Garmin Megathread-Ask your questions here-See post 1 on how to search thread

Krusty_Clown

newbie runner wrote: »

I've just mailed the techsupp at garmin again and quoted them the unit number on the back of it , so hopefully they can check if its under warranty.When it was bought on ebay it was new--but i think on a sale price, so could be an issue.
hopefully they'll reply and say send it on for fixing.

I might have become too attached to it of late actually, and must go for a gallop in the morning without it , to get the enjoyment back into running without being worried about time/splits etc.

thanks again

Garmin won't be able to tell you if it's under warranty or not, it depends on the date it was purchased. Get a receipt (internet based) from your sister. If it was a new unit when she bought it, it's under warranty. Simples.

newbie runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Garmin won't be able to tell you if it's under warranty or not, it depends on the date it was purchased. Get a receipt (internet based) from your sister. If it was a new unit when she bought it, it's under warranty. Simples.

will do.

I have the receipt still in my wallet thankfully whch she had sent onward.
must pay her yet for it actually!

red face dave

Looking for a bit of help please. I have a garmin 110 only bought it last November and now one of the covers for the buttons have fallen off. Making using the watch a bit of a pain.

Would I be better of sending it back or does anyone know where I would get one from.

Krusty_Clown

red face dave wrote: »

Looking for a bit of help please. I have a garmin 110 only bought it last November and now one of the covers for the buttons have fallen off. Making using the watch a bit of a pain.

Would I be better of sending it back or does anyone know where I would get one from.

You could try getting it exchanged in the shop you bought it in, or else just get Garmin to sort it out for you. Its covered by warranty.

firemouth

my garmin 310xt showed a low battery display while on my run today and then switched off shortly afterwards.When i got home and put it on charge the display showed 48% battery life,this happened last week also,does this mean my battery is f**ked?any ideas anyone?

geld

Does anyone know if I will get a Garmin 410 + HRM at a better price than here? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Forerunner-Sportswatch-Heart-Monitor/dp/B0046BTK14/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335036632&sr=1-1

Salty Dog

Hi,
I changed the battery in the heart rate monitor last night and it's not registering now with the watch. The 610 keeps saying searching but isn't finding it when it tries to pair with the HR.

Is there anything special that needs to be done when changing the battery ? I simply took out the old and replaced it.

Thanks,
Salty !

jfh

hi, know there's a few on here who have ran in the States with their trusty Garmins.
I'm going over for a half marathon so will be bringing the 405 with me, presume it'll work fine, all i need is a US plug?
thanks

plodder

jfh wrote: »

hi, know there's a few on here who have ran in the States with their trusty Garmins.
I'm going over for a half marathon so will be bringing the 405 with me, presume it'll work fine, all i need is a US plug?
thanks

A plug adapter should work, or a lot of USB chargers nowadays have detachable plugs, and come with a few different ones (including one for US). Or charge it off a computer over there.

@Salty Dog. You need to re-pair the monitor with the watch. I don't know the exact sequence of menus to do that on a 610, but it might be under settings -> ANT + -> Accessories ->HR monitor -> Rescan - if it's similar to a 405.

Salty Dog

plodder wrote: »

@Salty Dog. You need to re-pair the monitor with the watch. I don't know the exact sequence of menus to do that on a 610, but it might be under settings -> ANT + -> Accessories ->HR monitor -> Rescan - if it's similar to a 405.

Thanks for that. I've tried rescanning (repair) but no joy. I had a look on the garmin forums and found a few cases. Looks like they solved it by reversing the battery for a few seconds and then applying correctly which seems to reset the HRM.

Do wonder if reversing the polarity can mess it up though !

jfh

thanks Plodder, thought as much but wanted to be sure, i've become dependant on it!

plodder

Salty Dog wrote: »

Thanks for that. I've tried rescanning (repair) but no joy. I had a look on the garmin forums and found a few cases. Looks like they solved it by reversing the battery for a few seconds and then applying correctly which seems to reset the HRM.

Do wonder if reversing the polarity can mess it up though !

Bizarre! It's like you're flushing the last few electrons from the old battery out coz they're not compatible with the new ones, or something .... :pac:
Doubt it would do any harm though.

A lot of people have trouble with the contacts as well. When you take out an old battery sometimes the contacts are compressed and might have to be adjusted a bit to make a decent connection again.

Larry Brent

Can the 910 still only be used for swim distance/no. of lengths in a pool between 22 and 55yds? Dcrainmaker mentioned he was going to get on to garmin about this to cater for smaller hotel pools.

Would the buginess of the 910 put you off buying one? Or if you bought one now would this be resolved compared to buying one when they were very first out?

Krusty_Clown

Larry Brent wrote: »

Can the 910 still only be used for swim distance/no. of lengths in a pool between 22 and 55yds? Dcrainmaker mentioned he was going to get on to garmin about this to cater for smaller hotel pools.

Would the buginess of the 910 put you off buying one? Or if you bought one now would this be resolved compared to buying one when they were very first out?

