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while riding today my garmin 800 got dislodged and shot off the bar mount. I eventually found riding back over the ground covered. When I looked at it the screen has microscopic cracks and will not power up.
i have had it for years and wonder whether I can get it repaired or if garmin do a service exchange?
could by a new gps but wonder what model to buy?
Send it to Garmin. They'll repair it or replace it at a very good price.
Garmin used to charge £80 for exchanging your knackered unit for a refurbished one
The refurbished one will come with 3 months warranty
Just retired my 800 after 6 years of service
Went and bought a Garmin Edge Explore today (basically a slightly smaller/slightly less tech Garmin 1030) pretty good for £219
I did something similar with my 810 - I sent it back to Garmin for repair and it cost about £85. They sent me a refurbed unit within a week.
I think the place to start is here: https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/shop/returns-refunds
It took a bit of back-and forth to persuade them to issue me with an RMA number but it worked out ok.
Then I sold it stil boxed and bought a Wahoo instead 🙂
Get a lanyard, to strap it to the bars.
Is it worth £85 for a garmin 800 with 3 month warranty?
I Would sell it on eBay for spares or repairs and buy a newer model. A friend has a garmin touring for sale if you are interested.
I have a garmin 810 but when that goes I think I'll be buying a wahoo element. The wahoo interface is so much better and being able to send a route to the device from you phone rather than connect to a computer is a massive time saver.
I once did coast to coast and the garmin crashed. Had to do a factory reset and lost all the routes. I had them on my phone!
My 800 screen broke a few weeks ago. Garmin quoted £74 to get it repaired but I ended up buying a new screen (with case) for £35 off eBay and repaired it myself. Pretty simple fix but if yours won't even power up sounds like it has other damage.
Personally, I was originally going to get it repaired by Garmin then sell it on eBay and buy a 520 but have now decided to save the cash and keep it a bit longer.
You can send routes from your phone to a Garmin
You create a route in the Easy Route app, available on Apple and Android
Then upload that to Garmin Connect mobile app and transfer onto your Garmin via Bluetooth
More info here from DC Rainmaker
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/01/quickly-creating-devices.html
A friend has a garmin touring for sale if you are interested.
Old technology, USB1 FFS to connect to a PC, map upgrades take around 6 hours! Stay away, the edge explore is the latest version and around £209 online. (We use them for work, they are simple enough for our clientele demographic to manage).
You can send routes from your phone to a Garmin
You create a route in the Easy Route app, available on Apple and Android
Then upload that to Garmin Connect mobile app and transfer onto your Garmin via Bluetooth
I just use an OTG cable.
I decided to buy new, the thing is pretty damaged so convinced the repair cycle of sending it back to be told that will just waste time. I have Europe’s Road maps and os oradance survey uk on the little cards that plug in so ideally want a garmin (or other make) that take those.
i loved my 800 and listened to friends struggling with 810s and 820s. Not sure if the other models like the explore do HR and cadence?
not so bothered about live segments etc.
The edge explore has 16gb of internal memory, no memory card slot though so you would have to transfer your maps onto the explore
I had a 820 last year for two weeks, returned it as it was buggy as hell and went back to my 800
Had the Explore for 2 weeks now and it is staying, the 800 is relegated to back up/wife's bike
Halfords have the Explore for £219 and will price match Sigma Sports@ £209
Get a lanyard, to strap it to the bars.
I know this sounds really obvious, but this is really good advice. I almost lost a 2 week old Edge 1000 because I caught it with my elbow in the woods and knocked it off the bike without noticing. Fortunately, it was picked up by some walkers who I fortunately met while back-tracking in the woods trying to find it! When I got home, I rummaged in the box and found the lanyard at the bottom, still in its bag...
Also, most Garmins support a custom startup screen, so you can get the thing to print your phone number, email, name etc. Dead easy to do and will make it relatively easy for an honest person to return it should it be found.
i loved my 800 and listened to friends struggling with 810s and 820s. Not sure if the other models like the explore do HR and cadence?
Yeah, I'm still using an 800, but it's becoming a little unreliable. I could do with a like for like replacement but reviews of the 820 put me off.
Just got a 520plus to replace my 800.
Smaller, higher def, more intuitive and I prefer using the buttons to the touchscreen.
Halfords were cheapest with BC discount.
I wonder if a wahoo is a better option.
Looks like only the Garmin 1030 of the current range can take your micro-SD card maps. Or you can look for a used 800 / 810.
I had an 810 until it jettisoned itself from my bike (no lanyard attachment points on that model). It varied from unreliable, buggy and crashy to being OK depending on which firmware update Garmin pushed to it. The last version, just before I lost the unit, was, frustratingly, pretty stable.
I bought an 820 to replace it but don't like it as much. The processor power seems inadequate for mapping and it takes an age to re-draw or zoom a map. I've got a Hammerhead Karoo as well which has an amazing screen and maps but still suffers from buggy software and a few user interface / usability problems. It's gradually improving with each software release.
Looks like only the Garmin 1030 of the current range can take your micro-SD card maps.
Or an Etrex/Oregon.
Halfords have the Explore for £219 and will price match Sigma Sports@ £209
Or 10% Cycling UK discount brings it to £198.
I've had mine for three weeks now and it's easily the best Garmin I've used (and, for my needs—mainly navigation—the best GPS device I've used full stop). A couple of minor bugs, but compared to all the other Garmin devices I've had the touchscreen works great, the responsiveness and speed of calculation is vastly improved and, best of all, the battery life with the battery saver mode on is looking seriously impressive.
Old technology, USB1 FFS to connect to a PC, map upgrades take around 6 hours! Stay away
A bit harsh, I think. Sure the Touring isn't cutting edge, but maps can be upgraded easily enough via the SD card (and how often do you update maps anyway? I don't think I ever did) and routes can be loaded via the card too, if plugging in a cable for about 30 seconds is too painful.
Don't get me wrong, the Explore is a significant improvement and I do like the wirelessness (even if getting routes onto it from third party services isn't exactly slick) but given that you can pick up a Touring for £75 or so, I'd say that for anyone who wants navigation on a budget it's an excellent device and a real bargain.
I have an 800 too, and agree it's utterly mehhhh as a computer, even the 1:50k OS mapping is abysmal (1:50k isn't quite enough detail for busy areas and it's scanned at a really low resolution for garmin).
You can buy an android phone from china for £70 and waterproof bar mounts, it'll run strava, google maps and any other mapping software simultaneously without choking up, upload everything to strava or any other app, allow access to any mapping source you can find online. And display free porn if you get lonely on a a bivi!
Thanks for all the advice...
i went for a wahoo element bolt in the end. I am very pleased with it. The buttons are much better than the touch screen IMO. I don’t really miss the colour screen either. It was £259 with sensor pack such as cadence, speed, HR strap. This is FRP so you could probably get it cheaper but I was in London so just bought it from a bike shop on the spur of the moment.
love the phone interface, the simplicity, works without bugs, so reliable, excellent battery life, etc.
highly recommended.