Secondhand value of old EPIRB

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syvictoria

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Hi. In order to help decide what what to spend our safety equipment budget on when Victoria finally goes back in the water this year (yippppeeee!!!!!!) it would be useful to know whether our old (as was installed when we purchased Victoria) Pains Wessex SOS Rescue 406 EPIRB has any value secondhand, and I can't find any for sale in the normal places at the moment. Can anyone give me an approximate figure please? As there is no mention of GPS on the label, I assume that ours is the non-GPS version. The battery was due for replacement in Sep 2006, but the unit is still testing successfully.

The decision is really battery replacement/servicing vs. a new PLB. My feeling is that the latter may be a better decision for at least the next few years whilst we're in the Channel or Med with just two crew.

TIA!
 
Not knowing the model, but cost of battery replacement usually is high. About half of the original price of EPIRB probably.
Unless done by yourself. Most units are not designed for self-service (it can be done and was easier on old ones, on new it's difficult and easily can damage electronics)
Another point - as far as I know - battery is good for 5-6 years. It may test OK later, but test is often only for voltage, who knows how much capacity is left there. So it is for 5 years (or what they say) only.

This being one of the reason there's no market for old Epirbs, another - who wants one without GPS?

I would buy new one.
 
My gut feeling is that it is worth something to somebody, but probably not very much, for the reasons that Rossynant gives. Maybe £40 on ebay?

Personally I'd rather have a new PLB (under £200 these days) than a non-GPS EPIRB, even if the EPIRB was in-date rather than seven years expired like yours is. The four hours it takes for two satellite passes to locate you without GPS would seem very long indeed!

EPIRBs do have some practical advantages over PLBs (mostly not needing to be held upright to work, plus possibly float-free in a sudden catastrophe) but PLBs do all the same stuff from a signal point of view.

Pete
 
It might have a trade in value.
Or it might sell on ebay.
Ask around the places that service them.
If your sailing does not really justify spending the full cost of a new epirb, maybe it's worth getting new batteries in the old one.

It's possible to spend a lot on safety equipment, most of us have to prioritise.
 
Sartech will give £50 plus VAT off a new one, so maybe someone would give you 25 or 30 quid for it!
New ones can be had for around £300 it seems.
In my view, you just write that off over the warranty period.
 
It will need testing as well as a new battery, If you send it to Sartech , it will probably cost you something just either side of £150, which is considerably less than the manufacturer would charge. The older it is, the more it costs, because the batteries are bigger.

I've just had one done that went out of date in 2010. When it expires next I will stick it on ebay for whatever I can get for it or take up Sartechs offer of £50 trade in, add around the same as the cost of a service/new battery and buy a brand new, improved, modern one - in your position, with one that went out of date even longer ago, I would probably follow that course of action now.
 
Not worth much except as a trade in, as said above. New PLBs are available for round about the £200 mark off ebay before you even start looking through the chandlers and other sites.

Looking at the cost of battery replacements and servicing, I have come to regard our PLBs as disposable items. For the 5 year life, it's about £40 a year for peace of mind. The cost of the PLBs keeps dropping whilst the cost of servicing remains much the same - so to me it's simple replacement at the end of battery life.
 
I am in a similar position although my epirb is newer and with GPS however the cost of carriage and service is more than it is worth IMHO/

So I bought new batts from fleabay heated up the poker and soldered tham in myself. Self test is good and I have enough left over for a PLB so I now have two Epirbs.
 
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