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What is wrong with my charger inlet?

ZeniaViby
8 months ago

First: hope you can understand my question. I am Danish. Trying to explain in English as well as I can.

I bought a Fenix 7s end January 2024.

For the past month charging has been a hassle, with different issues:

1) When putting the cable in the watch it is kind of loose, and I need to put it down carefully. If the cable is touched just a bit, it stops charging. Is it bad connection?

2) The oval cable part is identical and can be turned 180 degress and go into the watch. I always have to test first one way, and then the other way if it is not charging, since it only charges if put in, the correct way even though it should not matter (my old Forerunner 45L didn't care about how the cable plug was turned). 

3) When i put the cable into the watch it is like you can push the "socket" a bit into the watch casing. Is this normal? 

Do you think the above desciption is a warranty case? The pins does not look deformed or anything. But it is super annoying to put the watch to charge, go to bed and get up in the morning and it has not charged, because the cable was turned the wrong way, or had fallen out of place and stopped charging.

I have bought an extended ensurance when buying the watch. 
Do you think I should reach out to Garming, where I bought the watch or to the enurance company?

Thank you for your time.  

  • 0 8 months ago

    1. I've been using my F7 for almost a year and I don't have such issues. I just plug in the cable and it never fails to charge. My wife has a Venu SQ which has the same connector type and we share the same cable for charging and again no issues.

    2. It should work both ways. If yours doesn't, then it's clearly a connection issue.

    3. I don't think so.

    ZeniaViby said:
    Do you think the above desciption is a warranty case?

    Yes, although it's also possible that the issue is with the cable and not the watch. If you can try another cable, then it's worth checking.

    ZeniaViby said:
    Do you think I should reach out to Garming, where I bought the watch or to the enurance company?

    I'd avoid the insurance company. First try contacing garmin support. I'm not sure how it works in Denmark, but where I live (another EU country) this has always been the fastest way to replace a faulty device. But as I said above, if possible first try to make sure that it's the watch and not the cable.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to tmk2

    Thank you for your reply.

    I have contacted Garmin Support.
    They shold be very nice and effective to deal with. Hope they have a solution.

    Have a great weekend.

  • 0 8 months ago

    My connection on my Fenix is really loose too.  Like you, I have to wiggle it around to get it to connect then lay it down really carefully or it just loses connection again.  I’m starting to get fed up of it.  What a difference with my Apple watch just laying it on the little disc and no worries about it losing connection.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to Mo1959

    The original Garmin charging cable of my 7x ss is still sitting in the retail package. I never used it as I've been using a charging puck purchased from Amazon*. Started to use this charger when wife's Vivoactive 3 started to have random charging cable disconnections using the official cable. When purchased the puck the charging problem disappeared. This was more than 2 years ago when we both switched to the charging puck. Even DC Rainmaker wrote about this. You might want to give it a try.

    *www.amazon.com/.../B07K2YKZLB

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to Mo1959

    I am (almost) happy to hear that you have experienced the same problem with the loose cable/connection. Thought I was going nuts. My old Forerunner didn't have this loose connection. I have contacted garmin support and will wait for their response. I think that a watch in this price range should not have a poor charging connection

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to ArionK

    Thank you for the tip. I will take a look at it and see if I can find a seller within the EU (to avoid customs and tax fees). 
    But will wait for the reply from Garmin Support :)

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to ZeniaViby

    This is the link for the ones I purchased from amazon.de so this was an intra EU transaction.

    Cavn 2 Piece One Metre (3.3 Feet) Charging Cable Compatible with Garmin Vivoactive 3 / Music / Trainer, Fenix 5 / 5S / 5X, Instinct, Forerunner 935 945 245 245 M Data Sync, Replacement Charger, Charging Station with 10-Piece Dust Plug https://amzn.eu/d/6BvSQJc

  • 0 8 months ago

    I suddenly had the same issue after approx 6 months in. I tried with a new cable, same thing. Connection with the watch suddenly became finicky. Garmin exchanged the whole watch under warranty.