Alternatives to Garmin watches - Garmin has no after-sales support

[sirmoun10goat]

On 4/17/2023 at 11:26 AM, dasilvarsa said:

The Reason Battery on watch Gets Weak is because of continuously charging to 100%.

It's a Lithium Ion Battery Problem.

 

This is not true. A life cycle is represented by the number of charges up to 100%, but rather the number of complete depletion to full charge a battery can undergo. This discharge/recharge does not have to happen fully to be a charge cycle. Depleting a battery from 100% to 50%, and recharging to 100% impacts the battery in the same way discharging from 90 to 65, charging to 90 and discharging to 65%. In both instances, you will have used up half a charge cycle 

[dasilvarsa]

4 hours ago, sirmoun10goat said:

This is not true. A life cycle is represented by the number of charges up to 100%, but rather the number of complete depletion to full charge a battery can undergo. This discharge/recharge does not have to happen fully to be a charge cycle. Depleting a battery from 100% to 50%, and recharging to 100% impacts the battery in the same way discharging from 90 to 65, charging to 90 and discharging to 65%. In both instances, you will have used up half a charge cycle 

In Theory (Which is Unproven)

If you never Charge to 100% Battery Lasts Much Longer.

Some Laptops can be made to charge only to 80% which makes the battery last practically forever.

If I Charge from 60% to 80 % It does not use a life. If I do that all the time then I keep a lot of Lives.

The Last 20% of Charge Takes 80% of time and causes 80% of the Heat.

Heat destroys Batteries.

Chew on That.

Edited April 22, 2023 by dasilvarsa

[Nancy Drew]

On 4/17/2023 at 9:10 AM, Tacet said:

Sorry, I was a bit unclear - the R2k is to replace my Edge 520.  The only problem with it is the torn button.  To replace the watch was more than R6k, iirc.

I'm considering replacing the battery.  Just can't find one locally available, so it will have to be Aliexpress or Ebay.

Oof, 5 Suunto's in 3 years - that makes it very likely that you'll need support soon out of warranty too.  The Coros looks super on paper, but I'll have to search around a bit to see how good their out of warranty support is. 

I stand to be corrected, but I seem to recall @NotSoBigBen having a broken button on his Garmin and he 3D printed one to replace it.. worked a charm if I remember correctly?

[NotSoBigBen]

29 minutes ago, Nancy Drew said:

I stand to be corrected, but I seem to recall @NotSoBigBen having a broken button on his Garmin and he 3D printed one to replace it.. worked a charm if I remember correctly?

Hey Homie, correct but it was on an 810 ... I don't see anything like that for the 520 sadly

[ewegg]

On 4/17/2023 at 1:12 PM, SwissVan said:

This is why I love my Polar watch, never ever had to send one of them in for a battery change. 

 

Bike computer, watch and chest strap all Polar and I'm extremely happy.

[dasilvarsa]

2 hours ago, ewegg said:

Bike computer, watch and chest strap all Polar and I'm extremely happy.

Polar is a Good "Alternative" to Garmin.

[Jewbacca]

3 hours ago, ewegg said:

Bike computer, watch and chest strap all Polar and I'm extremely happy.

 

1 hour ago, dasilvarsa said:

Polar is a Good "Alternative" to Garmin.

Is there a Polar watch that can offer 40 hours plus of tracking and route following/alerts with sufficient memory for enough breadcrumbs on a 100 miler?

 

[TheoG]

51 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

 

Is there a Polar watch that can offer 40 hours plus of tracking and route following/alerts with sufficient memory for enough breadcrumbs on a 100 miler?

 

https://irunfar.com/polar-grit-x-pro-wrist-based-navigator-trainer-fitness-tracker

[Jewbacca]

39 minutes ago, TheoG said:

https://irunfar.com/polar-grit-x-pro-wrist-based-navigator-trainer-fitness-tracker

I looked at this when it came out.

Real life battery time following a GPS route with basic tracking on was closer to 20 hours.

 

[SwissVan]

47 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I looked at this when it came out.

Real life battery time following a GPS route with basic tracking on was closer to 20 hours.

 

Capabilities of “wristwatches” is amazing nowadays compared to the 19voetseks when a timex Ironman with multiple stopwatch and timers was considered hi tech. It seems the only thing holding them back now is the battery and the hoomans ability to exercise until the battery dies.

