citizen eco-drive recharge rates

ednwireland

got a citizen eco drive (Model number AT0361-06E) for my birthday in june 2012.
it went flat and stopped a couple of days ago so had it on the windowsill at work (south facing not very sunny last couple of days) and it went flat again this morning barely lasted 8 hours. wasnt showing the low battery level (2 s jumps) last night when i took it off

whats the best way of getting it charged up ?

sunnier today so might get more charge, very annoying to not be able to wear the watch all day and leave it on the windowsill

i've been wearing it more recently so maybe its getting less charge (long sleeves etc)

i've read the offficial charging times but thats obviously irrelevant to the real world

thanks sorry for the noob questions

Ziboo

Hi, I have had a eco drive watch since 2005 and never made a deliberate effort to charge it. and it has worked fine since.
It spends much of the time hidden under a shirt sleeve. I was always under the impression that they required very little exposure to light to keep them charged. So maybe you have a dodgy battery.
If you are in an office try leaving it on your desk for a few hours and if that doesn't sort it I would suspect it is dodgy.
... Or as has happened to me, you could be accidentally pulling the crown out which is used to change the time or date as this stops the watch?

ednwireland

Ziboo wrote: »

... Or as has happened to me, you could be accidentally pulling the crown out which is used to change the time or date as this stops the watch?

dont think its that as it stopped at 6 minutes past midnight and i took it off at about 6pm

had it on the windsill the last 2 days and it still stopped, like i say if it does it again it will be back to argos (shame nice watch)

Menas

Sounds like a dodgy battery to me. My own eco drive was bought in 1996 and rarely looses its charge...
When it does it takes a day or normal wear to get it back to normal (back to 1 sec steps).
Certainly after a day on the window sill it should be back to full charge.

One thing I would suggest is to reset the watch and see if the problem persists. Your manual will tell you how to do this. Downloadable manuals are at the below link.
http://www.citizenwatch-global.com/support/guidhomee.htm

If the problem does persist then your only option is to replace the battery as your current one is not sufficently holding charge or charging up to full capacity. If watch is still under warranty then back to the dealer with you!

CALCUL

ednwireland wrote: »

got a citizen eco drive (Model number AT0361-06E) for my birthday in june 2012.
it went flat and stopped a couple of days ago so had it on the windowsill at work (south facing not very sunny last couple of days) and it went flat again this morning barely lasted 8 hours. wasnt showing the low battery level (2 s jumps) last night when i took it off

whats the best way of getting it charged up ?

sunnier today so might get more charge, very annoying to not be able to wear the watch all day and leave it on the windowsill

i've been wearing it more recently so maybe its getting less charge (long sleeves etc)

i've read the offficial charging times but thats obviously irrelevant to the real world

thanks sorry for the noob questions

Hi ednwireland.

Your watch has a power reserve of 150 days - meaning that, when fully charged, it will run for 150 days "in the dark" without need for recharging. In practice, with regular wear it will keep topping up the charge so you shouldn't need to worry about depletion. However it is possible that it was not fully charged when you bought it, and therefore the power reserve has run down.

The charge times are as follows (from "empty" to a full charge). Speed of charging depends on the strength of the light source - natural light will charge it faster than incandescent light.

Outdoors sunny (100,000 lux): 11 hours
Outdoors cloudy (10,000 lux): 25 hours
Incandescent (3,000 lux at 20"): 80 hours
In order to get "one day's use", 3 hours' charging in office light (300 lux) should be enough.


These charge times should be accurate in practice. However as it seems that you are having problems, we would recommend a full charge using the best light source you can find. Try leaving it in a window which receives decent sunlight for 2-3 days (since there are not so many hours of daylight this time of year).

Once it has charged up fully, you really shouldn't have any further issues if it is being worn fairly regularly. Long sleeves shouldn't be an issue - when you are wearing it daily it will get more charge, as you'll likely look at it outdoors, giving it a nice top-up from natural light every time you do so.


Hope this helps.

CALCUL
Citizen Service Centre
Bay 20 Free Zone West
Shannon
Co. Clare

ednwireland

thanks everyone took it back to argos - new watch waiting for me