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I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap.
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 2014-04-06 4:51 PM |
Member  169  |  Subject: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap.Ok, I've been in denial a long time but I can't avoid it anymore. Garmin equipment is garbage and I feel like it's because they have no real competition. Here are all the issues I've had with various Garmin gear since I got my 910xt a year ago (in chronological order): 1) 1 failed soft-style heart rate monitor (the electronic piece). After a month of wearing it it constantly showed my HR at 170bpm, even when I wasn't wearing it. They sent me a new one. 2) 1 failed hard strap monitor. I bought that because I heard they were more reliable than the soft strap version. Wrong. Failed completely within a few months. Emailed Garmin and never heard back. Gave up on it. 3) 1 failed soft strap for HRM. They sent me a new one, which is much more robust and seemed to fix the problem. For a while. 4) Instantaneous pace using GPS is erratic, swinging wildly at times between a 2 minute range. This is a well known issue with the device and didn't exist with the 205 or other previous versions. I guess it's just accepted. 5) I bought the footpod to compensate for that issue. The footpod is pretty much a joke. It pretty much needs to be recalibrated every time I run with it, and then sometimes it seems to lose cal in the middle of a run. Gave up on this after a while too. Pretty much just record cadence data with it, which I don't really care about to be honest. 6) Now the HRM will just randomly show a significantly lower HR for a period of time, but seems to fix itself after it autolaps, clearly a software issue. 7) On several occasions the thing has just turned itself off, though never while I was in the middle of an activity. 8) The software has glitched out on it to the point that none of the buttons were responsive and it couldn't even be rebooted (with a full battery). Ended up finding out on another forum that I had to turn it on then hook it to power then turn it off an unhook the power. This eventually enabled the thing to boot. The bike cadence sensor has worked well though. All in all I wish there were more competitors in this area. There really isn't any other choice other than to use Garmin product for the multisport, though I heard there is another brand available now. I'm stuck with this for years as my wife would clip my nuts if I tried to buy another one after spending $600 on all this crap. Oh well, anyone else had these types of issues? |
| 2014-04-06 5:09 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Elite 7783    PEI, Canada | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Nope, my Forerunner 220 is awesome and the 305 I had before that just wouldn't die. It still works fine but with the 220 I have little use for it. The Edge 500 I have on my bike is rock solid too. I don't use a HRM which seems to be a lot of the issues you are having. I also have never relied on instant pace, I use lap pace instead. |
| 2014-04-06 5:29 PM in reply to: axteraa |
Member 1004 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Six years and I've never had a problem with my Garmin. On my Timex running watch, however, the strap broke and there is no replacement. It's frustrating to have a great, expensive watch but I can't use it because of a piece of rubber (or some material). |
| 2014-04-06 5:41 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Master 2406 Bellevue, WA | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I have many Garmin products, automotive, boating, and triathlon. Other than #4 the 910xt instantaneous pace issue, I've never had a problem with any Garmin device. |
| 2014-04-06 5:45 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Pro 6011 Camp Hill, Pennsylvania | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. My Garmin Nuvi works nicely. The 305 I used for years is still being used by my son at college several times a week. The only problem I've experienced with my 910 was the soft strap that I had to replace. I have clients using just about every model of GPS HR monitor they make with no issues. Overall, I'm very happy with their products.
