3 Week Old Fenix 5 - Wacky Altimeter

If we make it through a week of "normal" use then likely the problem was a manufacturing/design flaw.

Whilst one could not rule out the tiny chance of getting 2 bad units, your summary above is by far the most likely outcome. Static electricity is what some on these forums have decided is initiating faulty units to go bonkers, but they absolutely don’t know this is the cause for sure. Whatever, these crazy altitude swings are a fault with the hardware in some units, so a replacement should fix the problem.

I'm late to the discussion of past problems, but how exactly did they definitively determine it was static electricity that was causing a problem?.

Because it happens in very low dew point temperatures and with synthetic or wool clothes.
The most accepted short term remedy was to put the fenix in a warm bath for 20 min.
Since February I don't have the problem but I live in a warm climate country.

I’m done with this $700 pile of junk. Garmin’s response

“I'm very sorry. But, you are way outside the warranty period for exchanging a new for new device. The device you will be receiving should you choose it for $160 will be a refurbished watch. The other option you have is our loyalty program which is 20% off the purchase of a new device at the retail price.

Thank you for choosing Garmin,”

why in the heck would I throw good money at this? Sounds like I will just get another worthless watch. Any recommendations on a new watch? How about the Samsung’s? The Fitbit ionic has possibilities

Altimeter still working fine after some skiing, a lot of static conditions (dry winter weather and synthetics as some suggest). Have not showered with it yet or gotten it really wet.

theonesmitty, I am sorry for your experience with Garmin Support. Due to your comment, I looked up your email conversation and noticed a basic troubleshooting step was missed and wasn’t mention by you too.

Could you go outside and [URL="https://forums.garmin.com/core/Calibrating the Barometric Altimeter"]Calibrate the Barometric Altimeter[/URL] and then test it again on your next hike? This is important to do outside instead of inside since the indoor and outside air pressure could be a bit different. Due to that, it could cause your device to read the elevation incorrect by a few 1000 ft. If this doesn’t work, please send me a private message so we can work together to find a solution.

Well, sorry to say, the now 1 week old Fenix 5 is currently reading -98,628 ft elevation as I currently type this. It was humming along just fine altimeter-wise, then yesterday I noticed that it was reading -1,700 ft. I recalibrated and it was fine the rest of the day. Woke up this morning and apparently I'm ~20 miles under the North American plate. Back to REI to try #3. Really Garmin?
This watch has not gotten wet, sweaty, banged up, dropped or anything - treated with kid gloves and the altimeter is toast. Perhaps this is why the 5 plus has come out . . .

If you have the same error next time, I am curious what your barometer reading is at the same time. If you are able to calibrate the barometer (you can reference a nearby weather station on the Weather Underground), then manually or automatically calibrate the elevation, does it then behave? There is another setting under the barometer called "Watch Mode". I have been using "Auto" successfully. I have my barometer and Elevation widgets on next to each other.

I do wonder about the claim of a static discharge causing problems. I guess we will see if winter ever kicks in here. We heat with wood, and when it is below 0, you are pretty much a walking Van De Graaff Generator. I suppose it makes sense if the diaphragm of the chamber gets a static charge deposited on the surface, it will mess with the readings. A warm bath would discharge it if it is truly that good at holding a charge.

The question is - do I try for a Fenix 5 copy number 3 or put the credit towards a 5 Plus which apparently does not have this problem? Seems that if I'm 2/2 so far for getting a bad Fenix 5, chances are good I'll be 3/3 for getting a bad Fenix 5.:(

Fortunately REI is pretty good about this sort of thing. But I wounder if they will just start cycling these and give you the first one you returned. :eek: No but seriously, I'd give them another shot.:D

My wife works for REI and for electronics they do not recycle the returns. They also do not send them back to Garmin - they eat the cost. Pretty easy to determine if one coming out of a box is used or brand new. I'll look at trading it in on a 5 plus vs. trying copy #3 of the 5. Really didn't want to spend the $$ on the 5 plus (though I get the employee discount - it's still pretty darned expensive).