Battery Life... really?

[Sregener]

Okay, I expected to get almost two weeks out of my Kobo Wifi with the Wifi off. I am not a heavy user, but it seems I can't even get through a single book in a week on a charge. What is up with that?

[sabredog]

Are you turning your Kobo off or letting it simply sleep between reading sessions?

[Sregener]

Just sleep.

[3d0g]

Use sleep for snack / bio breaks etc, and shut it off when you're done reading for the day. I think you'll see a marked battery life improvement.

[ltr]

Originally Posted by Sregener

Okay, I expected to get almost two weeks out of my Kobo Wifi with the Wifi off. I am not a heavy user, but it seems I can't even get through a single book in a week on a charge. What is up with that?

Under identical conditions my WiFi goes 11 days using sleep and 40 days using power off.

Always be sure to leave WiFi disabled and Magazine/Newspaper subscriptions off.

ltr

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by ltr

Under identical conditions my WiFi goes 11 days using sleep and 40 days using power off.

Always be sure to leave WiFi disabled and Magazine/Newspaper subscriptions off.

ltr

Also make sure that your WiFi is turned OFF when you're not accessing store/checking for updates.

I've been just letting mine sleep recently and get a good 3-4d of 3 or so hours/day reading. (I don't watch much TV, and there haven't been enough games recently that interest me enough to play continuously whenever possible.)

Still all of that said batt life is still nor as good as my PRS-505 when it was new and through the first 1.5y or so of use under similar conditions, but OTOH it's MILES better than my Nook Color which also has the drawback of weighing a metric ton or so and being entirely useless on sunny summer days...

[PeterT]

You might like to look at a blog posting from Kobo published on the 1st.

Did you know: How to manage and preserve battery life on your Kobo WiFi eReader?

[smoggy]

My Kobo History
(I've taken this of my "support" page at KOBO,)
(The only editing done was to remove my address & phone #)

The last time I wrote to Tech support I asked them
to take the time and ensure the Kobo would perform
for the battery life as advertised.

The tech that answered me assured me he would.

I had my Kobo given me new as a gift for Christmas.
It was returned to Kobo Toronto with battery issues.
They replaced it with a well used unit, and the battery
performance was no better.

That one was replaced with a new unit, and again
the battery life was no better than three days.

It was replaced with another Kobo, in a New Box,
with a refurbished sticker on the bottom of
the back panel.

Battery life appears to be 1 1/2 days.

Received 4'th Kobo (3rd replacement),
Tuesday Afternoon, May 17.

Kobo Log: Tuesday Afternoon, May 17

I immidiately Charged the battery
and allowed it to connect and update
its software.

I loaded my current library and started reading.
My current book is titled Darkwar: 02 - Into A Dark Realm.
The book shows as 280 pages. I set the font size
to give me a real page for each page turn.

Last night, I read in bed for a while and then put
the Kobo away & turned out the lights.

Thursday May 19.
I awoke at 8:00 am, and went to cook my breakfast.
I looked at the book and the low battery/charge battery
page was showing.

I connected the Kobo to charge the battery & left it alone.
MY page count was displayed as 132.

At 2:30 pm I returned to my Kobo,
and disconnected it from the usb cable,
the blue light in the upper right corner
showing a full charge.

Saturday, May 21, 10:00 am, upon awakening,
Kobo displayed recharge battery page.

At this point, even though I like the Kobo reader,
Kobo is 4 for 4 in failures to come close to their advertised specs.

The original was bought at Walmart Campbell River
It was bought shortly before Christmas as a Christmas Gift.
We've been through 4 0f these and still there are issues
with battery life.

The last time through support, I was assured this unit
would be thoroughly trested before being sent.

If you can't provide an e-reader that meets Your Advertised Specs,
Please forward to me, my Purchase Costs of $149.xx plus HST.

Im' not angry here, but I am very disappointed.
I've told hundreds of people how wonderful your product is,
but this is outright terrible.


Hello John,

Thank you for contacting Kobo customer service about the battery life of your Kobo not being satisfactory.

