The very popular, and deservedly so, Garmin Zumo 590 sat nav seems to have an issue with the battery failing after a year or two. This is to the extent that once you remove it from your bike and rely on its on-board power you’re counting down the minutes, or even seconds before it expires. Having the ability to work on selecting, loading and editing routes, away from the bike, at your leisure over a coffee, lunch or evening meal/beer at your hotel when on tour would be ideal. This is what Garmin originally intended and how the device worked when new.

What’s the issue

So, you may think that the battery has gone bad and needs replacement. Unfortunately original OEM batteries are exorbitantly expensive. Alternative versions, usually from sources in the Far East, are cheaper but of unknown quality. With my 4 year old Zumo, purchased 2nd hand, I had experienced this low battery phenomena from the start.

I finally decided to do something about it so ordered a new battery off eBay from China. But during the inevitable week or two waiting for delivery I looked further into the issue and found this blog post. As a result I tried what it suggested, without separating the connector, and lo-and-behold it worked. My original battery now lasts for hours rather than a few minutes. The battery from China when it eventually arrived needed the same treatment so this is now on the shelf as a spare (it may well be defunct by the time I need it…).

A video to explain

So I decided to make a video showing this simple procedure in the hope that it may help others, save you some money and prevent lithium batteries being disposed of unnecessarily.

Please let us know if this works for you!