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| 2014-04-06 6:21 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Alpharetta, Georgia Bronze member | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. My 310XT is going strong - had it 4.5 years. Quick Google search says there are other options for multisport GPS watches... Polar, TomTom, Timex and Nike are at the top of the search. |
| 2014-04-06 6:53 PM in reply to: lisac957 |
New user 132 Kingston, Ontario | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Not trying to be rude here hopwever being a technician for almost 5 years now i have noticed one thing.... 98% of the time with clients all my trouble related tech issues are the users.. Not the equipment. Read all the replies so far and they all say there garmin rocks. I have a ton of garmin stuff too.. Had one issue with the heart rate monitor. got a new one. everything else rocks.. Im thinking user error.. Sorry boss |
| 2014-04-06 6:58 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
| Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Nope. 305, 310, 500, 800, 810, one heart rate monitor, couple speed and cadence sensors, about 7 years of quite literally daily use. The only time I've had an issue is when my 310 was run over by a car. I'm not sure I can blame software for that issue, though. |
| 2014-04-06 7:07 PM in reply to: DanielG |
Expert 2373 Floriduh | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Got a 310XT - at least 3 yo, it is great other than 2 cracks in the crystal. Just can't use it for the swim but it can't track OWS anyway. I use Wahoo Ant+ peripherals so I can't comment on that part of the Garmin product line. |
| 2014-04-06 7:17 PM in reply to: DanielG |
Extreme Veteran 645 Media, PA | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. 310XT, Edge 500, Edge 810, all with cadence/speed sensors, power meters, and HRM straps. Other than the occasional high heart rate under tech clothing before sweating, and every once in a while boot up on the 310XT, I've had pretty good experience with Garmin products. Also had a 95(?) aviation handheld GPS from the 90's. After a few years of use, some kind of error message would post regarding some kind of database error. Turns out a battery died inside (that couldn't be replaced by the user) and it died earlier than they thought it would. Even though it was out of warranty, Garmin customer service fixed (or replaced, can't remember) the unit, at no charge. Regarding your instant-pace issue, I'm not sure how a GPS unit could ever give data that precise; my 310XT always jumps around, I also use lap pace to get a smoother, more realistic value. |
| 2014-04-06 7:18 PM in reply to: Oysterboy |
Pro 15655 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I have a lot of Garmin units.....including one of the earliest GPS's that we used over 20 years ago to mark fishing spots....still works flawlessly as do all the others. If it's GPS enabled, I wouldn't have anything BUT Garmin. |
| 2014-04-06 7:44 PM in reply to: Left Brain |
| 246 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Garmin's CS is so good that I don't even take the time to read manuals anymore. If I have a question, I just call...done. |
| 2014-04-06 8:09 PM in reply to: cpzone |
| Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Since we're piling on ... Had a 305 for 4-5 years, only problem was the speaker on the back died from sweat. Now using a 910. about 1.5 years, no issues other than recently the HR monitor started showing clearly incorrect results. 50 bpm during hill repeats. I called them, they said they'd send a new strap without the transmitter, ended up sending the strap and transmitter, works great now. I'm sure someone has had a bad experience and will chime in soon. |
| 2014-04-06 9:42 PM in reply to: #4977387 |
Member 169 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. What kind of user error would you suspect? Nothing I've just described has any user interaction at all. Unless my 910 head unit is bad and causing all of these issues, which is in the realm of possibility, but they are not all related too each other. Issues with the erratic pace and issues with the hrm can be found all over the web, and even on this site if I search. The footpod is awesome when it's accurate but it's rarely accurate, even immediately after a GPS cal. When it's showing me running a 630 pace something is wrong. I forgot to add: 9) many times when transferring the data using the ant stick it will get stuck in an endless loop where it will almost be totally transferred and then drop back to 1%. I will say the swim stroke counter works great and I've had great luck ows with the thing. I also had a 205 and never had any issue with it whatsoever except the speaker crapped out. After a couple years it tarted corrupting my training files though. |
| 2014-04-06 9:52 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Member 1293 Pearland,Tx | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Dear OP This seems to be a Garmin Rant thread so ill add fuel to the fire the most that i hated with my previous 310XT and my current 910XT they are both CRAP!!!!! in Openwater i mean as in $#%^ Crap!!!. the 910XT and 310XT in openwater is no better than a very expensive water resistant stopwatch during OWS. I tried wearing on my wrist results are impossible , i tried wearing it behind my cap results are off by a 100 yards. Thanks OP for this thread!!!! |
