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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Death of a Garmin

I know I claimed that my Garmin died before. That's why I frantically bought a 220 as a replacement for my five year old 305 - only to return it as defective after just a few uses. It was refurbished, and it kept changing to German unbidden.
Luckily, right after that, my old Garmin miraculously turned on again! And that lasted for a few weeks. But now it's become too unreliable: half the time, the screen remains blank after it turns on, and if I do get a readout, it doesn't matter, because the unit shuts down in a few minutes. This week at track I couldn't get the screen to come on before I left the house, so I planned to use a stopwatch instead. But then the Garmin came on after the third try. However, in lap two of the warmup, it shut off. So back to the watch I went! Since then, I've gotten it to turn on again once, but again, it shut off in a few minutes.
Here's what I decided to do:
- Stick with the Garmin brand for ease of learning
- I really want the 230 or 235 for the sake of the seven available data screens, so I won't have to reset them based on track vs. race vs. long run.
- But since both are new models, I want to wait until I can get a cheaper used or refurbished one. In the meantime, I can use an old Ebay GPS.
So that's what I did. I bought a used 305 off Ebay for $20, and now I'm waiting for it to come in. Unfortunately, it probably won't be here in time for my Saturday 5k, so I might have to run that by feel.

6 comments:

  1. I ended up staying with Garmin when mine died last summer partially for ease of learning, mostly for my data history and continuity.

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  2. I have had the 235 since Christmas and really love it.

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  3. I've done a couple of good races by feel. Sometimes it's better without the data.

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  4. That's awesome that you found one on Ebay for $20! I hope it works for you. Being without a Garmin is so awful! I'm so reliant on it and feel so lost without it!

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  5. A 5K is low-stakes and a good way to practice running by feel. (Well, track is a good way to practice running by feel, but a 5K is, too.) But I know what you mean - I like the data.

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  6. Ugh. Like you I really want to stick with Garmin, but I've been burned so many times & the refurbished ones I've gotten have all died sooner than I felt like they should (with no warranty, obviously). I finally shelled out for the 235 new so I really have my fingers crossed that the quality is better!

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