Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Charging Empty Battery Test

Testing solar charging of the Instinct 2 Solar with an empty battery. Let’s assume we have been hiking for multiple days and the battery just ran out and it’s completely “dead“ / Fully drained. The device will not power on anymore and we don’t have a power bank to charge it with. The question is will it charge via solar even though the device is powered off. And the answer is YES it will charge even though the battery is empty and the device is off. Test period: Charging from 18:42 0% 0 days to 21:06 4% 1days so that was 2 hours and 24 minutes. The sun was already quite low so actually didn’t get sun all the time but it was in the shadow for part of the time. No solar intensity information was captured by the device because it was powered off. Unfortunately, the Garmin manual is not clear about charging while off: It only states: “The watch protects itself from overheating and stops charging automatically if the internal temperature exceeds the solar charging temperature threshold (Specifications).“ “NOTE: The watch does not solar charge when connected to an external power source or when the battery is full.“ “Solar charging temperature range From 0° to 60°C (from 32° to 140°F)“ Garmin help page for the old Instinct Solar model: “Does Solar Charging Take Place While the Watch is Off? Solar charging can take place while the watch is off“
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