Garmin Mk1 Question

[loosenit2]

I have been looking for an upgrade to my Leonardo recently. Leaning heavily towards shearwater but have looked at a number of options, including aqualung, oceanic and Garmin. Big drawback to Garmin is lack of Air Integration. But in watching others review they really love the Garmin Mk1 because of the other functionality. (I have a 920XT for triathlon training and like it very much). I ran across this video on youtube today:


video claims that garmin won't replace the battery on his Fenix. MK1 is a modified Fenix I think. Was curious if any MK1 owners have hit this issue. If a battery can't be factory replaced after the life of the battery (5 years) that is a lot of money wasted. Just looking for conformation or if this guy is out in left field as it may affect future purchases (especially if Garmin were to go AI)

 

[saxman242]

I can't speak specifically to the descent, but Garmin does seem to be pretty good at supporting the fenix line. I just picked up a fenix 5 recently and have been quite happy.

It's worth noting, if you decide to purchase, that if you know someone with a student email address, they can get 35% off garmins through myunidays.com. That's how I got my fenix 5.

 

[broncobowsher]

I have an older Garmin GPS. Non-serviceable battery. By the time the battery did die there are generic battery kits on the web that are made for that specific model. So after 5 years and the warranty is gone and the battery is dead and a decision (that hasn't been made yet) to not support an old model (figure in 5+ years there will be something better offered), you will likely still be able to find a battery. It's hard to predict the future.

It would be nice to see the inside of the watch, just to make sure they didn't do a Liquidvision and encapsulate the battery. Come to think of it Liquidvision had really good features. But crap customer service. Out of warranty, out of luck. Between the non-serviceable batteries and the failure prone screens they are rarely ever heard of anymore. Garmin has too many products and a reputation across all those products to uphold.

I really am not worried about long term battery in a Teric. Even if there is a problem, out of warranty, I think there will be a fix for it.

 

[vovanx]

I really am not worried about long term battery in a Teric. Even if there is a problem, out of warranty, I think there will be a fix for it.

Shearwater customer support is exceptional.