Forums >Gears and Wears>Does anybody make a GPS watch with a easy to replace battery after the battery is dead for good?
I sure would like to find a GPS watch that I can take to a jeweler after the battery is dead on it. With a Garmin or Soleus I discovered that you need to send the watch back to the manufacturer and they replace it with another watch. I believe Garmin charged me somewhere around $75 the last time that happened too. I just talked to a company that repairs GPS watches and they believe no GPS watches on the market now have easy to replace batteries.
I suspect the reason for that is to keep the watches water proof.
There have been a few times in my life with regular sport watches that are water proof as advertised. However, when the battery died and I took it to a jewelry shop to get a new battery, the watched died during my next time it got wet in the shower or pool.
I've never had a GPS watch that out lived the battery. I suspect they are considered "life of the watch" parts so it's not worth making them replaceable.
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I remember reading/hearing about a guy on Ebay who will replace the battery on your Garmin for a fee. I've talked to at least one person who has used the service and was pleased with the result. I have no personal experience with it.
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If you don't make the battery replaceable, you don't have to take up space in the design for a battery box and engineering to enable consumer-end replacement. Making the battery non-replaceable enables them to engineer a smaller unit. iPhones work the same way.
In my experience, losing the battery before other parts of the watch go is likely a problem the minority of the time. My Garmin 201 went 8 years and it was not the battery that killed it, it held within an hour of the charge it did new.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I suspect the reason for that is to keep the watches water proof. There have been a few times in my life with regular sport watches that are water proof as advertised. However, when the battery died and I took it to a jewelry shop to get a new battery, the watched died during my next time it got wet in the shower or pool.
I was talking to a technician today @ Garmin about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vQTHF76B6A video I watched today regarding how to replace a battery in a Garmin watch and the technician told me that slicing it open breaks the seal which means it's susceptible to water after that. Doing all this work on the watch appears to be a headache anyhow just to change a simple battery.
Anyhow after that I was talking to the technician about Garmin's program to replace that battery (I understand they actually give you a new watch) after the battery goes dead on you and he told me that Garmin can upgrade my watch for less than the cost to replace it. So I wound up exchanging my Forerunner 10 for a Forerunner 15 for less $$$. The nice thing about the Forerunner 15 is it has a stronger battery than the Forerunner 10. I wonder how much longer it will last now? My Forerunner 10 lasted a little over a year.
Yes he is good.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garmin-Forerunner-205-305-Repair-Vib-Button-Battery-/190496309829?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5a770245#ht_693wt_867
Don't bother me, I'm thinking.
My husband watched a YouTube video and replaced my Garmin battery for me, mine was pretty old but even so I was disappointed when the battery started dying. It wouldn't hold a charge through a run My husband bought a replacement battery on Ebay then watched the video and did it step by step. I do run when it is drizzly outside and so far there have been no problems, there is a nice strip of black electrical tape wrapped all around now though
That's cool, whatever works, works. I remember the first time my battery started dying in my Forerunner 10 over 2 years ago, I made the mistake of believing it was just like any other watch and a jeweler could change the battery. The jeweler didn't know any better either. The end result was a disabled watch, which lead me to exchange it to Garmin for a new watch. It reminds me of an Apple Ipod Shuffle I used for awhile too. You really gotta know what you're doing to replace the battery in it. In my case it wasn't as easy to replace as they made it look on youtube.com and the end result was failure.
Not exactly the same but Magellan made the Switch UP which had an external battery back. They made it so that you could wear the battery extender with the watch and use it while running.
I see that's an optional accessory as I found on the Magellan site:
That might work for me since I use cutoffs, which have pockets to run with.
Yes he is good. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garmin-Forerunner-205-305-Repair-Vib-Button-Battery-/190496309829?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5a770245#ht_693wt_867
I might try that the next time my Gamin goes dead on me.
I still don't get it. My everyday Casio watch went dead on me and I took it to a jeweler who replaced the battery for 10 bucks. Why can't Garmin or somebody else make a GPS watch with a battery that is that easy to replace too? I know one guy on Ebay who will change the battery in my Garmin for 35 bucks
Yup...Garmin. I've had no problem with the 205/305 and the 210.