One year, four Garmins
I've bought 4 Garmins in the last year:
1) Forerunner 305: One of the buttons broke just out of warranty
2) Edge 305: Altimeter stopped working after one year
3) 310XT: The vibration alert is so strong it vibrated off my desk on its own, fell on the floor and cracked the screen.
4) Edge 500: Loses workouts all the time. Lost all the data from my century a couple weeks ago. This morning, it lost the second half of my four-hour hilly ride.
What pieces of junk. Is it time for a Joule?
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The Joule may be a great unit for the bike, check the Joule thread. You're still probably going to want to wear something for the run.
Garmin 405 - bought it 2 years ago and still working. However, it is getting older and has jammed several times this year. It just freezes on time (never in satellite mode). When it's happened, I have to let the power run out then recharge it...that works. I'm hoping it lasts until the new Timex GPS watch comes out this fall.
Garmin 500 - bought this two months ago...no problems...I'm happy with it. However, once the workout is over, I look at it for maybe 15 seconds and that's it. I don't download on the ANT or review results online.
Do you have the latest firmaware on all of the devices? Do you reset after you complete each workout and before powering them off?
I have a FR305 that is going on 3 years and the only issue is the charger contacts are starting to wear and sometimes it stops charging if I don't make sure it has a good connection.
I've also had the edge 500 since december and have yet to lose a workout, in fact I have yet to clear the memory either as I haven't run out of space yet.
The joule seems to still have some bugs as well, so I'm not sure
@Paul, I also own a 405 that has served me well over the past couple of years.
Mine will freeze every now and then and I usually notice it just as I am heading out the door for a run. I press both buttons down at the same time and hold them until the watch resets. This sometimes take a couple of minutes or so but probably beats waiting for the power to run down. After it resets I am soon once again on my way. And when I do the reset, I do not loose any workouts etc that I have set up in the watch via Training Center.
I am also an early Joule adopter and have no complaints. Like any electronic toy, it is taking me a bit of time to learn.
@ Matt - I sweat like a pig and my contact points tend to rust up. Once a month, I just take a nail file to them -- it works like a champ. I've also had to take a knife and scracth the rust off the receivers too.
Kieth- sorry to hear about the garmin issues. I also giggled at the 310 one,
Today is the first time in the 2 yrs, my 305 gave me grief today. I did anolympic tri. It was raining. I turned the garmin on to get satellites before going off to swim start.Last night I had on charger. It was raining, but I put it in my bike shoe for protection, maybe not enough. When i got on bike after swim i started it. half way though the bike i looked down and it was giving me a time that did not make sense- like 2 hr 15 min- no way i was out there that long. Then i looked down toward end of bike, it was off. I turned it on again, restarted. by the time i got off my bike ready to leave t2, it was off again. Could the rain have done this? i will charge again tonight, but do you think damaged for good? maybe it can't get wet at all? Any thoughts or experience with malfunction in rain?
Garmin replaced both units. The Garmin forums are also rife with reports of the poor screen reliability (tons of cracked screens), tons of bricked or dead devices, tons of people who are on their 2nd or 3rd device in a similar time period as yourself.
I don't know what to say about Garmin, I love them when they work, but they definitely need to get their act together.
I am likely jinxing myself but I have had nothing but good luck with my 310. It froze once but a hard reset solved the issue. I also have a 205 and even a 210 that still work fine, at least I assume that they do as I have not used them in forever. The only one that sucked was a 405 and that was more hating the stupid bezel thing than the function of the watch.
FWIW - Road Runner Sports says that the new 110's will be available on 6/7
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs...emonitors/
Have a 500 and 310 (and 405 prior to that)... both are great. Only issue I have had is that the place where the pin from the 310 watchband inserts to the actual unit cracked. Garmin replaced it lickety split. I sent it to them on Monday and had the replacement (a refurbished unit) by Friday. I actually could not believe how great the service was. I've been using the 500 since March and have only lost 1 ride....
I've had my 305 for 2.5or 3 years now. No real problems (knock on wood). I've never swum with it...but have been tempted. I love it love it love it! I actually had to delete histories recently bc I had too much data/too many workouts in the watch...so no problems retrieving workouts to take a look at my splits, etc.
Once, maybe a year ago, it wouldn't accept a charge or turn on. I leafed through the book and didn't see anything about how to soft boot it so to speak. I called Garmin who were super helpful (since it was beyond warranty)... the guy told me to try a few things before giving up... and they worked like a charm. (Tracy, try this out) scrub the gold receptors on the bottom of the watch with an eraser - not hard. To reset hold mode & lap reset together. Every so often I could swear the face reads that the charging has complete only to get out with it the next day or whenever and have it not start or start with a warning that there is low battery and it dies... man does that tick me off... but I then charge it up and it's good to go.
I know lots of people with the 405 who actually complain that it's not as user friendly as the 305. Sure it's smaller and it looks better, but the face isn't as helpful - doesn't give you s much info at a glance. And, from what I've been told the bezel is pretty sensitive.
I will hold on to my 305 until it dies... then I don't know what I'll do... good luck.
@Paul - The Specs says that it's good for 8 hours and water resistant IPX7 - which is the same spec as the FR305.
Also, it will only pair up with a HR monitor. (No Power, speec/cadence, Foot Pod, Body comp scale, Espresso Machine, etc. options.)
Looks like a nice lightweight piece for a runner.
This is the one that I NEED. Really interested to see what this is like in real life. I imagine that Timex did the right thing with it and made it awesome. They just had to make up for the whole 3 different module thing of the past.
@Chris
I've been looking forward to the Global Trainer for quite some time, not because it will fulfill any need for me that my 310xt does not, but because I think Garmin needs a swift kick in the --- with some real competition.
That aside, I was somewhat disapointed when I actually saw a real picture of the thing, it is pretty huge. The 310xt may be fat, but this thing just looks like a pancake on your wrist. The person in this picture is showing how you can use padding to make it actually fit on people with small wrists, it's too big otherwise.
I did the test somewhat unconventionally. I feel like I have no power in the aero position, and the the test confirmed it. The first 20' were in aero with an average power of 198 and NP of 202. (My pacing was pretty even, but I had to make a couple U-turns.) When sitting up, my average power was 234. I don't know the NP because the f***ing Garmin chewed up the file. Nor can I compare average speeds and heart rates. But this confirms my hunch that I just don't have any power in aero. The RPE was about the same.
@Trevor -
That kinda sucks it is that big. I hope that person is super tiny. As a practical matter I guess it has to be a bit bigger than a regular watch to have the needed data screens but that pic makes it look enormous.
The antenna and the battery are probably what take up the space. I'm amazed these things (Garmins 305, 310, 405, 110, and the Timex) are so SMALL. Just like I'm amazed I can buy a replacement cell phone battery for $4. Ain't the 21st century great?!
http://roger-thompson.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-timex-blobal-trainer-video.html
I'm not writing the thing off until I see it in person, but you definitely won't be able to get away with wearing this thing outside of training.
IMO- that should not matter. I can strap on the 305 without anything to make it fit. Admittedly I only have 1 or 2 notches left once it's on. Timex should have been able to make it fit and make it smaller. I wouldn't buy that thing for the sheer size of it! And people complained that the 305 looked like a Star Trek Communicator!??!?!
Here's the new Timex on Luis Alvarez' wrist - a normal sized guy famous for doing every Ironman ever held - 65 and counting.
Doesn't look like something I'd want to race with; more like those wrist or ankle weights people wear when Power Walking.
That said, what strikes me is that the Timex looks so huge and yet it seems they are really wasting the display space- those numbers are pretty small given how big the watch is.