Currently the range is 20m - 100m for indoor swims (not sure what that is in yards). Buginess wouldn't put me off. I've had to restart an activity twice, and the two other bugs I've found are:
1) Real time pace is crap - I use average or lap pace anyway
2) Advanced activities (nested loops) do not transfer to the watch as nested loops.

If you bought one now, it would be running the latest firmware. Hardware would be the same.

neilc

Just had a strange one with my 405. When I went to put it on tonight it was dead, only fully charged yesterday. So put it on charge and it immediately went to 74%, removed the charger straight away and went dead again. Anyone else ever had this, thinking I might give it a reset.

Krusty_Clown

neilc wrote: »

Just had a strange one with my 405. When I went to put it on tonight it was dead, only fully charged yesterday. So put it on charge and it immediately went to 74%, removed the charger straight away and went dead again. Anyone else ever had this, thinking I might give it a reset.

Sounds abnormal (but somebody (firemouth) reported the same thing with a 310 a couple of posts back. Try a soft, then a hard reset (might need to do this while it's plugged in). If that doesn't work, might be worth trying to do a few battery cycles (run down the battery and charge fully) but mightn't be easy.

Krusty_Clown

geld wrote: »

Does anyone know if I will get a Garmin 410 + HRM at a better price than here? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Forerunner-Sportswatch-Heart-Monitor/dp/B0046BTK14/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335036632&sr=1-1

Hi Geld, that's probably as good a price as you'll get this side of the world, unless you go for a refurb option (which brings its own risks, such as a 3 month warranty). That price is actually only €14 more expensive than buying it from Amazon.com ($265), so it does sound like a good deal. If however you were willing to go for a green 405 from the US, it costs as little as €116, but you have the inconvenience of getting it from the US (and a slightly lesser watch).

Kid Pablo

I bought a Garmin 405CX last May (May 2011) from Amazon, it worked perfectly for the first 6 months, but in December of last year i started having problems, sometimes during my runs the distance reading on the watch would stop even though i was still running but the time would continue running, the watch seemed to think i had stopped running. The lap pace would therefore get higher and higher. This happened about 4 or 5 times.

I then contacted Garmin, they told me to send my watch back to them. I did this and they sent me a "new" refurbished 405CX. I was happy enough with this outcome. But after a couple of weeks the same problem started happening again. Despite it being a different watch.

I again contacted Garmin, they again told me to return my watch. I did this but this time they sent me out a refurbished Garmin 410 watch as they had no refurbished Garmin 405 CX's in stock. I have this watch about 6 weeks now but i am still getting the same problems i had with the previous 2 watches.

I have now lost hope of Garmin Support helping me, am i doing something wrong? I run on country roads so satellite signal issues are not a problem. It seems to happen more often when i stop during a run E.G stop to use the toilet (the ditch) etc.

Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone solved this problem? Does anyone know how i can solve this problem?

Any help would be gratefully received.

geld

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hi Geld, that's probably as good a price as you'll get this side of the world, unless you go for a refurb option (which brings its own risks, such as a 3 month warranty). That price is actually only €14 more expensive than buying it from Amazon.com ($265), so it does sound like a good deal. If however you were willing to go for a green 405 from the US, it costs as little as €116, but you have the inconvenience of getting it from the US (and a slightly lesser watch).

Tks for that Krusty. I ended up buying this tonight for GBP160.93 (I think will be approx Eur 204). Can't wait now.:D

I came across a website which seems to keep the latest prices up to date. Link is http://www.satnav-discounts.co.uk/tomtom-go/garmin-forerunner-210-410-610.htm#prices Should be helpful for other prospective Garmin purchasers.

JJJJNR

Hi, I'm trying to improve my speed and find my every day watch doesn't cut it, so I was either going to purchase an iphone or buy a good garmin watch, budget is about 2 - 250 euros, so compared to the iphone apps which are available does the garmin do as good as or better at tasks such as mapping, calorie, distance etc.

I need to take my running to the next level (which is going from 6hr marathon to 4hr) and I think this would be a great tool, I'd also like the novelty of being able to map out where i've ran as I go off road/off track a good bit.

rom

JJJJNR wrote: »

Hi, I'm trying to improve my speed and find my every day watch doesn't cut it, so I was either going to purchase an iphone or buy a good garmin watch, budget is about 2 - 250 euros, so compared to the iphone apps which are available does the garmin do as good as or better at tasks such as mapping, calorie, distance etc.

I need to take my running to the next level (which is going from 6hr marathon to 4hr) and I think this would be a great tool, I'd also like the novelty of being able to map out where i've ran as I go off road/off track a good bit.

iPhone bad watch good 1. You can't read iPhone on your arm every 10 secs like you can with a watch. 2. GPS with apps like runkeeper are very poor. ran with someone today. My garmin said 10.1 miles, runkeeper for him said 10.9 He also runs everyday on a railway line, no flatter route I know and elevation in runkeeper makes it look like a mountain. 1000 ft climbed in like 10 miles. It also has him crossing the river he is moving next to and zig zagging like a F1 car on a warmup lap. 3. iPhone is too heavy 4. You use your phone all day so you can't have it charging when you need it for a run. 5. All that apps are no comparison to a good watch. 6. The strap of the phone will bore a hole in your arm if you run a long distance. 7. There is no app for the phone that does lap times for intervals with your nice bluetooth HRM attached to it. 8. Having used one for a few months now, he is going to get a watch and he feels like throwing it off the ground at times. For iPhone you would have to go for the iPhone 4S really to have bluetooth LE heart rate monitor support. Even though I have shares is said company a watch is better than iPhone for your running tracking 100% of the time. You will 100% regret it. So have a look on dcrainmaker and http://www.handtec.co.uk/ for good prices. NOH / refurb models are the best value for money. The watch is like new with everything else new. You can save much that way.