I will need to escalate this issue to our next level of support and they will determine what can be done at this point.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

The Kobo Team

May-22 2011 09:35



Hi,

There is a number of things you can do to help the battery last longer:
If you have a Wifi ereader, turn the Wifi off,
When not reading turn the ereader off, don't just put it on standby,
Store it in room temperature (not direct sunlight)

The eReader's battery will last different amount of time depending on the amount of usage. However if you are unhappy with the product and looking for a refund you will need to contact the store where you purchased the ereader.

Sincerely
The Kobo Team

May-25 2011 10:20


Or - we can continue excahging these until I actually get one that performs as advertised.

MY ereader is NEVER in the sunlight, and never in a hot place.
And I never use WIFI. I shut it off immidiately.

If you are now claiming I need to power this down every time I go on to another task,
I think the number of renboots I would have to do in a day would eat the battery by lunch time.
As a silly question here, how much power does this use to boot, vs the amount of power in sleep mode?

I see you have halved you original advertised specs.
"Battery Life 10 days or 10,0000 Page Turns"
BUt I have never got anywhere close to that. Closer to 15% of your spec.
Your tech guys promised they would ensure this one met the advertised standards.
It hasn't even come close, it has the worst perfomrance of the 4 I've experienced.

Guys, I'm not looking for confrontation here, I'm only looking for the "advertised performance"
4 out of 4 ereaders have failed to come close.

Next?


May-25 2011 13:00



Hi,

There is a number of factors that can affect the life of the battery. The advertised 10000 page turns for the Kobo Wifi is a maximum battery life for the eReader and many things cause this amount to be reduced such as; using an SD card, using wifi, opening and closing books, turning the eReader on and off, the number of books you are reading, room temperature, leaving it on etc. Please note that all batteries do discharge even when they are not being used.

It is very unlikely that you have had four eReaders all of which have a faulty battery. Please try fully charging the eReader (this takes around three hours) and try reading you book, taking into account the points made above, ensure the wifi is off, don't use an SD card.

Hopefully this clears up and explains the battery concerns you have. Please let us know how you get on.

Sincerely
The Kobo team

May-27 2011 09:54



Sir: I have a maximum of 25 books in internal storage. And have never used a SD card.
I do NOT use wifi, it is turned off. I've tried it with AND without screensaver enabled.
The first thing I did when I took delivery of this one, was to fully charge the battery.

My use has continually been 1 1/2 days, 120-150 pages.

Your opening and closing books comment sounds a bit like
Steve Jobs with the Iphone Antenna fix.

I've been through your tech support suggestions for 4 of these now,
and it has always been your techs suggestion that the batteries are bad.

To now suggest it is something I am doing wrong?
IT would be very easy to be insulted by that.
How much battery is being used to reboot from a shut down?
How much battery is being used to "sleep for a couple hours?

And - How is it, when I specifically ask that the battery life
is checked to ensure it meets specs before the unit is shipped,
that unit has the absolute worst battery life of the four?

Do you want me to power off every time I put this down?
I take this with me every where I go.
If I go for coffee, I either have a hardcover book or my KOBO.
IF I go to the bank or grocery shopping, I have my KOBO fo waiting in lineups.
IF I'm waiting for my Wife from some appointment, I have my KOBO.

I would rather leave it to go to "sleep" mode or screensaver during the day,
and power it off when I sleep.

At what point is letting it go to screen saver more economical for battery life,
rather than constant rebooting?

I'm not trying to be difficult here, your suggestion
I'm doing something wrong brings up those questions.

Your telephone agent told me - with 6,000,000 units sold,
we're bound to run into some problems.

I'm serious here with my questions.
I like my KOBO, but this is getting extremely frustrating.

John
May-27 2011 15:18 John Kervin As an addendum. I fully charged this Saturday May 28, 2:00 pm.
I read off & on through the evening.
I shut it off - powered down at 9:00 pm.



Today, Sunday May 29, 9:48, it is displaying: Battery is low, Recharge.

I can't see that I've done anything to run a "full Charge down like that!

Serial RKBN647142B01462

WIFI
Black

May-29 2011 12:50



John Kervin 10 days later, still no reply, no response.
NO Idea what is going on, I'm just left hanging.

Jun-06 2011 12:20

[ltr]

Have you checked that the Newspaper/Magazine subscription setting is disabled?

[smoggy]

Yes - every option that can be turned off is.
At this point I think Kobo would rather I disappeared.