| 2014-04-06 9:53 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
New user 230 penticton | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. i worked for 5 years as the canadian warranty manager for Garmin. Of the issue you mention, the soft hr strap was one well know and problematic. The new 3rd edition as completely solve this -910 and pace issue. A master reset and letting the unit acquired enough GPS by letting it sit outside 30min on the first time after the master reset take care of this. I solve those issue daily from people that did not rest properly. -footpod. i m not sure what to tell you, for most part, it s something that never come back for warranty... it works well, and when calibrated...is extremely accurate for most runners that have a normal running strides. Over the years, what i have seen is many people not wanting to learn how to properly use the garmin gps watches while those watch got more and more complicated with more functions etc. But when you know how to work it, i about never encounter any issue i could not solve myself within a few minutes other than the mention hr strap, and a few other know issue that came up over the year. |
| 2014-04-06 11:15 PM in reply to: 0 |
| 643 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Here's my experience: HR monitor: I have a hard strap from a 405 and it's been working fine for 95% of my workouts. A lot of time it does spike to 200+ for no reason on random workouts. People say it's a static issue. I didn't really have this issue when I first got it though. 405 works great. ~8-10 hour battery life and I could use it for most bike things (speed and cadence), minus PM. Upgraded a a 910. I also have the pace issue and pretty much ignored it since I just go off RPE and HR for runs. This worked fine on my 405 so I don't know why it doesn't work out of the box for the 910. I e-mail Garmin since my altitude meter is way off and battery now has a 4.5 hr life, with or without GPS. I e-mailed them, they said to do a master reset. Did that (losing all my screens....wish they had a backup option for this), still having battery issues on my 5 month old watch. Worked great up until a month ago. E-mailed them back saying battery still sucks. Awaiting reply. Hopefully they fix this, since a 4.5 hour battery life is pretty much useless for someone training for an IM. Well...not useless but it cut off on my bike ride today but at least I only lost a mile, but if I ran afterwards like I formally do, I'd be starting to get more frustrated. Edited by Blastman 2014-04-06 11:17 PM |
| 2014-04-07 5:52 AM in reply to: #4977387 |
Member 169 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Oh yeah I forgot until you just mentioned it. 10) Barometric altimeter not accurate. I generally treat the altitude readings as worthless info kinda like footpod cadence. Somewhat ironically, I'm an electrical engineer with a graduate degree in radar and antenna design. I actually work at Cape Canaveral performing lauch site processing of GPS satellites and then work console as we put them on orbit. |
| 2014-04-07 6:31 AM in reply to: 0 |
Extreme Veteran 5722 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I have mixed feelings about Garmin products. I think they are quite innovative I think they provide very good customer support Without saying they are crap, I think they could do better on the quality front I had a 310xt. The quick release broke during a race. For me, they QR is a poor design. Many people have lost them. They provided a replacement for $99 and the display went wonky about 2 years later. But I got a lot of good use out of it. I bought the FR60 for treadmill running. The footpod always worked really well and was accurate. But the strap on the FR60 was not durable. I went through 2, replaced under warranty. My FR60 still works but the last strap broke while off warranty Replaced it with a FR70. Stopped working after 3 months. Replaced under warranty, no problems since. I bought a Garmin 500. Very good unit electronically, but one of the little "flaps' that screws into the mount wore out. I have seen several people complain about this. Garmin replaced it but it's happening to the 2nd unit I have an 800. No problems at all. I have a 910. I had the same problem many many people had with the barometric altimeter. Garmin replaced it. Soft HR strap. Well known issues. I only run with the hard strap and they are rock solid. So, of all the Garmin products I have bought, the 800 is the only one that has not been back for service/replacement. My problems have all been "mechanical" more than electronic. I use my stuff a lot. My personal experience with Garmin is why I personally will not trust them for the Vectors until I am convinced there are no quality issues. Maybe I'm rough on my stuff, if so, then maybe I need something more rugged. Edit : one more funny 910xt issue. I was in Florida, had to catch a plane at 5. It was noon and decided to go for a swim. Press "start" on the 910 and it goes into a mode of continuous vibration and beeping. I could not shut it off. I tried every combination of hard reset/soft reset, it would just buzz and vibrate. I had a flight a few hours later and I did not know if I should put it in my checked luggage or hand carry. I decided to hand carry and sure enough, security couldn't figure out what to do with it when it set off the Xray machine. They told me I had to turn it off, I couldn't. They were confused about what to do. They let me through after a lot of explanation of what it actually was. After about 6 hours the batter died and it's been fine since. Edited by marcag 2014-04-07 6:40 AM |
