Here I was thinking I was good. When I bought my Foretrex last year I made sure I bought the aquapac as well due to all the stories I'd heard about them not being quite as waterproof as they should be. ONE time a few weeks ago a small amount of water got into the aquapac due to me not sealing it fully, not really a drama as the Foretrex is waterproof anyway right! Well no, after not being able to download/upload my tracks of my sail yesterday to my puter last night I popped the battery cover off to discover 2 very very corroded batteries. The tiny bit of water that had gotten into the aquapac managed to somehow find its way into my battery compartment and pretty well root the unit. Thankfully I had all my receipts so Johnny Appleseed said it shouldn't be a drama at all to warranty and replace the unit. I'm annoyed though cause it has a fair amount of track logs on it though I havn't been able to download so I hope Garmin can transfer that for me.
Makes me wonder though what Garmin are doing about this issue and I have read a LOT of stories of how many people have stuffed their units also. Their returns office must have a hell of a lot of faulty 101 and 201 units lying around!

Hey Sick_em,

Get a file and file down the battery terminals so you get some nice shiny metal on the springs/contacts.

This should let you put some new batteries in and get your data off, before sending it off for warranty.

No don't otherwise Garmin could void the warranty. Put through a request with it for the data, it could be just a case of new terminals.

The terminals are thinly plated in the first place so the Garmin tech could easily turn around and say by tampering with terminals you accelerated damage.

If you going to do anything like this take it to the shop and say look i've got heaps of data i want off this thing let them do it and try to download data- covers you're a$$.

And yes the vaseline works, I used to use it on my data port when I didnt use aquapac.

Why is it that they can make a $100 wristwatch completely waterproof and they cannot make a GPS unit to the same spec?

Katapult

Yeah I didn't want to play with it for fear of voiding the warranty so I took it in as is. I asked either Johnny Appleseed or Garmin to retrieve the data for me and the guy even made mention of that on the repair slip.
Mk I use rechargable duracells. I certainly didn't know they recommended specific type batteries at all. Do you know which ones are best? My duracells have a nice little bit of corrosion on them now so I'll probably have to hit them with the file and then the vaso once I get either my unit back or a totally new one.

My experience with the Garmin units is not good - but the warranty service is excellent - I'm on my fifth (and last) unit.

I had one unit that failed completely before it had even been wet!.

I have been using an AQUAPAC for the last 12 months and this has worked fine. I have now switched to the NAVI GT-11 and won't be switching back.

- J

Went sailing a few weeks ago with my GPS as usual. Did a few runs and looked down at my GPS to see what my max speed was. To my horror the unit was gone as I had forgot to do up the Aquapac . So I thought stuff it I'll claim it on my personal insurance. Then I realised that when I was sailing, the opening to the Aquapac was actually pointing up, so it must have fallen out when I jumped off my board. I was now standing in knee deep water on a sand bar with a ripping current going past and had walked about 20 metres. Golden Beach Caloundra. What the ????? Anyway I went back to where I thought I was and looked for about 15 minutes. Was about to give up and had one last check. Found it, and was working perfectly. Foretrex 101, battery compartment perfectly dry and working OK. My lucky day !!!!!! Should have bought a lottery ticket

no battery compartment on the fortrex 201 as such, so less spots for water ingress, as it is has an in built rechargeable battery, better imo than standard battery's alkaline or rechargeable. never could understand the reasoning for opting for the 101 over the 201(other than forgetting to recharge the unit before leaving home) as the 101 didnt come with cables but the 201 did at least that was how it was 2 years ago when i got mine, which hasn't missed a beat.
i also have the navi now which, is according to the experts, far more accurate, there have been some minor problems with sd cards with the unit which have since been identified (i.e stick with sandisk sd cards).i have read a lot of story's where people are on their 5 or 6th garmin unit which astounds me that they could end up with such a run of lemons talk about bad luck ;)

Weird all the replacements come with less warranty period. If they wont replace due to battery compartment just leave it in the water for a while.

The reason I chose the 101 is when the 201's battery is stuffed it's back to garmin to replace it. Also I find it easier replacing batteries than having to have it charged all the time particularly say I sail through the day and go fishing at night or go camping or whatever.

Also talk nice and the cable comes cheap or free

I have a couple of those little bags of silica gel in the aquapac with my 101 they should take care of any condensation


TelecomGreg