an odd result, Wahoo Battery test: Bolt 3, Roam 3, Ace

More: Wahoo ELEMNT Roam 3 Detailed review

More: Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt 3 Detailed review

More: Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Detailed review

I am currently using Wahoo’s beta software, which is intended to be finalised and then generally available when the Bolt 3 and Roam 3 are released on May 6th. It seems pretty stable and hasn’t crashed yet… unlike my 2-year-old Garmin Forerunner 965, which signalled the blue triangle of Garmin death twice last week in the gym. #sigh.

Anyway, I’m performing various tests on it. Still, one test I thought I would perform that I don’t typically do was to leave the devices recording a workout outside on a table until the battery was depleted. I would have no sensors connected, autopause disabled and screen backlight disabled. I expected to see a slightly meandering GPS track around my back garden, which I got. The table is close to my house, so some GPS signal will be reflected off it, keeping the ELEMNT on its toes with something to do…but not too much. This is a straightforward test to determine the maximum possible battery life. It’s not representative of real-world conditions, but if you were to achieve 75% of the battery life I get here, then you (we) could perhaps start to understand what features have consumed the remaining 25%.

Further battery drain beyond what I show here would likely be caused by unreliable GPS, following a route, reading from sensors, backlight, phone pairings, less commonly used colourful screen elements, etc.

Element ACE claims up to 30 hours of battery life, whereas Roam 3 claims 25 hours (an increase from 17 hours on Roam 2), and Bolt 3 claims 20 hours (an increase from 15 hours on Bolt 2). My test scores were 49 and 27 hours, respectively. I tried this extremely time-consuming test twice with the Wahoo ACE, but the saved workout never uploaded for some reason. I also had an issue with my first attempt at this test with Bolt 3, where I fully depleted the battery, but the ride was not recovered when restarted with external power.

In a discussion with Wahoo, the company noted that it has been tweaking the core battery features. Based on these results, there is a significant performance improvement following the launch of ACE.

Best-Case Battery Life (Unrealistic for real-world usage)

• Roam 3 – 46 hours, 49 hours, 44 hours (15 hours based on navigating on a 2-hour ride with sensors, maybe also some backlight.)
• Bolt 3 – 21 hours (27 hours based on a proper 2-hour ride). I made a mistake here, but I can’t think what eg backlight was disabled.
• Ace – 59 hours, 51 hours

End – Test result charts, below

Other Ride Battery Tests

Last Updated on 11 April 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.