Change the battery on Garmin Forerunner 10

The Garmin Forerunner 10 has been a great GPS sports watch for me.  Now after two years the battery life is getting a bit short, so I thought it’s time to replace the battery.

This is not straight forward!  Garmin seem to have made the decision that you can’t actually replace the battery on this device. They probably would rather you upgraded instead. If you go through their support blurb, you will eventually get to a “this battery can’t be replaced” answer.

After a quick Google there are plenty people in the same position.  Happy with their device, but only wanting to replace the battery.

Not everyone takes no for an answer and a great blog piece has been written by Senix (@Crack3d_l3ns) explaining the replacement process. I’ve linked it here.

After checking out the blog, Senix showed that the original battery specs are:

Brand : ROUTE JD
Code No. : PD2048
Diameter : 20mm
Thickness : 4.8mm
Voltage/Capacity : 3.7v / 120mah

I live in the UK and this type of battery doesn’t seem to be available for sale anywhere!

In the comments section a kind soul noted :

Forerunner 10 mount RouteJD PD2032C1 PowerDisk battery (85mAh 20.1 x 3.5 mm)
A candidate to substitution is Maxell ML2032 (75mAh, 20 x 3.2 mm)

There’s a heap of these available online (eBay & Amazon) so I may try this when the current battery becomes unusable.

 

Dave Walker
Dave Walker is a middle aged programmer living in North Yorkshire, who loves music and used to enjoy constantly restarting fitness regimes with a bit of football, cycling, swimming & jogging. Now I just eat biscuits.

4 Comments

  1. r u sure battery spec is PD2048 for FR10? WHY do I see another blog stated batttery replacement of FR10 with PD3032? It’s totally different in size and capacity. so why this ?

  2. Did you use the ml 2032 battery? I’ve found the mk7 version doesn’t work and you need the LIR 2032… the ml is 3v the LIR is 3.6v

  3. Old thread but I’m still looking for a battery replacement for my FR10! Part of the confusion about sizes may be that Garmin made two different sizes of FR10 watches. The larger (“mens”) size takes a 2048 rated at 120mAh – which doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. The smaller (“ladies”) size takes a 2032 rated at 85 mAh for which alternatives are a bit easier to find.
    I imagine putting in a smaller capacity battery will (a) result in shorter battery life and (b) confuse the firmware leading to problems with charging.

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