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Vibration Stops Working

One of the people i know with the Fenix 6x Saphhire had the vibration motor issue happen a few weeks ago and mine has now went out over the last 2 days.  I use it as my daily wake up alarm so when it changed it was pretty apparent.  Noticed it was pretty 'rattley' yesterday, today there's something obviously mechanically wrong with it in that the motor has to no longer be solidly attached to anything.  Everyone who's heard it agrees, something's come loose inside.  Because of that the vibration is going to be transferred to the power/signal cabling attached to the motor and that has a highly likelihood to cause it to fail at some point down the road. 

Note the watch has never been dropped, I rarely take it off other than to charge it, never hit anything, haven't used it to drive nails into oak or anything like that,  the case and glass are pristine. 

The first one the other runner had was replaced by Amazon without questions.   I'm sorry to say REI seemed reluctant at first to want to deal with it, potentially in their defense none of their people have heard of the issue before.  "Can you have a jeweler open it up and take a look?"  When I politely balked at that option for a watch that's less than 2 months old and provided them with links to 3 different threads on here about it as well as a youtube video where you can listen they did acknowledge that this falls under the returns policy but with a caveat their return department will examine the watch and decided to either replace, refund or send it back to me.   She couldn't speak to which option would be chosen. 

A little disappointing given how much I've spent with them over the years.   Because I expect it'll take a minimum of 2 weeks back and forth to get a replacement mailing it to the home office I'm going to delay and try to exchange it at the new store that opens next week that's not too far off from me. 

Because I have access to multiple samples in person it's pretty obvious the difference between them in sound, vibration and roughness.   It's also a little concerning that of an admittedly small sample set of 3 watches, 2 of them failed within the first 2 months with the vibration motors coming loose.  Either a 66% failure rate or RNGesus has it out for our little circle. 

I was unable to find any tear downs of the Fenix 6 family to try and see just how the motor might be mounted (screwed or glued) and just how fixable this might be.  If it wasn't for the inability to get a new gasket I'd likely try to open the case and see myself but right now for a $850 watch that's still in the 90 day return window much less a year out that's just not really an option I want to explore, as least not as the path blazer for this particular model. 

If anyone's taken one of the 6's apart and happened to take any photos' I'd love to see them. 

  • Just a quick addendum, depending on what orientation you hold the watch will change just how bad it sounds.  At some angles it's extremely obnoxious and at others only a little obnoxious.  Again evidence the motor is swingin' freely in there.  

  • My doesn't rattle, however it seems weaker than when I first put it on.

  • My doesn't rattle, however it seems weaker than when I first put it on.

  • I was unable to find any tear downs of the Fenix 6 family to try and see just how the motor might be mounted (screwed or glued) and just how fixable this might be.  If it wasn't for the inability to get a new gasket I'd likely try to open the case and see myself

    I think that's also why nobody else has posted any teardowns. If you damage the gasket, you brick the watch. Thus far, nobody wants to take that chance. I'm guessing taking the watch apart probably voids the warranty too.

    If the rattle is that bad, and REI doesn't resolve it for you, just contact Garmin and explain that it sounds like something is loose and rattling around inside, I'm sure they'll take care of it for you.

  • I am afraid there's is something wrong in manufacturing of the watch. I hope garmin will find another way of mounting the vibrator motor in the new watch batches or else the solar I will get for replacement will have the same issue after a few days. Mine takes forever to replace because Garmin delays the delivery of the Solar model in Greece. I heard it is a worldwide issue...

  • There's a tear it up video for most anything on YT which is why I expected to find it.  The ad revenue and click through a from some established destructive testing yt'er you'd think would pay for the price of the watch and then some.  They break everything else on their channels. Slight smile

    So I called Garmin support to get an official statement, unsurprisingly yes opening the watch voids your warranty entirely, the nice lady named Chloe seemed a bit taken aback when I told her REI asked if it was possible to have a jeweler look into it "Oh no, don't do that!"

    She recommended I deal with REI for an exchange or refund.  Garmin is way backordered on the Fenix line so while I was more than allowed to open a return ticket with them it would be quite some time before id get the replacement.  So while I'm still in the 90 day return window for REI she recommended to proceed that way.

    Another thing, the watches are warrantied by Garmin for 1 year from date of purchase.  They will replace a defective device during this time at no cost.  They will put a hold for the amount of the device and ship it to.  When they receive the bad unit they'll release the hold so you're not out of the watch during that time assuming it functions at all.

    After one year they offer a out of warranty option but I don't know what the costs are with that.

    So that's where I stand.  When the new store opens up next week I'll drive down and try to exchange after verifying they have them in stock.  If they don't I'm shipping it back to REI.  If they turn around and say sorry and ship it back then I open a ticket with Garmin and wait for the replacement.  

    So at some point, someone is going to replace this watch and that's good enough for me.

    I'll be honest it's going to be interesting to see if I have to replace it again after that, in which case I'm going through Garmin with the hope they've fixed whatever the problem is and the new stock they're waiting on won't have the same issue.

    Final note I found some images of the 5x opened up.  If it's the same design it doesn't look like the vibrator module is screwed down.  Its not a great picture so it's hard to say but it looks like it may be held in a friction fit or possible a small piece of non visible tape holds it to the bottom case.   Just not really able to tell, the angle is from the wrong side and not top down.  Disappointed

  • While there may have been several reports about it worldwide, out of 10's of thousands of watches sold we've only seen a handful of complaints, so I don't think we should jump to the conclusion that they're all faulty.

    There have been several Teslas around the world that have spontaneously exploded, doesn't mean they all have the same defect.

  • I hope so too! But not everyone uses vibration and not everyone so often and the same way. I use it everyday  with a timer and when it vibrates I don't stop it. I wait for it to stop... Maybe it depends at how often you use it , to manifest the problem. I did this with my 5x sapphire and never had an issue...

  • I agree but curious how many users have a lot of vibrations going on in terms of both quantity and duration?   And it's 100% possible out of the 3 I have personal access to we just got unlucky to get 2 bad ones.   

    On the other hand the support person who was in the dedicated watch support group I contacted at Garmin seemed familiar with the issue and had the immediate advice "for now just turn off vibration till you can get a replacement".  

    I use mine as a daily wake up alarm, in addition it's on for all notifications and I use very structured training programs 4 or 5 days a week that can last up to 10 hours per run so every tempo/recovery/pace change etc it also vibrates. 

    Perhaps most telling I ran 27 hours over the weekend doing an 100 mile race and used a pace plan on the watch (not pace pro) that had the watch vibrating every 3 to 5 minutes on average to tell me to change pace or warning me I was too 'hot or cold' on my pacing and was getting a fair amount of text alerts from well wishers during the race.   That was a whole lot of vibe in a day. 

    But with all that said ,while annoying it's not a showstopper or a "I'm never buying one of these %!(*!&!@#$!% watches again!!!" situation.   I love the watch line, since the F3 I've never really had any problems with the watch or the ecosystem.  There are things I'd like to see changed perhaps but certainly nothing worth a internet rant. Slight smile

  • My F6X Pro is also affected by vibration issue, since yesterday morning. I bought the watch early September, and use vibrations in a quite extensive manner.

    I’ll have to RMA the watch, but how to make sure it won’t happen again with next one ? Any clue about a vibration motor fix in latest releases ?