Gps watches

[Witton Park]

I'm a bit disenchanted by the quality of GPS watches.

I've spent a total of around £950 on my last 3.

I had a Suunto Core Extreme that failed after around 18 months. It had a two year warranty and to be fair to Suunto they took it back to Finland, said it was beyond repair and sent me a new replacement.

However that one also went pear-shaped after 12 months or so and they then claimed I only had a two year warranty and it was now lapsed and if I sent it back to Finland, it was at my cost.

Nice too see they didn't stand by their device only 12 months old.

I then moved to a Forerunner 220. Worked well while running, but developed charging issues and software issues. The charging cradle was quite poor in consistency of contact and often when connecting to my laptop I had software conflicts.
It limped to just over 3 years, so better in terms of life than the Suunto.

My current watch is a Fenix 5S. It's up to 32 months now, but for at least 6 months I've been having similar connectivity issues as with my previous Forerunner.
This was a £350 watch and I only use for running, walking or cycling and the last 3 years have been the least active of my running life, so it should be fine.

My Fenix was last used on Sunday and I haven't been able to get it to charge since, so used my phone this morning.

Overall, very disappointed with them. Wondered if anyone else had similar issues.

[Mike T]

I have a Fenix 6X Pro - so far near perfect. I come back from a run, take it off, have a shower, and it downloads to Garmin Connect and Strava without being connected to anything. About once a month it does need to be connected to download. No charging problems YET - I recharge it overnight about twice a week.

My Fenix 5 stopped downloading runs no matter what I did - it was out of warranty but Garmin exchanged it for a refurbished one free of charge - I gave it to my partner though she has not used it yet - she just uses her phone.

I have had multiple Garmins - most have developed charging problems eventually - very annoying to hear that this is still an issue.

[Yaks]

Regards charging issues with Garmins - you may already ahve done this, but if not, then check that the charging port is not gunked up with sweat/dirt/etc. It's a poor design, an open recess next to a sweaty wrist. I use a cotton bud dipped in cleaning fluid, and give it a good rub, it's amazing the amount of dirt that the bud collects.

[Mike T]

Regards charging issues with Garmins - you may already ahve done this, but if not, then check that the charging port is not gunked up with sweat/dirt/etc. It's a poor design, an open recess next to a sweaty wrist. I use a cotton bud dipped in cleaning fluid, and give it a good rub, it's amazing the amount of dirt that the bud collects.

Agreed, cleaning is important, but eventually the charging points and/or its supporting frame wear out/become loose and charging becomes intermittent at best, and finally impossible.

[PeteS]

I bought some rubber covers for the Garmin charging port on Amazon. Just a few quid for ten and stops it getting clogged up and worn.
I have a Garmin Instinct bought in 2019 (see earlier review on this thread) and still going strong. If I was going to buy another watch today, I'd just buy the solar version of the instinct. Doesn't have a fancy colour touch screen or anything like that - just does what it's meant to do and well. Battery life still great too.

[Graham Breeze]

My Fenix 5 stopped downloading runs no matter what I did - it was out of warranty but Garmin exchanged it for a refurbished one free of charge - I gave it to my partner though she has not used it yet - she just uses her phone.

I have had several "refurbished" Garmins but I suspect they are in fact effectively new. Possibly Garmin salvage some parts of returned items but I have never believed Garmin are in the "repair" business.

[Witton Park]

Update.

I managed to get it charging again and on and off it was OK until about 3 weeks ago and then nothing.

I contacted Garmin - they advised that they do not offer a service option. What I could do is return my watch and they would send out a refurb and charge me £146.57 which seems an odd amount, but also very pricey without any details on the item they are sending or guarantee.

So I found advancedrepair.co.uk and they charged £70 and the watch is back and charging properly. Less than a week to turn it around.

Apparently gunk aside (and I did clean it) the most common issue is the connection to the motherboard and they go in to the watch and repair it.

If I get another year out of it I'll consider it money well spent.

[Mossdog]

Garmin Fenix 3 bought in late 2015 - still going strong.

Used daily (not while sleeping) and aside from weekly running, it has seen plenty of seawater swimming, lake dips, kayaking action, plus daily showering, etc. over the years. No major issues, but the original charger (wall electric socket plug thingy) stopped working 3 years ago, and now i charge it from my Mac via a, new, charging cradle and cable.

The battery is still satisfactory and needs charging every 2 to 3 days. The only issue I have to keep an eye on is that when it is disconnected from the Mac it sometimes freezes and needs to be switched off and on again (seems to be a cure for so much in life!).

Also, despite there being an indoor rowing widget, it really doesn't work well at all for this activity.

Useful tip for some OCD fit-biters - wearing it while horse riding quadruples your steps count

[Marco]

Useful tip for some OCD fit-biters - wearing it while horse riding quadruples your steps count

How does that work? Last time I counted, a horse only had four legs

[Graham Breeze]

Update.

I managed to get it charging again and on and off it was OK until about 3 weeks ago and then nothing.

I contacted Garmin - they advised that they do not offer a service option. What I could do is return my watch and they would send out a refurb and charge me £146.57 which seems an odd amount, but also very pricey without any details on the item they are sending or guarantee.

So I found advancedrepair.co.uk and they charged £70 and the watch is back and charging properly. Less than a week to turn it around.

Apparently gunk aside (and I did clean it) the most common issue is the connection to the motherboard and they go in to the watch and repair it.

If I get another year out of it I'll consider it money well spent.

Since Garmin don't do servicing how do you think they source the alleged "refurbished" models?