I'd post more detail, but I would start ranting, neither of us needs that.

[ltr]

Well, you seem to have covered all the possible culprits that could drain your battery, so I don't know what to think.

Most peoples battery last quite a long time. Mine lasts so long I sometimes forget there's a battery in it. Certainly longer than a month, but then I shut my power off when I'm done reading (my testing shows about 40 days if I religiously use power off). I certainly buy a new book or two every month, and while it's hooked up for the download it gets its charge, so I never really think about the battery.

In your case it's hard to fathom that you got four units with defective batteries. The odds are too great.

That's why I come back to a setting, but you have exhausted that avenue.

It's a mystery for sure??

ltr

[smoggy]

Had I determined the battery was a problem, I'd say yeah, you're right.
But the diagnosis was by Kobo techies not me.

I have a digital piano. We had it 3 months and it started failing.
The local dealer was useless. He would pick up the phone, call the importer,
start swearing &screaming & slam down the phone.

I thought I would do better by dealing with the importer myself and in the long run I probably did. The importer in Montreal fed me no end of BS, week after week
after week. It took 2 1/2 yesrs to get the piano replaced, and the next died shortly after we got it. The third one is a bit better, but only because I can open up the case
and reseat the ribbon cables.

Their specialist in piano delivery was straight out of th e 3 stooges.
I watched my piano come end over end down the length of a 40 foot truck.
I finally got the truth from the distributor. They bought 4 containers of these, 80 units to a container. There was a 75% failure rate. Essentially they were selling drums, guitars & accessories to make enough money to replace the defective units. Had they told me that at the beginning, I would have shown alot more patience.

I also worked as an appliance tech in the 70's, and RCA had a defective batch of dishwashers. Their decision was to let the techs sort it out in the field rather than
issuing a recall for that model. Gee thanks guys.

I get the feeling my Kobo is following those 2 examples.
Kobo phone support told me they have over 6 millioon units out there.
so, with 6 million units in use, me getting 4 duds in a row isn't too far fetched.

It appears to me that the only way to get Kobo to care, is to generate negative publicity. Usually I don't like that kind of games, but I'm getting closer to it.
I will continue to respect the forum owner and the people that populate it.

Thanks & all the best.

[m_bisson]

The sleep mode DOES drain the battery quickly. Nothing will change that. I power my kobo off any time I'm not going to be reading within an hour or two. Are you actually reading small bits of books more frequently than that?

My kobo gets a good 3-4 weeks out of one charge. Instead of complaining about having to turn the power off/on rather than use sleep mode, why not TRY IT first and see if it's really a big hassle and see if it fixes the battery problem. Odds are, there really is nothing wrong with your reader.

[robko]

Something is definitely wrong if you're only getting 1 1/2 days. I rarely shut mine off and automatically downloads newspaper every day and I get 4-5 days out of it. 10,000 pages/10 days is marketing hype, but what you're getting is sub-standard.
Only thing I can think of is how are you charging it (i.e. computer/USB cord or wall charger)? It sounds like it isn't getting fully charged or else something is draining it that shouldn't be (which doesn't seem likely when you've been through 4 of them). I would try a different computer or different wall charger.

[smoggy]

Supposedly when the blue light comes on in the upper right corner, the battery is charged. IT stilltakes the 3 hopurs to charge, but 1 1/2 days - 135 pages - that's it.

If I know I'm going to be away from the book for a while, I'll power it off.
If I'm going to the bath or shoping or soewhere where there is a lineup,
or A&W for lunch, The book is there. being read. I can devour books.


I read the whole Lee Child - Jack Reacher series on my word processor
in 4 days. I read fast & retain what I read. When I was ready to stop,
I would delete what I had read, and save as a temp file.

I found a North American Source for the battery.
It is 11.00 & change, but the shipping costs are
prohibitive at this point.

http://www.robotshop.com/ca/ProductS...RB%2DSpa%2D109

There is a branch in the US also & one in Europe.
Problem is, they are on the wrong side of Canada.
I'm on Vancouver Island.

I think for the time being, I'm going to just do the
4 AA batteries wired to the USB cable. That will
increase the duration. At leat until Kobo gets off
their butt.