Magellan GPS

Posted by mike noeske on Nov 28, 2005

Make sure the battery compartment seal very well.

I have two Magellan SportTrack color's. And I am about to buy a Garmin, will never buy a Magellan again. I use my GPS mostly for keeping track of miles I have paddled, and occasionally finding my way back (OK, so maybe more than occasionally). I keep my GPS lashed on to the deck bungies in front of the cockpit, The GPS is on its side so I can see the screen. They are exposed to normal splashing from paddling, have never been submerged. Magellan claims that they are waterproof per IXP-7 standards (funtional after being submerged in one meter of water for 30 minutes), I claim they are NOT waterproof.

Both of the Magellan GPS's apparently get a small amount of water seepage into the battery compartment where the battery door latches to the housing. Both GPS have had the battery terminal rust and fail one month after the one year warrenty expired. They took the first back and reparied it (no charge other than postage for me). Once I got it back ad started using it again it developed a problem, where when the back light turned off, the unit turned itself off. So I dont use that one anymore. Magellan wants me to pay to have the second one fixed. Which I am reluctant to do since they didn't seem to fix the first one.

Two identical GPS's, two identical failures. Two expensive GPS's that dont work.

PS. I have used the waterproof GPS cases that you can find, but I found that any moisture in the bag fogged up the inside of the bag and I couldn't read the GPS, also paddling in Florida year-round, the temps in that sealed back sitting on the deck of a kayak in the sun can get way up there. Figured the high temps were probably worse for the GPS unit than a little splashing would be on something that is "waterproof".

Mike

In Response to: Re: GPS, swim support. by Mike D on Nov 27, 2005

Replies:

• Re: Magellan GPS by William Allen on Nov 28, 2005
• Re: Magellan GPS by Mike D on Nov 28, 2005
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  • Re: Leaky GPS by David Bixby on Nov 28, 2005