| 2014-04-07 8:50 AM in reply to: marcag |
Expert 2098 Ontario Canada | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I am into year 7 or 8 on My 305 with all the accessories HR, 2- gsc 10s, footpod, never had an issue with anything other then changing accessory batteries every few years, the darn thing just wont die and give me a reason to upgrade.  |
| 2014-04-07 10:00 AM in reply to: strykergt |
| 400 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. Originally posted by strykergt Dear OP This seems to be a Garmin Rant thread so ill add fuel to the fire the most that i hated with my previous 310XT and my current 910XT they are both CRAP!!!!! in Openwater i mean as in $#%^ Crap!!!. the 910XT and 310XT in openwater is no better than a very expensive water resistant stopwatch during OWS. I tried wearing on my wrist results are impossible , i tried wearing it behind my cap results are off by a 100 yards. Thanks OP for this thread!!!! I'm curious - how do you know results are off by 100 yards? Do you have another way to measure distance in open water? Are you comparing to race courses? What distance? I'm impressed if you have a known course and can swim a dead straight line in open water. No flaming just overall curious. My Forerunner 305 was perfect. I upgraded to the 910xt when I got into triathlon. I'm now on my 3rd one since summer 2012. Both times elevation quit working. Garmin customer service has been easy to work with though. I put down a deposit and they ship me a refurbished model. Once I get the refurb, I ship my defective watch back to them and they credit me back the deposit. It only costs me shipping and I'm not without a watch during training. I agree that the instant pace is worthless. That feature worked well on my 305. Like another poster, I just use lap avg pace now and it's relatively accurate. |
| 2014-04-07 11:53 AM in reply to: 0 |
Pro 4578 Vancouver, BC | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. My 500 has been quite good. I've been using a cyclops HR strap and it pairs well. However, I did have it lose a ride/race once. It recorded the race. After the race the distance and time looked great. I stopped it like I always do, went home, plugged it in via USB, it took longer to power on and the ride was missing. I also broke the screen of one in a mountain bike crash. That was probably my fault though. Edited by jeng 2014-04-07 11:54 AM |
| 2014-04-07 12:03 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Pro 5755 | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I still have the same 205 that I got when they first came out. Never a problem. Same thing with my bike computer, an 800. Do you live under powerlines or something? |
| 2014-04-07 12:20 PM in reply to: BrianRunsPhilly |
Expert 3126 Boise, ID | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. I wish my 305 would die already so I would have a decent excuse to buy the new Fenix 2. Durn thing won't quit! Although some of these stories are making me wonder, has Garmin quality control gone down since the days of the 305? |
| 2014-04-07 1:16 PM in reply to: aliddle9876 |
Regular 606 Portland, Oregon | Subject: RE: I've decided that Garmin products are generally crap. 1-3)The heart rate strap indeed sucks. Great that they fixed it with the HRM3, but at $60, eh, I'd be able to buy a few old ones for that much. They usually last me a year. Perhaps the HRM3 would last longer than that, but I doubt it. Otherwise...no complaints here. 910 /w footpod and latest firmware 4-5)-instantaneous pace - fine. Make sure you are "every second recording" (default is "smart") and that it is set to read pace from the footpod (default is GPS). After that, do a track calibration at about the pace you usually run. This works great for me. I use a 1/8th mile track occasionally, and the calibration slowly drifted (or my running changed) so that after a year, it would only show 9 laps when I really ran 10. I recalibrated...poof, back on track and close enough (+/- 1 lap in 25). 6,8)odd never read that before 7) - turns itself off? It is supposed to auto shut-down after a user specified period of inactivity (while not in a workout). I believe you can disable this...but why? Transfer issues are resolved by deleting all activities every few days. I wish there was an option between "Delete all activites" and "delete all older than a month". I sometimes watch the transfer status, and occasionally it would hang and restart. This was fixed with the new garmin express. It started buggy, but has been flawless for me for he last month. This is really a case where 95% of silent satisfied users are out-shouted by the 5% of unsatisfied. Either it is a lemon (get it replaced) or user error (try my fixes above). I do agree completely with your second paragraph. I really wish Garmin had a big, strong competitor (c'mon, polar...suunto!). They need someone to smack them down a bit so that they can step up their game to stay on top. |
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