JJJJNR

Greaat post thanks is there a good model you'd recommend,?

rom

JJJJNR wrote: »

Greaat post thanks is there a good model you'd recommend,?

Too many unknown variables.
Do you need it for bike, swim or just run
Will you be using it indoors on a track/treadmill.
Are you male/female ? some watches are for a male wrist only
How long are you running ? / how much you run a week. For me making a big investment is a good idea as I get a lot of use out of it. You may want only a standard one or maybe not. Are you interested in heart rate or just time v distance. Do you do interval/split training?
As a starter watch I got the 305 which I love, does all I want but its a little bulky and can be slow to get sat lock (3-5 mins at times) not great to be standing around in the cold. As I use it only for running and sometimes with a footpod indoors I recently bought a 610 from the US amazon site which are one of the more expensive watches. As footpod support was important to me and some people complain about the bezel on the 405 410 I went for that. However I can say that a 305 is probably the best value for money watch there is. google dcrainmaker as he has indepth reviews on all watches but as the 305 is now end of life its harder to get it cheaper than the 405 which is a pure reflection on the latter watch if you ask me. Stay well away from the 110 anyways.

Krusty_Clown

Just to add to rom's comments: if you are typically running marathons in 4 to 6 hours, it is unlikely that the battery on an iPhone will last (with GPS turned on) for 4+ hour training runs/races.

NOH / refurb models are the best value for money.

Also: if you scan back through the pages in this thread, you'll find that it is littered with posts from people who have hardware related issues with their Garmin Forerunner watches. Now that's the nature of a forum like this (people only report problems), but hardware failure in an electronic device is always a risk. Buying a refurb product will only give you a three month warranty, so if a product that has previously failed (which is why it is a refurb in the first place) fails in the fourth month of ownership, then you will have no recourse. Garmin will still offer to exchange it for another refurb, but at a cost. So when looking at the savings compared to a new (1 year warranty) product, bear this in mind.

If you can buy from the US (if you know someone travelling over there, or have someone who can ship a device back to you) then prices are cheaper than refurbs, so they really do represent best value for money.

huskerdu

JJJJNR wrote: »

Greaat post thanks is there a good model you'd recommend,?

TO add to what Rom and Krusty have said the three models you should be looking at are the 305, 410 and 610.

The 305 is clunky, old technology but is cracking value for money if your budget is <€150.If you have more money to spend, look at the price and feature list of the 410 and 610 and take your pick.

Krusty_Clown

huskerdu wrote: »

TO add to what Rom and Krusty have said the three models you should be looking at are the 305, 410 and 610.

The 305 is clunky, old technology but is cracking value for money if your budget is <€150.If you have more money to spend, look at the price and feature list of the 410 and 610 and take your pick.

To add to what huskerdu, rom and krusty have said (:)), the 405 is very good value for money these days. The bezel can be annoying/frustrating, but otherwise it's a cracking watch.

JJJJNR

Thanks all, i'm going to go for the watch, as it'll be used every day for my running, I don't swim or use a bike (yet) so I'm looking for something thats fairly future proof, and reliable.

Think i'll go for the 610 and look into getting it shipped from US via family.

Just on the interweb and found this Irish based site, has anyone used them before? Seems like good value for the bricks option.

beeduybe

Hey,

I bought a forerunner 405 a couple of years ago with a HRM. The last few days the watch doesn't seem to be picking up the HRM at all. I thought it might be because the battery had died so I bought a new battery for the monitor but still doesn't seem to be working. Has anybody else encountered this problem?

Krusty_Clown

beeduybe wrote: »

Hey,

I bought a forerunner 405 a couple of years ago with a HRM. The last few days the watch doesn't seem to be picking up the HRM at all. I thought it might be because the battery had died so I bought a new battery for the monitor but still doesn't seem to be working. Has anybody else encountered this problem?

Did you re-pair the watch with the HRM? Also check the battery contacts in the HRM strap.

Krusty_Clown

JJJJNR wrote: »

Thanks all, i'm going to go for the watch, as it'll be used every day for my running, I don't swim or use a bike (yet) so I'm looking for something thats fairly future proof, and reliable.

Think i'll go for the 610 and look into getting it shipped from US via family.

Just on the interweb and found this Irish based site, has anyone used them before? Seems like good value for the bricks option.

It's about €37 more than t'internet, but if you want to shop local, that's a pretty good price.