I have a 44mm Apple Watch Series 6 in a beautiful blue colour, the battery is now down to 85% battery health and regularly gets to below 40% by the end of the day, especially since watchOS10 was released.
I know, big deal, but this bothers me as a few times it’s got below 25% and I don’t want my battery to be ekeing out the day.
So I booked into the Apple Store to have them check it and potentially book it in for a battery replacement. They checked it over and (as I expected) the watch is fine, after 3 years the battery is just wearing out.
My options are
Wait until the battery drops below 80% and send it in to have the watch replaced for £95
Send the watch away now at 85% to get the battery replaced for approx £300
In both cases, because the battery can’t be changed at the store, I would be without my watch for 7-10 days and I wouldn’t get back the watch I sent in, rather a refurb.
The only option the store could offer me is to buy another watch and return it after the repair comes back.
I think this is really poor. If they know they’re going to swap it out for a refurb, why can I not book in the repair and pay a deposit to get a Refurb shipped to the store? I’d love to retain this 6 as I really like the colour and the SoC is not slow. But I don’t want to be without a watch and I know I’d damage any temp watch I bought accidentally.
So I think I will hold out for a couple of months to save a little extra money and get an Ultra, at least the it should last me 4 or 5 years then.
I wouldn’t do choice 2 but would wait for choice 1. I don’t know your prices, but it seems that you could sell your series 6 and buy a brand new series 9 for that £300.
However do you really need a new battery at all? 40% at the end of the day is still nearly a half charge, and providing you don’t wear it at night, you are just fine.
Well I recently traded in my series 4 on a new series 9. I’d take off my watch an hour before bed to give it a boost. I would wear it all night and then put it on the charger again in the morning through my wake-up routine. That was enough to keep the (5 year old) watch going.
I traded it in because some of the health and fitness features were becoming erratic (it would frequently show I was climbing stairs in the middle of the night – our house is a single floor!) and not because of the battery.
Would you be so kind to help me understand what time your day starts, end of day and when you normally place it on the charge for the night?
I find it very odd that it doesn’t charge beyond 80% by morning. Currently I have the Series 8 and it does charge quickly compared to my Series 5. That watch would always be fully charged after 5-6 hours on the charger.
Have you tried to restore/reset the watch and set up as new to see if any positive changes happen?
Apple told us at my last store that ALL watch repairs will happen at our “service centers”. Only watch repair service we offered was to try to remove watch bands that were stuck (ie: warm water and soft bristle brush).
Because they reserve this as an AppleCare benefit (sending the replacement to your house before you ship off the broken one.)
I don’t think you should replace it yet, either. I don’t think you’ll a big enough improvement to the end-of-day battery life.
My all-day-watch-wearing tip to charge it enough is to take a longer shower or two showers, haha. I put back on anything next to my glasses like clockwork.
Literally just went through this Saturday. Battery health reach 79% and reached out to AppleCare. Several messages later and a diagnostic; a replacement arrived today via FedEx.
To me, that would read that @geoffaire is starting the day at below 80% after having charged the watch to (I presume) 100% the previous night and then wearing the watch overnight, not charging the watch overnight.
My day starts between 6 and 7am dependent on the day. I usually put my watch on charge at some point between 10 and 11pm so it’s changed fully before I go to sleep. It usually takes less than 1 hour to charge to 100%.
Apple ran full diagnostics and found no issues and I keep the watch pretty lean regarding 3rd party apps. It’s the installation of watchOS which now means that the battery is at least 15% worse off at the end of the day.
So it does fully charge at night. You put it on and go to sleep. In the morning you are around 80% charge.
Your “end of day” is 10pm and you are below 40%???
Sounds like your battery is normal and healthy for its age.
Only advice I can offer at this point is to restore and set up as new. If run time improves, great! If it remains the same, you have a decision to make.
Personally, since you are considering a new model in the near future (upcoming year), I would hold off on the battery replacement and save that money for the next purchase.
I agree that it’s normal, it’s over 3 years old. I love the colour though and was hoping to book in a no fuss battery change/swap for a refurb, but my disappointment is that there is no easy way to do this without losing access to a watch for up to 10 days.
10 days is a worse case situation… most watch repairs/swaps fall in a 3-5 day turnaround here in the states. But you are still without a watch!
Just keep in mind that IF Apple swaps your watch, the model “could” change. I sent my Series 5 in for a chip in the glass and was sent back a Series 6. That may affect the color you love. Just a heads up.
You will get an equal or better model (if your model isn’t in stock at that time) and the color may vary (for the same reason). A former co-worker sent in a Product Red and received a Space Gray. He was actually very happy with that swap.
After a wipe and restore a few weeks ago with no noticeable difference and 3 days in the last week where I’ve had to charge mid day to ensure an acceptable battery level at the end of the day, I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered a 45mm Apple Watch 9.
I know it’ll last me 3 years, and hopefully the charging tech is faster in the 9
