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

2518400
over 1 year ago

Have had four garmin instinct 2 solar surf (Bells Beach Model) in the last three months.

Each time, same pattern; works ok for a couple weeks, i take it surfing once or twice, then the battery starts to drain 1% every ten minutes for no reason (all GPS/HR monitor/Pulse Ox turned off). After another day the watch freezes and won't work at all.

Garmin has had no explanation nor have they acknowledged that this is a persistent issue across models. 

Not sure what to say here, pretty disappointing, use Garmin for inreach and marine electronics and never had issues like this with their products.

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  • 0 over 1 year ago

    A few months later and I am having the same problem with my Instinct 2 Solar surf Bells Beach addition. Had the watch for less than 2 weeks and it seemed to work fine for about five days and now it drains from 100% to dead in about 6 hours even when it displays 30-60days of battery life. What was everyone's solution for this? The customer support I got in contact with was pretty unhelpful. I am still under the 30 day warranty and trying quickly to figure out what to do. As of now, they just discontinued the model I believe so I don't really even have the option of getting a new one. I think my problem began following a software update but it is hard to say. Did anyone ever confirm if this was just a bad batch or not?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 8838796

    I went thru 3 of those Bells Beach watches, all with the exact same problem.  The sensors go mad, battery drains super fast and there is nothing you can do to fix it.  Definately a defective model or batch.  I opted to move to the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar and have had no issues so far.  Garmin will not admit to any issues with regards to this model.  Would be interesting to know how many defective units they have had worldwide.  My advice, send it back and insist on a upgrade even if you have to pay in to a 2X, there is hardly no difference on the features of the 2X compared to the Surf,  besides the Surf app sucks balls, its completely inaccurate with regards to wave counts and speeds.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Mr B

    Did they give you any credit or voucher towards a new watch? Super frustrating. Is the 2x solar very different? I haven't had much luck with accuracy on the surf edition any ways. I saw something about wearing it outside of your wetsuit and syncing it before you go out but never got a chance to even try that before it started draining insanely fast. I appreciate the advice. Been trying to figure this out and what to do the last few days and it seems like everyone everywhere recommends just ditching this thing. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 8838796

    The 2X has a bigger display which I prefer, same features except you cannot display the tides on the watch face, but this is not a biggie as you just need to go to the Tides app to get you tides, I also setup my alarm to tell me when low or high tide is 30 mins away.  The problem with wearing on the outside of your wetsuit is that you will not get heartrate.  Personally I prefer the 2X because of the bigger display.  I also downloaded a pretty good watch face which gives barometer reading  and moonphase on the watch face.  Garmin make great products and their watches are great, I just think there is a serious issue with either the Bells Surf model or a batch issue which they will not admit too, typical big corp.  I am super happy with my upgrade to the 2X Graphite, oh yes and one really awesome thing about the 2X is it has a built in torch which I use often.

  • 0 11 months ago

    Just wanted to add a note for others, that I had the same issue. Had 2 Bells Surf Solar watches with the same issue you describe.