I wonder if the majority of people even need a quarter of the continuous battery life, never mind all the functions ( breadcrumbs 😂) available? For myself I have a polar grit (because it looks nice 🤡) and only use basic sport tracking (HR, time, distance, altimeter and definitely for anything close to 40hrs) and then the recovery and sleep tracker functions.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by SwissVan

[TheoG]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I looked at this when it came out.

Real life battery time following a GPS route with basic tracking on was closer to 20 hours.

 

I'm sure you can extend that by using a HR strap and lower the screen brightness.  99.9% of people will never do 40 hours continues and a 100 miler on a bike should be no problem at all, unless you ride like a snail .... 🤪.

Running a 100 miler, 99.99999% of people will never do, but I think it should cope with that IF you use the precautions I mentioned.

[Jewbacca]

5 minutes ago, TheoG said:

I'm sure you can extend that by using a HR strap and lower the screen brightness.  99.9% of people will never do 40 hours continues and a 100 miler on a bike should be no problem at all, unless you ride like a snail .... 🤪.

Running a 100 miler, 99.99999% of people will never do, but I think it should cope with that IF you use the precautions I mentioned.

Sorry, to clarify, the OPs missus needs a watch that can cope with extended hours of RUNNING ultras.

So the alternative needs to cover that base.

Most people who do 100 milers or longer don't want to fiddle with settings, which is why battery life is so important.

My Fenix 6x pro gave me just over 60 hours of full use, off trail alerts, full HR and stats tracking etc and charged off the battery bank in 90 minutes on a long, road section up to a stop during my last 200 miler.

It was amazing to just press play and forget. When you're tired, cold, hungry etc you don't want to have to change settings

[dasilvarsa]

4 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Sorry, to clarify, the OPs missus needs a watch that can cope with extended hours of RUNNING ultras.

So the alternative needs to cover that base.

Most people who do 100 milers or longer don't want to fiddle with settings, which is why battery life is so important.

My Fenix 6x pro gave me just over 60 hours of full use, off trail alerts, full HR and stats tracking etc and charged off the battery bank in 90 minutes on a long, road section up to a stop during my last 200 miler.

It was amazing to just press play and forget. When you're tired, cold, hungry etc you don't want to have to change settings

Garmin is the "Gold Standard" of GPS Watches but Ownership comes at a Price.

[Jewbacca]

Just now, dasilvarsa said:

Garmin is the "Gold Standard" of GPS Watches but Ownership comes at a Price.

Of course it does. So does buying a new Specialized which I believe has become part of your dreams?

Garmin DO offer products that kick the pants off it's opposition as well as have an existing ecosystem which can be linked to pretty much everything

Am I a Garmin fanboy? No, I don't really buy into a 'brand' but rather the useability and practicality of a product.

When it comes to extended use gps functionality, Garmin are currently unmatched as a package.

Coros are fantastic 'new market' opposition but they don't offer as comprehensively established software, data collection and app/reward/external connectivity.

So, for now, they definitely do offer the best overall product in this specific market segment hands down

[Theunissa]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:05 AM, dasilvarsa said:

In Theory (Which is Unproven)

If you never Charge to 100% Battery Lasts Much Longer.

Some Laptops can be made to charge only to 80% which makes the battery last practically forever.

If I Charge from 60% to 80 % It does not use a life. If I do that all the time then I keep a lot of Lives.

The Last 20% of Charge Takes 80% of time and causes 80% of the Heat.

Heat destroys Batteries.

Chew on That.

Theory. Not proven

[SwissVan]

21 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Of course it does. So does buying a new Specialized which I believe has become part of your dreams?

Garmin DO offer products that kick the pants off it's opposition as well as have an existing ecosystem which can be linked to pretty much everything

Am I a Garmin fanboy? No, I don't really buy into a 'brand' but rather the useability and practicality of a product.

When it comes to extended use gps functionality, Garmin are currently unmatched as a package.

Coros are fantastic 'new market' opposition but they don't offer as comprehensively established software, data collection and app/reward/external connectivity.

So, for now, they definitely do offer the best overall product in this specific market segment hands down

Compared to their competitors Garmin are huge and so deep into GPS devices and technology (Aviation, marine, automobiles, plus plus...) that its hard to imagine anyone else will ever be able to compete against them from a technological point of view.

Back to the this threads first post....after sales service, customer support and reliability is a level playing field for all the different manufacturers, after +/- 35 years of using numerous polar watches and bike computers, the amount of times I've needed to send one in for a battery replacement or other problems is < 5.... Kind of like Toyota... Everything keeps going right TOYOTA 😁