Any thoughts on the reconditioned Foretrex 201's (the small wrist mounted GPS) that you can get for about $65? Are they waterproof enough to survive submersion? Thanks

Heard they are good, but watch the bands. WHERE did you find one for $65. Please tell!!!!

Doug

I own a Foretrex 201 and I use it for cat sailing as well as windsurfing. It works great and has all the features I want. While windsurfing it gets submerged quite a bit. If you submerge it repeatedly it will stop working. I have gone most of a season before it quite but it will die eventually. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Now I am careful not to submerge it too much and I have no problems on the boat since I don't capsize very often. Getting it sprayed with water on the boat does not seem to hurt it.

I had good luck with Gamin replacing my Etrex Legend after it died, send it to them and they might fix or replace it for you. If it says "waterproof" it should be.

They also like to hear a good story about their products, so maybe you can tell them about how you need an altimeter function on it to measure your jumps! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

The fortrex with the rechargeable battery is the way to go. I've never had any waterproof issues with them and had two that made it through two Tybees...BUT...I've lost three now because the pins in the wrist band let go.

When I break down and buy another one, I'm going to build a composite case and heavy duty strap for it.

Thanks if I get one I will look into attaching the strap more securely. Has the lake in SC where you sail gone down...maybe you can find some of those lost ones.

Doug, they have reconditioned ones at some ebay stores for that price with 1 year warranty from Garmin.

Hi there,

I owened and tested the classic etrex and the foretrex.
The foretrex has all the important functions to navigate and tune your boat. The display is configuarable. The sensor is reasonable accurate. But the joints (two small pins) between band and unit is way to weak. Thats the reason, why I lost my foertrex. I even didn't realised the weak punch which caused the loss. There is no additional attachement point on the unit to attache a safty line... Finally the keys are to small and difficult to use.
The classic yellow etrex: I had the old version and now the "high precision" version. The keys are better, but you still you need two hands to use them. The functions are nearly the same, but you have a few options less for screen configuration. The old one was not very accurate, the new one is. My first one failed after half a year, because it is far away from any IPX standard. The same happened to the etrex of my friend. If I look at the units sealing, I think no etrex is realy water proof. I can only recommend to use a water tight bag as for mobile phones. Obviously you cant use this for the foretrex, so this may be considered as a show stopper.
Maybe it is worth to try the geko, because it has all keys on the front like a mobile phone and maybe you can use it with one hand.
If you get it for 65$, I would buy any of them.

Cheers,

Kolja

You had better ask Garmin International about that guarantee. I think that they used to have a policy of not guaranteeing anything bought on ebay.

GARY

My eldest son lost his when the pin came out too.

the garmin etrex series, and i presume other waterproof garmins, are water resistant to 1meter for 30minutes, IPX7 i think.

1 meter, 3 feet, is not very deep and if you are punching off a board into the water the water pressure on the case can easily be equal to 2 or 3 meters

so for windsurfing you really do some kind of flexible sealable clear case

having said that i use my legendc and vista hcx on my cat and on my kayaks without any case as they are hard to read and work the buttons in a case. lots of splashing and a couple of capsizes later they have had no water problems

the newer hcx series seem to have a solid alloy battery door which looks more waterproof than the plastic door on the legendc. the battery door seems the weakest link in the waterproofing

the etrex series have a lot of display options and so far i've found it best to use the navigation screen switched to big numbers and then select max speed, speed and speed again as the 3 things to display. speed twice so i can see it at a glance

garmin support have been very good to me over the years sending me parts to reseal my 2 year old venture after my baby daughter bit a rubber switch cover off and repairing my out of warranty legendc when the usb chip fried due to me using an unfiltered cable to power it from a car lighter socket

both units bought via ebay. however it has never been an automatic free repair. i have had to email a few people in marketing and be very nice and polite. it may help that i contribute a lot to 2 garmin forums

i don't know much about the forerunners but the color etrex can do screen grabs which are much easier and clearer than just taking pics of the unit, have attached a screen grab here