Re: [Paddlewise] Used Garmin eTrex???

JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com wrote:

>
>Abandoning my lurk at the scan of eTrex!  My luck with that unit was not as 
>positive.  Splashing with salt spray and probably some water shorted out the 
>batteries and disabled the unit.  Twice.  I returned it to West Marine with 
>all the corrosion intact, and suggested --- in writing --- that they not 
>perpetuate Garmin's misstatement about "submersibility".  They will admit 
>that the unit will not work after submerence of virtually any kind, but, if 
>you can find new batteries, completely dry the inside of the battery casing, 
>and then get it back together during a severe attack of clapotis, you have no 
>problem.  See, Garmin will say, the electronics survive!  BS --- it's false 
>advertising, and they should cease and desist.  An unbagged eTrex is a light 
>paperweight once it's wet.  Not worth the money.  Just plain not worth the 
>chance that it won't work when you really need it.
>
>End rant: resuming lurk.  Two months to graduation.
>
>Jack Martin
>
>
>
This issue with the Etrex, and in fact all of the Garmin line, has been 
addressed here before (a couple years ago, so it doesn't hurt to go over 
it again.).  Garmin does not warrant the battery compartment to be 
waterproof.  Usually all you need to do is make sure that you check it 
at the end of every use for water in the battery compartment then clean 
and dry as necessary.  Take care with the rubber seal on the compartment 
cover to assure that there isn't any sand or other material to break the 
seal.  I have had an Etrex for two years, it has ridden on my deck 
unprotected through confused seas that washed completely over the deck 
with no malfunction.  The contacts in the battery compartment look as 
clean as the day I bought it.  The Etrex is one of the lowest priced GPS 
units on the market that claims any degree of water resistance.  I 
figure that my two years of total reliability makes it a bargain, I 
could have paid more than three times the price without any improvement 
in reliability. The fact that it is small enough to slip into my shirt 
pocket when I am hiking doesn't hurt either!  My GPS, like my travel 
camera, rides exposed and abused.  If it can't take the punnishment then 
I don't want it on my deck.

Mike Noyes

-- 
    Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are 
visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a great
blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a 
mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your
passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space.
Mark H Hunt



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