Garmin Poor Service

[E-mac]

Towards the end of last season my Garmin GPSMASP6008 MFD plotter gave up the ghost. I bought it new in 2014 when it was their most up to date model of 8” plotter. Fitted along with all new Garmin instruments and autopilot. I updated the radar dome in 2015.

The problem is it freezes shortly after start up and won’t respond to any buttons requiring the power to be cut off to shut it down. It then won’t restart again unless left powered down for 10 to 12 hours. If you attempt a restart prior to this you end up back to the 10-12 hours wait. Simple testing appears to show some residual power in the capacitors for this period. I’ve tried resetting, powering up with different power leads, using 24v as opposed to 12v, disconnecting all ancillary connections including removing the SD card. I’ve opened it up and there is no evidence of any blown capacitors, all the internal connections look OK and there is no evidence of damage on any of the PCBs. The screen is fine. But the unit is goosed.

Unfortunately Garmin say that the no longer support this model (despite it being only 5 years old). They have no spares for it which means any marine electrician I take it to say they can do nothing. I asked Garmin for a trade in or upgrade but they don’t do that. They can offer me no assistance other than to buy a new unit.

As I have a Garmin 18HDX radar dome, Garmin N2K instruments, autopilot and GSD22 sounder module they expect me to stay with them. But I’m tempted to sell the radar dome and buy a plotter and radar bundle from Raymarine, B&G or another manufacturer whose plotter would work with an N2K system.

Can anyone advise if Raymarine or others would work with N2K instruments and autopilot? Any pitfalls in having different manufacturers? Anyone experience on service from the other manufacturers?

Any ideas, advice or suggestions as to how to best proceed would be gratefully appreciated.

 

[CLB]

Look for a compatible second hand unit, would be my suggestion. I am keeping an old Raymarine network going, dated from around 2005, doing the same. I'm on the second head unit, second radome and second VHF.

 

[pvb]

Sorry to hear your plotter has died, and I can understand your frustration. But electronics is a fast-moving industry, and you can't expect manufacturers necessarily to support discontinued models for ever - this applies equally to Raymarine, B&G, etc.

The GPSMAP6008 was discontinued in 2013, I believe, when the GPSMAP820 was introduced (the 820 has a better screen resolution and more features). So when you bought it in 2014 it was already discontinued, but no doubt offered at a keener price than the new 820.

If you sell the radome, you might only get £400 or so for it, so replacing both the radome and plotter becomes a costly exercise. I'd think you would save money by just replacing the plotter with another Garmin - either secondhand as CLB suggested, or even a new one. If you look for secondhand, the 820 is a nice plotter and goes for around £750.

 

[[70521]]

I might be interested in your radar dome, is it compatible with a Garmin GPSMap 750?

 

[PaulRainbow]

Towards the end of last season my Garmin GPSMASP6008 MFD plotter gave up the ghost. I bought it new in 2014 when it was their most up to date model of 8” plotter. Fitted along with all new Garmin instruments and autopilot. I updated the radar dome in 2015.

The problem is it freezes shortly after start up and won’t respond to any buttons requiring the power to be cut off to shut it down. It then won’t restart again unless left powered down for 10 to 12 hours. If you attempt a restart prior to this you end up back to the 10-12 hours wait. Simple testing appears to show some residual power in the capacitors for this period. I’ve tried resetting, powering up with different power leads, using 24v as opposed to 12v, disconnecting all ancillary connections including removing the SD card. I’ve opened it up and there is no evidence of any blown capacitors, all the internal connections look OK and there is no evidence of damage on any of the PCBs. The screen is fine. But the unit is goosed.

Unfortunately Garmin say that the no longer support this model (despite it being only 5 years old). They have no spares for it which means any marine electrician I take it to say they can do nothing. I asked Garmin for a trade in or upgrade but they don’t do that. They can offer me no assistance other than to buy a new unit.

As I have a Garmin 18HDX radar dome, Garmin N2K instruments, autopilot and GSD22 sounder module they expect me to stay with them. But I’m tempted to sell the radar dome and buy a plotter and radar bundle from Raymarine, B&G or another manufacturer whose plotter would work with an N2K system.

Can anyone advise if Raymarine or others would work with N2K instruments and autopilot? Any pitfalls in having different manufacturers? Anyone experience on service from the other manufacturers?

Any ideas, advice or suggestions as to how to best proceed would be gratefully appreciated.

Sorry to hear the plotter has failed, they are normally a very good model. I guess i'd be a bit annoyed too, but Raymarine and the other companies are really no different, in fact, i usually find Garmin support one of the best.

If you fitted a Raymarine (for instance) plotter it would connect to your N2K network and i'd expect everything there to work fine, you might need a converter cable, but that's only about £25. The autopilot will still work and it should steer to a waypoint or wind, but it will not be controllable from the plotter, you'll need to use the GHC10/12 for that. The radar won't work, neither will the GSD 22 and your charts will not be compatible.

So, new plotter, new raydome, new charts, some new cabling (including radar cables up the mast, the bracket will still fit) and a loss of functionality. Not to mention the cost of fitting the new equipment, even if you can do it yourself it still involves a trip up the mast and a lift out/in to change the depth transducer.

I'd say that's a shot in the foot. You'd be better off fitting a new Garmin plotter, take a look at the latest 9" GPSMAP models (don't look at any EchoMAP models, they won't work with your radar.

 

[pvb]

I'd say that's a shot in the foot. You'd be better off fitting a new Garmin plotter, take a look at the latest 9" GPSMAP models (don't look at any EchoMAP models, they won't work with your radar.

That's a good point to note. Lots of people are attracted by EchoMAP prices, but this budget range won't support radar.

 

[E-mac]

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.
I have been looking for a suitable second hand unit for some time without success.

The boat is ashore with the mast down for the winter. I was aware that I'd need new charts (they needed updating anyway) but had thought the N2K transducers would be compatable. Looking at the Garmin units the GPSMAP 1022svx should fit my pod and would apparently make the GSD22 redundant.

I really shouldn't cut my nose to spite my face but I had lost confidence in Garmin. Although it's not great at least it settles it to know that Garmin service is no worse than the other manufacturers. The service depth have been helpful but through no fault of their own have not been able to assist.
With the raise of tablet navigation the reasons to spend a lot of money on a MFD are less compelling if you are prepared to got to sea without radar.
Thanks for the helpful and informed replies.

 

[Rafiki]

Just a wild thought, but have you tried re-loading the software with a later version ( or even the original version). Probably available on the Garmin website to download onto your laptop and thence to an SD card and thence to your plotter. It worked for my plotter when I started having problems ( admittedly it was Lowrance and not Garmin).

 

[E-mac]

Good idea but unfortunately there isn't time to load anything before it freezes. I did try a factory hard reboot without success.

 

[jwilson]

Similar experiernce with a Garmin 3005 plotter a few years ago.... In 2006 I bought a brand new 3005C to be mounted in the cockpit, which after about 3 years failed due to water ingress (it was supposedly waterproof). Paid £200 for a Garmin factory exchange - same thing happened to the replacement another 2 years or so on. By then Garmin would not repair. The Standard Horizon 180 I bought to replace it was half the price, and is still working ten years later, though only three of those years were in the cockpit. I replaced it with a bigger B&G in the cockpit and moved the SH down to the chart table when the Raymarine C-series there died.

Raymarine are a LITTLE better than Garmin for service of older kit, but not that much. I can live with throwaway for relatively cheap items like car satnavs, but marine electronics are so much more expensive presumably because of lower volume manufacturing, and they really ought to support these items to at least 7 or better 10 years old. You can buy a complete car with a 7 year warranty.