Move: Battery Drain Test

Still Testing.

And your results are…………………

Battery Life

Here are the results of my two Sonos Move Battery Drain tests.

Test One_4 Days starting at 98% battery charge

• Removed the Move from Charging Ring
• Set Move to BT Mode to dis-engage Wi-Fi
• Depressed the Power Button
• Move went Dark (no LED’s illuminated)
• Move not visible in Sonos App
• At the end of 4 days Move showed 37% battery charge remaining
• Average discharge per day calculation_98% - 37% = 61% / 4 = 15.25% avg.
• Based upon 15.25% average daily discharge the Move battery would be depleted in 6.4 days (98% / 15.25% = 6.4)

Test Two_7 Days starting at 100% battery charge

• Removed the Move from Charging Ring
• Depressed the Power Button until verified “Ding” was heard
• Move went Dark (no LED’s illuminated)
• Move not visible in Sonos App
• At the end of 7 days Move showed 1% battery charge remainig
• Average discharge per day calculation_100% - 1% = 99% / 7 = 14.14% avg.
• Based upon 14.14% average daily discharge the Move battery would be depleted in 7.07 days (100% / 14.14% = 7.07)

The 0.67 day difference between Test One (6.4 days total drain) and Test Two (7.07 days total drain) IMO is negligible.

Test results versus Sonos statement of 120 hours of Move battery life; if left off charging Ring and unused.

• Test One at 15.25% average daily battery drain indicates that at 100% charge the Move battery would be useable for 6.5 days or 156 hours. Allowing for error the Sonos claim of 120 hours is supported.
• Test Two at 14.14% average daily battery drain indicates that at 100% charge the Move battery would be useable for 7.07 days or 169 hours. Allowing for error the Sonos claim of 120 hours is supported.

So there you have it. Just bare in mind that my tests were conducted with no control subject in my home environment. Laboratory testing would most likely yield more accurate data. However, I feel confident in publishing my results for your review.

Cheers!

I’ve just tried it, turned my Move off completely when on wifi, it was at 100%, 4 days later it was at 71%.

Why is it consuming battery when supposedly completely turned off

I’d be interested to know the answer to this question too. My other devices don’t use this much battery when turned completely off so I’m baffled as to why the Move battery will drain completely after a week (according to the other tests).

It’s the thing that is stopping me from buying one of these.

Surely if Alexa is switched on and permanently waiting to be woken up, that will reduce battery life.

Interested to know if you switch Alexa off, whether battery life is better or not ?

I’d have thought that if you switch a unit off completely then any to do with Alexa would also be off, although I’m only guessing :)

I emailed Sonos support to ask them about this but only got a reply telling me how long the battery lasts when in standby even though I specifically said that the unit was apparently switched off completely.

I’ll see if I get another reply answering the actual question I asked :)

I’ve had another reply from support (see below). Can people who have done tests on the battery life say if this is what they have done during their tests please? I need to know of the battery is still draining even when the below process is done. Thanks :)

In order to power off the Move completely however, you would press and hold down the power button for at least 5 seconds, and wait for it to power off completely. Then you will notice that a quick power on button does not bring it back to life right away, but rather holding down on it will get it to boot up and the LED will go through the flashing white which indicates the OS starting up

Yeah that’s what I did, held down for 5 seconds until it powered down.

Cheers for the reply mate :) Whilst yours lost a lot less battery life than the other tests above, I am still baffled as to why it loses nearly 30% when completely turned off over a period of 4 days.

Got another reply from support saying it’s normal for the battery to be consumed when in standby mode even though in every single email correspondence with them I have clearly stated that the Move was turned off completely!

I don’t think I’ll ever get a satisfactory answer to the question I’m asking so will not bother considering the Move at the moment.

Every battery will lose its charge, even when there is nothing being powered.  My tool batteries will eventually go dead and need a recharge, even if they are detached from the tool.  

Also, as I understand the term, “standby mode” is not completely unpowered.  Standby mode would be not playing music, but still on the network and ready to play.  That of course would require power, just for the occasional pings needed to keep it on the network.  

I’m not interested in standby mode but that’s all support seem to want to talk about! My power tools batteries last months when not being used and my mobile when completely turned off also lasts months. I want to know why the Move appears to lose 30% charge when completely turned off in less than a week.

Hi everyone, the team is looking into some things around battery and powered off state behavior. You should see about 5 days in standby, but it should drain over 30 days when powered off.

There have been a few cases we’ve seen where a Move powers itself on and we’re looking into it. It’s early on in the investigation stages right now as they’re trying to see what’s causing the powering up. But I’ll let you know if there’s more to share. If it does power itself back on after the unit had be turned off properly, it would then go into standby mode and drain out the rest of its battery over, at most, 5 days.

Many thanks for your reply much appreciated :) Apologies to all if I was appearing to be a little annoying keep posting the same questions!!

I’ve just recently bought the Move and am very disappointed by the battery drain when not in use, especially as I have the mic and top lights turned off. It seems to come out of standby whenever I use the app for my TV set-up in another room. Very annoying.

Wish I’d paid attention to this thread before buying as I’m considering returning it.

Hey everyone,

I’m experiencing a couple of the issues outlined in this thread too:

1. I turned my Move off completely when on WiFi and the battery was at 82%. 1 day later I checked the battery life and it was at 63%. Really don’t understand why it’s consuming battery power when it’s completely turned off. The speaker was not on the charging ring when I performed this test.

2. The Move speaker randomly turns on and comes out of standby all by itself. I don’t have any other Sonos products in my house so I don’t understand why it’s doing this. I’m not using any voice assistants  with the speaker either.

I’m happy with the speaker but these couple of things are kind of bugging me and I am considering returning it if Sonos don’t offer some kind of explanation/solution soon as to why this is happening.

Cheers

So, you didn’t read the post by the Sonos representative three posts above yours?

I did see that post Bruce but thought I’d just add my voice to the list of frustrated customers who are annoyed about these issues. 

Ah, you confused me with your statement of “if Sonos don’t offer some kind of explanation….”, which I thought Ryan did. 
 

In my experience, Sonos isn’t a perfect system, nor do I expect anything run by software to be bug free at all times. Over the years I’ve been a Sonos user, my experience has been that Sonos acknowledges when there is an issue, and rectifies it. Rarely as quickly as I want, but usually in line with my expectations as a project manager in a software distribution world. 
 

Sonos forum moderators have previously indicated that they read all posts, so I’m sure your unhappiness will be communicated to the appropriate people. 

what about battery life while in use. I am not getting anywhere near 10 hours while listening off charger?

Hi, me too. I only get about 5hrs of playback on battery power. No where near the 10 hours as specified. Could this be due to a  faulty unit?  Is anyone else experience the same issue?

Having the same issue with battery drain when completely off. Purchased the move 2 weeks ago. Disappointing. 

I am in the same situation the battery lasts very little at medium volume, I have deactivated the LED light, and lower the bass to 1, deactivate the touch buttons, is someone going the same way?  greetings from Mexico city