Dont Buy Garmin Products

[pappaecho]

I have just sailed my 30 year old boat back to Pompey using a Garmin 230 Chart plotter which works perfectly, except that yesterday it said that its internal battery was low, and so was not remembering waypoints and when switched on thought it was in the USA, which it quickly corrected.

The Manual states "return to Garmin" to have the battery replaced. When I telephoned them in Southampton, they said it was obsolete. and they could not repair it. Presumably my 30 year old boat needs a new oil filter so I am expected to throw the boat away because it is obsolete.

The battery is showing about 0.35 volts, and so I am assuming that it was about 1.5 volts when new. similar to the battery on a PC motherboard. It looks like a simple job to replaced the battery by unsoldering it. Does 1.5 volts sound right?

Clearly Garmin do not understand the marine market. The product works perfectly, a simple thing such as a battery change should be
supported for years after the product goes out of production . Last time I buy Garmin, hoping that this unit lasts at least another 10 years

 

[Rum_Pirate]

How old is your Garmin 230 Chart plotter ?

 

[Spyro]

Be very careful when soldering or unsoldering lithium batteries. I replaced the one on my garmin 12 and the battery expoloded it made quite a mess on the kitchen ceiling. I was very lucky to have just turned away at the moment it exploded. I was very surprised at the bang for such a small battery.

 

[snooks]

Blimey that's harsh....of you!

You have a product that has lasted you well (over 10 years), technology has moved on in leaps and bounds and you're boycotting Garmin and telling others to do so.

Guess you'll be blaming them cos they no longer support the charts for the 230, how dare they redesign their units to accept common SD cards.

 

[MES]

I dont think the fact that you cant get a 10 year old battery is a reason to boycott Garmin products to be honest.

Try getting a 10 year old mobile phone battery or TV parts. Maybe its beyond Garmins control if they didnt make the batteries in the first place.

 

[monkfish24]

i agree with snooks, a unit that probably only had an expected service life of 3-5 years has served you double that and you're complaining? Move to the cheap chinese poo that keeps getting imported to our shores but i bet you a pound of my hard earned cash that in 2 years it'll need more than just a battery replacement

 

[David_Jersey]

an expected service life of 3-5 years

I don't recall seeing that one in the glossy ads


I dunno about joining in a boycott , but good to know that Garmin have been designing in terminal failure to their products for many years (the battery is going to fail at some point - well, that's a surprise )......doesn't mean I won't ever buy some more Garmin, but will bear it in mind.

 

[Coaster]

You must be joking...

I've had good service from Garmin products, so opened this thread with some interest. What horror story was being told?

Instead we have a ludicrous complaint which makes me more sympathetic to Garmin, rather than less. Having read through the thread I was more pro-Garmin than previously.

Then I wondered if this is a spoof? Is it rather clever marketing for Garmin? Or is that too subtle?

 

[BlueMan]

Reasons to Boycott Garmin

I agree that the battery issue is not one to trigger a Garmin Boycott.

Announcing the end of Bluecharts 9 months after the final update in Mid 2008 so that my 5 year old 172C plotter (pretty new technology in late 2004 when bought) can no longer be updated is however a good reason to boycott Garmin. Even worse there is no follow on product with a similar size screen that will flush mount in a standard instrument pod (i.e. one made to take multiple standard square instruments) even if I wanted to buy it. The only current alternatives are either bail mount (ugh), much too big (e.g. 550 series), or have a ridiculously small screen (e.g. 450 series).

I defended Garmin when they dropped the previous generation of mapping and moved to Bluecharts as that seemed reasonable at the time. I can't believe that the cost of still providing charts in Bluechart format on CD or for dealer upload to a blank cartridge is prohibitive. It is just a simplified view of their current g2 and g2 vision data without the bells and whistles. They are forcing a move to new hardware which at the low end is frankly inferior to what went before. Try using the g2 Vision features on a 450 plotter..laughable on a screen of that size and characteristics.

I would swap to a larger Raymarine plotter (the A series have nice screens) but even their latest wide C models don't seem to support Platinum + charts and what is the future of the older generations of Navionics charts.

Where are my pencil and dividers.........

