Frustrations with Edge 1040

I have had the Edge 1040 for almost a year now and this post is the result of me becoming increasingly disappointed with the device. I also own an Epix 2 and have previously owned a Fenix 3 HR -- both of these have been almost if not completely flawless. In addition, I have had the Edge 305 and 820, which were not that great, but yet not quite as problematic as the 1040.

So what's up with the 1040? Let's see...

Does it connect to sensors properly? Definitely not. Seems there's roughly 50% probability of the Edge not finding any sensors at the start of the ride. Even when it does find them, they can drop out during the ride, but that's much less likely to happen.

Does it record properly? No. Occasionally, on longer rides, the Edge reboots itself. After the reboot the recording can continue, but you still lose part of the activity.

Does it save the activity properly? No. It seems that sometimes the FIT file can become corrupted and cannot be synced with WiFi, Bluetooth or USB. Furthermore, recently the estimated  VO2max value went nuts after a (partially?) corrupted activity and now the Firstbeat algorithms think I need several days of recovery after a short commute. Since the metrics do not take the manually given VO2max into account at all, there seems no other way to fix this but to wait that the VO2max slowly gets back to its original value.

Does it sync properly over Bluetooth? No, it really does not. Especially if both Epix and Edge try to sync with the same phone, after a (short) while one of them stops syncing and almost always it's the Edge. If the Epix and Edge are paired to different phones, then the problems take far longer to appear. Rebooting the device can help as well as forcibly killing the Garmin  Connect app and wiping the cache. Sometimes it requires removing the connection between the phone and Edge and pairing again. But the fix is only temporary and sooner or later the syncing issue reappears.

Does it sync properly over WiFi then? Only if you manually select sync via WiFi. When the Bluetooth sync does not work, it does not automatically fall back to WiFi.

Do map updates work properly? Well you know the answer. 2023 EU cycling maps update never seems to get to the end.

Does it even shut down properly? Ha, no! Occasionally it just hangs just before shutting down. This seems most likely to happen if the Bluetooth sync has already stopped working.

That's already quite a long list of issues and I did not even have to mention things like the grade lag and ClimbPro being off. Except now I just did. The funny thing is that I think the initial firmware version only had the syncing problem and the grade lag. All the rest are regressions.

I've grown tired of waiting for the bugs to get fixed and just about ready to give up. At the moment I'm seriously thinking going back to the Edge 820 with a bad battery. If I need to record the activities with the Epix anyway, the 820 is good enough for a map display.

  • Start by completely restoring your device to factory settings and reconfigure it.
    I have NEVER experienced any of the listed problem that you mentioned.
    For that I have had problems over the years with the Edge 530 connecting to my OnePlus 7T phone. When I switched my phones to Samsung Galaxy the problem disappeared immediately. I have no problem with my 1040 + Samsung Galaxy S22 either. The problem in my opinion was the 1+ 7T.

  • I don't have any of those problems. You might have a faulty device, please contact your vendor to have it replaced under warranty.

  • I don't have any of those problems

    Me neither.

     reset your device and try again

  • Does it navigate correctly? Sometimes. If leaving the route, it starts calculating and suddenly ends with routing error. Never have success with re-routing.

  • If leaving the route, it starts calculating

    Yes, exactly what it does!

    When navigation without turn guidance - if you get „off course“ and then „course found“, it starts navigation with turn guidance. To get rid of turn guidance you have to end the navigation and start it anew. Very annoying. (I have set recalculation off)

  • I agree that 1040 Solar is the least mature Garmin product I have ever owned. Have had several support cases and the resolution time has been very poor as well. 

    Have owned 1040 since it was released to the market, and have reverted back to 1030 every time until recently when I had the need to navigate. Was just fixed in 17.26  my problem was the every time I stopped the device lost the bearing and the compass and map rotated 

    Problems with AXS and Steps in combination lasted for half a year. 

    Neither has ever been a problem on 1030. Also own an Epix2. Will seek actively for alternatives next time I want a new computer. 

    NOT a proud Garmin1040 owner. 

  • I have most, if not all of the problems you’re describing. I factory reseted the device multiple times. Removed all ConnectIQ things, splitting tracks to 100k chunks, …. Still I get occasional freezes, especially when pressing the stop button. Sometimes I wait over hour until the activity is synced to the phone. 

    i want the 1030 FW ported to the 1040 or a replacement with a 1030. I don’t care about the new features - I even forgot what these were. 

    i might also give navigation and recording with the phone a try - can’t be worse what I experience with a top notch high class end of the line specialized device since over a year. 

    btw I got myself a iGS320 just to record - 70h battery life, connects to ant sensors and just works. 

  • I have experienced the reboot and lost rides several times now. It is not a deal breaker for me because I use it primarily for routing when on tour. Routing is usually OK for me. 

  • I had all these problems with 2 different edge 1040s, restoring doesn't solve anything.
    Apart from the Bluetooth connection problem, I think that those who have no problem are not using the GPS to its full potential
    Use it for 150km, follow training sessions with a power sensor and varia, and you will see that this GPS saturates and restarts in full navigation, that it loses varia, that the training sessions are lousy, that the synchronization between a watch and the edge does not indicate the same thing about the training load.
    Also last weekend I was able to verify what many people are complaining about with the % of the slope, in fact, my brother-in-law has just acquired the Karoo2, and the slope is as precise as the edge 1040, at the difference is that the karoo is super responsive, the edge 1040 has a latency like a grazing cow, you arrive at the end of a hill, you go down 20m it is still on the positive slope, while you are in the middle of a descent.
    The karoo 2 does none of that, it is accurate and responsive, it doesn't take 20 seconds to indicate the % of the slope you are climbing.
    I'll stop there but, we should list this long list of parasitic bugs, which make this edge 1040 overpriced and does not keep any of its promises for this price, and once again when will the next update come? we still have to wait 3 months Garmin!!!???

  • film your bugs, because I think garmin doesn't believe in all these problems with the 1040