Defective (4 watches in 3mos) - Garmin Instinct 2 Solar/Surf

Strange indeed. I have an Instinct 2 since 2 years, and although I do not surf, I use it for for open water swimming in the sea, and for snorkeling, freediving, and even for scuba diving quite often, and so far I did not experience any such problems. Appart of a coincidence of having four malfunctioning devices one after the other, which is extremely improbable, the only thing that I could suspect, is that some of the buttons on your watch got stuck with the salt deposit, and cause the troubles. Do you rinse the watch after each activity? Personally, as a diver, I am used to dip all my electronic equipment into freshwater for a few minutes (sometimes even hours) immediately after getting out of the sea. Once the seawater dries, it is difficult to remove the salt deposit from the slits around the buttons, so it is wise to have at least a bottle of freshwater with you at the beach, and rinse the watch as soon as you get out (and dipping it in freshwater for a while again when you get back home).

Yea i shower with it afterwards for a while and rinse it thoroughly during. Aside from the freezing screen the battery life goes to being totally useless, depleting entirely in a matter of hours. When you had defective devices were they ordered through garmin directly or were they ordered through another seller? Also what were they issued you experienced with the defective ones?

2518400 said:

i shower with it afterwards

Showering with the watch is not the best thing to do, especially if you use soap or shampoo - it can damage the sealing. You should just rinse it in freshwater directly after going out of the sea, and then dropping into freshwater for a while when you come home. No soap.

2518400 said:

When you had defective devices

I did not tell I had a defective device. Fortunately, it never happened to me. I had Instinct 1st gen. for 2 or 3 years (with no issues, and it still works), and then Instinct 2 for other 2 years - equally no problems encountered with it.

As for the excessive battery drain - it can have also other reasons than a hardware failure - have a look at the Troubleshooting guide for high battery drain for some more details

Ok, i doubt that a little soap ruined the seal in a matter of weeks but it’s possible. Seems to be pretty consistently going to sht after surf sessions though. 

2518400 said:

Ok, i doubt that a little soap ruined the seal in a matter of weeks

I strongly doubt too, just telling that it is not a good thing to do. In long term it can harm the sealing.

trux said:

Showering with the watch is not the best thing to do, especially if you use soap or shampoo - it can damage the sealing

While I’m sure there might be some strong detergents out there that could possibly cause damage to the seal I would suggest normal shower soap is not amongst them. Soaping in showers is transient and would be expected to be rinsed off afterwards; very different to soaking in detergent as some suggest. I swim in the sea several times a week throughout the year. I wear my watch in the shower after virtually every activity to wash out sweat, salt, etc and still have no issues. 

While it might be possible for shower soap to damage seals I would put the risk of damaging seals to the extent that the integrity of the watch is compromised as extremely low to virtually non-existent. 

I don't understand, and I’m sure Garmin don’t understand either, why some people purport to have issues with watches after a single exposure to salt water, while others, me included, expose the watches to the sea several time a week, every week. 

I actually think Garmin had a bad batch of watches made. All the bells beach model i had were within a hundred units of each other based on the serial number. Is there a way to tag a Garmin tech in here and get them to opine?

2518400 said:

Is there a way to tag a Garmin tech in here and get them to opine?

No, but you are certainly welcome to contact Garmin Support directly. I would suggest calling and talking with a Support Rep as opposed to the e-mail or chat options - much faster response.

HTH

Have done that with each watch and they don’t have any idea what’s going on

You could try asking them to send you a watch from a different batch, or a non-surf Instinct 2 (today all Instinct 2 models have the tides and surf options).