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.

  • I've done the Installing Maps.  Any thoughts on my answers to your questions re speed sensor and auto pause?

    Thanks

  • I have sent you a direct message

  • I had a 1040 that froze and would not respond to any commands save holding downtime power button and resetting.  Called Garmin and they replaced it free of charge although it was 18 months old and out of warranty.  

    Great CS.

  • New 1040 purchaser here.........I have not had any issues yet other than initial setup moving from my 1030 sensors to the new 1040 and for some unknown reason my Garmin Varia radar/light would not sync or pair as we say. After my initial ride, I tried again and it worked. However, a caveat I did notice when pairing......my Assioma power meter pedals sync'd in two ways that I could tell. One way was by name of "Assioma" and the other with some oddball numeration for recording power. Like I said, when I returned from the first ride with the 1040, I deleted the named Assioma device and renamed the numerical that was for power meter as well to Assioma, then the radar connected........who the heck knows??????

    Electronics.....huh!

    Hopefully since your post of 8 months ago this is fixed as I did not read every post here. I am so far only three days into the 1040 happy with what I see. I have used Garmin cycling computers (Edge style units) for the better part of 15-20 years and still love them over other manufacturers.

  • Hello Garmin-Maeve:  Just a quick follow up and big thanks.  All my issues seem to have been resolved due to your suggestion of Installing Maps.  Couple comments and one question in that regard.  It was a little bit of a process, but not bad.  It stated it could take...I forget....up to 8 hours?  (depending on one's internet speed).  I forget but it was fast, less than 30 minutes....I think there were 2 iterations of that but I forget why.  Now for the question:

    Do I have to do anything in the future?  Too be honest, I'm a tad disappointed that the normal Garmin updates didn't automatically take care of that.  Why did I have to "go in", contact you scratch our collective heads--we tried some different settings--and do the download?  Don't read that as yelling, just a tad disappointed.  

    Nevertheless, bravo on solving the problem with accuracy and terrific responsiveness.

    Dave.