 

[VicS]

If the battery is soldered in its a reasonable assumption that with care it care be unsoldered and a new one soldered in its place.

take it out and check for any identifying numbers. Maybe you can get a repalcement from Maplin or RS.

A single cell would be 3 volts if its a lithium one otherwise more likely around 1.4 volts.

If it is a battery rather than a single cell it could be almost any multiple of 1.4 volts

 

[rhumlady]

You will almost certainly be able to get a new battery for it but it must be unsoldered from the PCB not the battery it's self I bet. These companies don't have special batteries made for them, that would be too expensive. Try Maplin, they may carry them. Having said that I agree that they should still offer a replacement service. I hate companies who do this sort of thing. Ok, things have moved on but if it is working why throw it away? Better if you are happy with it that it doesn't add to the piles of electronic waste just for the sake of a £2.50 battery.

 

[JohnP]

There are plenty of battery holders available for small lithium batteries. I had the internal battery fail in my Raytheon 420. It was simple to unscrew the panel to access the board. I had to unsolder and ease off the battery. It was also crimped. The new holder has two small cables to solder to the board preventing the explosion problem. Others have superglued the battery in place having made sure there was a connection between the battery and the board. My holders were given to me by a friend who installs computer wiring but he said they were readily available.

 

[monkfish24]

I don't recall seeing that one in the glossy ads

It's in the small print.... every electronic product on the market has a service life, you can't buy spark plugs and expect them to out last the engine

I can see the reasoning and understand your frustration but technology has advanced so quickly in the marine technology department that it is nigh on impossible to have the space to keep every single component used over the last 15 years and expect to make a profit from keeping it.

Going to bluecharts, it's the same debate as blueray vs HD, it all relys on market consumption. At the end of the day it's all about being profitable!

 

[bendyone]

Years ago I had a Garmin 38 GPS which went wrong at 18 months on holiday. Garmin sent me a new 48 to replace with in a day or so. Very good service at the time.

 

[snooks]

I can see the reasoning and understand your frustration but technology has advanced so quickly in the marine technology department that it is nigh on impossible to have the space to keep every single component used over the last 15 years and expect to make a profit from keeping it.

Not just marine technology.....

Think about TVs! I bought a 36 inch flatscreen CRT (it weighs 90KG) back in 2002 the RRP was £2300 -although I didn't pay that- it was the biggest flat screen available unless you wanted to pay £7000 for a plasma screen.

7 years later, technology has moved on and I can buy the same TV on Ebay for £85

But I'm not going to boycott Sony

 

[andygc]

You could ask Tinley Marine Electronics if they can fix it for you

 

[Cariadco]

Garmin??

Well, I'm on my second Hand Held Garmin GPS, in ten years.
Never had any probs, except my first one's at the bottom of the Ionion....
Still working as it dived to the depths....

 

[doug748]

Good for you Pappaecho. Throwing decent kit away is deeply unfashionable and designing it that to be used that way is even worse.
When I buy stuff I expect it to last 20 years and then be repairable.
I have a 10 year old genoa.........I call it the new sail, and so it will remain until I buy a new main (if God spares me) in approx 2020.

 

[jason -and the arguenauts]

I can see the reasoning and understand your frustration but technology has advanced so quickly in the marine technology department that it is nigh on impossible to have the space to keep every single component used over the last 15 years and expect to make a profit from keeping it.

To the contrary, supply of spares is often a very good way of making money - ask the motor industry..

I suspect Garmins problem is that they dont make anything themselves in the USA but just source it from Taiwan complete in boxes. Which is why they often dont repair units but simply replace them. Buy in a plotter for £50 sell it for £500 retail through distributors - how much repair can you do before its cheaper to simply replace? Not much.

Had the same problem myself with a shredder. A simple plastic guide failed so I rang the importer for spares. They explained they didnt do spares at all - anything under guarantee was replaced, outside it had to be scrapped.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

To Pappacheo.. one old git to another....
I too have an elderly Garmin GPS with its internal battery dead. I have been expecting problems with it in some form or other given its age but to find that internal batteries are not a replacement is a bit sad.
Maplin it is then unless there is another good source?