4iiii power meter battery life

Equipment
1

Hi there,
I got a 4iii Precision 3 left-side power meter installed in January. I’ve had to replace the battery three times, on a bike that gets used an average of about 2 hours per week, implying a battery life of only like 10-12 hours of use. The coin-cell batteries are super cheap, but it’s a hassle and more importantly, I worry that the seals and battery door will wear out from so much opening and closing. Have other folks had this experience? I have used name brand Energizer batteries from Amazon (an 8 pack or 10 pack). Maybe I’ll buy a different brand of battery from the drug store to see if perhaps the battery is the issue.

Thanks
Sean

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2

I had a 4iiii dura ace for about 6 months
Never had to replace the battery

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3

I have had one for a few years that never gave me a problem, and suddenly started doing the same thing this winter. I would ride it 5-6 hours on weekends and have to replace the battery monthly. I finally just gave up and bought some faveros. If you find a solution, I’d love to hear it.

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4

I have the previous 4iii power meter crank. I’d say I’m probably getting close to the advertised battery life. I use energiser button cell.

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5

I don’t ride my bike with the 4iiii a lot, but I have only changed it once in 4 years. That includes many, many endurance XC races of 4+ hours.

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6

That is not normal. I would call or contact 4iiii for support. You either have a faulty power meter,!or it needs an upgrade, or somehow you have a device (mobile phone or computer or bike computer) that is staying connected.

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7

I have one my trainer bike and ride 6-8 hours a week, use cheap ass coin cells and change it every 5-6 weeks. So some where between 30-50 or so hours

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8

Ive only a 2nd gen 4iii but the battery lasts for ages.

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9

I run 4iii cranks on 2No bikes and the battery life on both are great. Hundreds of hours of use per battery.

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10

I change mine about once every 3 months

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11

My 4iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii will randomly connect to something and drain itself. It can be a coin cell battery/month. It’s either my phone or an AppleTV which I use for Zwift.

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12

There is some problem & I would contact the manufacturer & see if you can get some help. You’ve got some leakage in the HW somewhere. Or it’s not turning off when it’s idle.

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13

It’s been highlighted in their support forums. It seems like an issue in the BLE controller they use, not their software. In any case, I’m probably going to sell my 4iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii and get the new Favero pedals.

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14

Hi. Just for your info and what I have learned, I had a battery drain issue for over a year before I finally worked out what was causing it. My wife and I used 2 4iiii power meters on our Zwift indoor trainers which were draining at 50% every time. I also have one on my road bike out in a shed completely separate from the house which I got the full 100hrs from.

I contacted 4iiii support who initially replaced a power meter but the problem still persisted, so then they were stumped and useless from then on. I researched the web and found others that had similar issues, and some had noticed that when a bike was stored inside the house the battery drained and when left outside it was fine. I tried bringing my road bike into the house and the power meter drained at 50% like the others, so confirmed the issue was due to something in the house. Long story short it turned out to be the 4iiii app on my iphone draining the battery if I left the power meter paired in the app. If I deleted the power meter in the app after use, it no longer drained the battery. You don’t have to delete the 4iiii app, just unpair the power meter. I am retired so I am home all the time, and my phone is often in range of the Zwift setup. How much it drains the power meter battery probably depends on how often your phone is near the power meter if you leave the power meter paired in the app.

I have let 4iiii know that leaving the power meter paired in their app drains the battery when a bike is inside, perhaps 4 or 6 months ago now, but still no update to fix the issue, so I dare say they didn’t believe me and I don’t really expect them to fix the issue. Haven’t been impressed with them at all. Latest issue I have is a seal on the battery cover broke, and it was going to cost me $150AU to replace it!!! $20US for the cover and ONLY postage option was FedEx at $72US!!

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15

Yeah, I have intermittently had similar issues, and 4iiii has been unhelpful. The practical, but annoying, step I take when this problem occasionally crops up is to take 10 seconds to disconnect the battery after my ride, and tighten it up again before my next use

16

Markea yes one solution. However I use the 4iiii app to keep track of the battery level indoors Zwifting as I don’t use the Garmin, and once there is some battery used, eg 85% and you remove the battery my precision 2 automatically then reads only 50% battery, so I loose the battery usage tracking. This seems to happen no matter what the battery level is after it has been used a little. The battery level could be 90%, 35% or whatever and it will still read 50% after the battery is removed and replaced.