couple of months ago and my Epix Gen2 was about to die. I was ready for it, and had a cable + battery to charge it. But as you know the Garmin cable connection can be finicky, so the only way to keep it charging was to hold the cable in the watch, in my hand, for a while. I couldn’t plug the cable in and stuff it in my pack — the charger would wiggle and lose connection.
So this little battery will allow me to charge my watch on an ultra, in my pack, by using the band or a loop of velcro to keep it secure.
Pretty specific for sure, but also important (to me).
Ray- Congratulations on the 5K victory (and to your wife). Since the subtheme of this post is Girl Scouts (races and cookies), it is important to ask…Why did you use Oreo’s as a measure of the battery? How many thin mints thick is the puck? I would guess it is about three thin mints thick? Thank you for all your useful articles!
Thanks! I used Oreos because Oreos are a near-universally available standard of measurement.
Sadly, I’ve long-since consumed all my Girl Scout Cookies, so, had to revert back to something available.
There is another use case you didn’t think about. This thing is great to throw in your briefcase to have as a back up in case you need to charge your watch while you’re at work. It’s definitely not a “use all the time” situation, but I have limited places to plug stuff in at my desk because it’s a weird setup and this thing has saved me a couple times already when I suddenly realized my battery was low.
Weirdly my son’s Bounce 2 won’t stay attached. Like at all. It just pops off as soon as you let go. This isn’t the only charger it does that on, but it doesn’t do it on every charger. Have you encountered that, or did we maybe get a defective watch?
I think this would be perfect for charging my Garmin during a 100 mile trail race. Loosen my watch strap, stick this in between my wrist and the watch and I’ll be good to go. No more running with a charging puck cable snaking along my arm back to my pack!
As DCR pointed out, it’s probably not a good idea to run with a flammable battery pack sandwiched between your watch and your wrist but you do you
My issue with most of these charging pucks or accessories is that the indent for the HR sensor is usually not positioned/sized correctly for the newer models. This means the charging connector is usually wedged at an angle due to the improper fit. I may be overthinking this but I certainly don’t want to risk damage to a pricey watch due to a poorly designed cheap accessory.
Good old fashioned lover boy: link to amazon.com.au
Not sure I understand how/what a micro-USB keychain would do here?
I used it with an adapter the sane way as you proposed “ it seems to make *far* more sense to just get a lipstick power bank, even one with a built-in USB-C cable, and then a Garmin to USB-C adapter if you wanted to.”
I bought a three pack of right angle Garmin to USB C adapters, I think they are like $8 on Amazon. They have a little cord on so I attached one to the cable I have in my car, one by my bed, and one in my office. I do a similar thing for USB micro.
So I have zero need for something like this and if I did need an extra battery when traveling I’d probably get one of the super light 5,000 mah batteries in addition to the 10 or 20k ones I’d normally pack. The Nitecore ones come in at under 80g and can charge other things. Multitasking is the way for me!
From people commenting here it seems like the number one use case is ultra runners wanting to charge on the go. I can 100% confirm my right angle USB C adapter can fit under the watch while it is worn. You’re going to lose any wrist based HRM for 30 minutes or however long you top off for but I’m sure most of you are wearing a chest strap anyway so no worries there.
I do think the right angle adapters could easily be made skinnier and connect to a flat ribbon style cable so it fits flush under a watch. Heck they could even make it specifically for extended wear under the watch so it doesn’t block any sensors.
Another way to go for extended ultras is just get a watch with solar. Or maybe someone makes a wrist / forearm wearable solar charger that the watch can strap right over or has a low profile adapter cable like I described to fit under the watch. However given there are plenty of watches with 24 hour GPS battery life and you’ll inevitably have some rest breaks on a race that long I doubt there’s enough people interested to make it worth someone’s while to manufacturer. You could just carry a phone that’s always charging or another dedicated GPS tracker.
I bought two. I keep one in my car and my gym bag. I don’t want to have to care or worry about the cable or and extra battery bank. It’s a backup to make sure I can always top off.
It won’t help for jostling around but I typically take some needlenose pliers and squeeze the small outer retention spring on the chargers just a bit. It gets you a more secure attachment and consistent connection as it snaps into place.
After watching the Adam Savage – Lumafield (industrial CAT scanners) YouTube video about the quality and safety differences between name brand 18650 cells and the cheap generic ones I’ve started becoming much more selective about buying anything with Li-ion cells from random non-mainstream companies selling on Amazon, AliExpress etc. I trust companies like Garmin, Google, Apple and other big names are careful about their sourcing and testing of batteries. Certainly the big names have had their issues at times, but I have zero confidence in all this other stuff in the market.
You’re not using it correctly. Attach the power bank and then put the entire contraption on your wrist. Extended power!!!!! This is going to be the new fad.