I have had a similar problem. I thought mine was due to the cold, but depending upon what you are seeing, maybe not. Mine doesn't lose the altitude reference. I have gone to placing a strip of paper over the contacts when I am not going to use it for a while. I have tried to just open the battery cover, but it takes a while to come back on. The paper works better. It bugs me to have to do that.
Apparently not bad enough, because I haven't contacted Kestrel about it.
