As the subject says, does anyone use a Garmin Swim to keep their Fenix or Forerunner type watches from getting the barometer/altimeter messed up from the chlorine?
My 4 year old Fenix 5 - which has been great - is now having the issue where temperature and elevation no longer measure. I called Garmin Support and they suggested that maybe chemicals from the pool or hard water have calcified in the port and are causing issues. I’ve tried soaking it in water as suggested but the odd thing support said was that “a lot of triathletes are using a Garmin Swim for their swims instead of their Fenix because the Swim doesn’t have the port that can get clogged”. I think this sounds crazy as the Fenix and FR945 watches are premiere watches in their line that are designed for swimming so it sounds crazy that they would suggest to NOT swim with it but thought I’d see if others have this problem or have gone to the Garmin Swim watch.
Interesting. My 735XT just crapped out two weeks ago while I was swimming in Lake Michigan (playing with kids, not working out or pressing buttons). I’m wondering if something similar happened. 3 years old so it was past warranty and Garmin gave me a good deal on a new one, so I can’t complain too much.
I’m wondering if they know there are waterproofing issues with the watches and this is their solution for the older watches. Hopefully they fixed for the newer models.
Interesting. My 735XT just crapped out two weeks ago while I was swimming in Lake Michigan (playing with kids, not working out or pressing buttons). I’m wondering if something similar happened. 3 years old so it was past warranty and Garmin gave me a good deal on a new one, so I can’t complain too much.
I’m wondering if they know there are waterproofing issues with the watches and this is their solution for the older watches. Hopefully they fixed for the newer models.
Yeah, you may be right. Mine still works, just elevation and temperature don’t. I can trade it in and get a refurb for a good deal so I may go that route too. But even if I get a new one, I pause and wonder if I should get a Garmin Swim to prevent it from being an issue in the future. I literally went through 7 or 8 FR910XTs with a similar issue but my understanding is those had a known hardware problem.
All Garmin watches self destruct somewhere between two and four years. Always, always just after the warranty has expired. It is so consistent that it almost seems Garmin do it on purpose…as you can tell I and those around me have had too many had experiences with Garmin watches.
All Garmin watches self destruct somewhere between two and four years. Always, always just after the warranty has expired. It is so consistent that it almost seems Garmin do it on purpose…as you can tell I and those around me have had too many had experiences with Garmin watches.
All Garmin watches self destruct somewhere between two and four years. Always, always just after the warranty has expired. It is so consistent that it almost seems Garmin do it on purpose…as you can tell I and those around me have had too many had experiences with Garmin watches.
Sad but true.
My Garmin Swim failed in under two years, worst Garmin product I ever owned.
I am always curious about how people are using their Garmin devices that lead to early catastrophic failures and firmware frustrations. Of all mine and my friends with Garmins, I only know of 1 crap product, and that was a Fenix 2.
My 305XT lasted at least 4 years until the case finally wore out. But, that was essentially a 1st Gen product, had no market peers, and was obsolete long before it timed its last run.My 910XT lasted at least 5 years before I moved on. At the end, the barometer and vibration thingy crapped out. But again, it was obsolete and far outlasted my expectations for useful life.My 735XT was flawless for 3 years when I made the jump to the 945.My 945 is still perfect at 2 years.My Edge 520 was perfect for 3 years until I made the jump to the 530.My Edge 530 is still perfect at 2 years.My Edge 1030 is still perfect after 3 years.I have a couple friends with > 4 YO 735XTs that are going strong. Those are far from obsolete and still performing very well. This forum has countless love fests of the 920XT that last forever. I must be doing it wrong.
I do not expect more than 3-4 years for any high-end electronic product in a hostile environment for a many reasons. The two biggies are technology obsolescence and battery failure, neither of which has anything to do with the quality of the product. Think about it… how many iPhone 7s do you think are still in use today? It cannot be many. I don’t know why anyone would expect a longer life from Garmin watch made in that same era?
Caveat: I do not count a barometer failure as a Garmin thing. I believe that this is a common failure for all watches that have barometric altimeters; it’s just there are more Garmins in the wild than anything else (everything else combined?).
All Garmin watches self destruct somewhere between two and four years. Always, always just after the warranty has expired. It is so consistent that it almost seems Garmin do it on purpose…as you can tell I and those around me have had too many had experiences with Garmin watches.
Sad but true.
I’m on my 3rd Fenix5. The two previous ones failed within the warranty period, and garmin sent me a “new” (referb) one. I rinse mine out under running water after every workout (even bikes and runs) and the alt/temp still eventually dies.
Since this is a known defect, I really wish they would add an option to disable the internal sensor. In that case the alt would revert to using the GPS data vs. listing every workout as having zero elevation change.
To the original question, The Vivoactive does swim tracking, and you can get a first gen one on eBay for <$50. That would be the cost-effective way to go. I had one for 4yrs. before upgrading to the Fenix5. It worked great, but wouldn’t link to bike PMs, and didn’t have wrist HR (neither is an issue with swimming).
Same for me except mine breaks right after the warranty. I’ve been through 2 290 and on my second fenix 5 and gave up.
I agree that there should be a disable option. It was a PITA manually doing it for every workout.
Another option is to get the FORM goggles. No watch needed and it is so much nicer to use in pool than a watch.
I swim with my old 920 (with a broken altimeter) and my Fenix 6 only gets to swim in races. However I did the same thing with my previous Fenix 5 and the altimeter still broke after about 1.5 years. I think it’s true most Garmins seem to crap out after about 2 years.
No, I just used the watch and had Garmin replace two 935s. First was out of warranty but the altimeter failed due to the chlorine issue and they replaced without issue; the refurb they sent me failed about a year later (temp and altimeter) for no known reason (wasn’t swimming), and they again replaced. Neither replacement cost me a dime, so while the failures were annoying, they didn’t cost me anything other than a few workouts I recorded with my phone instead of watch. And in the grand scheme of things, I could have easily continued to use the watches as the modules that broke weren’t critical.
I do. I have a “gen 1†garmin swim, and got it before I had a nice Garmin multisport watch. Once I got a 735xt, I just kept using my garmin swim. Really no problems. Uploads suck because you have to use the dongle and the garmin app on a cpu, so I do a lot of manual transfer of my efforts by hand to TP.
Wow, that’s great! I went through 7-8 910xt and I think 3 920xt. My Fenix 5 was solid for 4 years until it recently had the temp/altimeter issue.
I decided (I’m the OP) to keep my Fenix 5 and just use it as a dedicated swim watch and am using my new Fenix 6 as my normal run and tri GPS. It only sees swims on races.
( haven’t had my 5 for as long as you, but I pool swim 2x per week. I always soak it in the sink with my hr strap when I get home. Don’t know if the helps.
But I wouldn’t spend $200 to protect $335.
I’m pretty much the same. 5s, soak in sink with HRM after every workout, only 2 years old.
Like someone else said, I don’t expect to get more than a handful of years out of something like this. If I get 3 that’s $350/36 or $10/month. Cheaper than anything else I use for tri, except maybe my helmet.
Plus, I WANT to have to buy a new watch every 3 or 4 years so I can get the new features that came out during that time.
I decided (I’m the OP) to keep my Fenix 5 and just use it as a dedicated swim watch and am using my new Fenix 6 as my normal run and tri GPS. It only sees swims on races.
That’s what I do. Now if only the pools would re-open.