Edge 130 Plus elevation accuracy is poor following switch off and on in mid ride.

Having been delighted with my Edge 130 I upgraded to an Edge 130 Plus. I noticed a problem, namely that occasionally it would stop updating elevation, both in real time and on the final data. OK, I can correct height online but it's dispiriting slogging up a 100m 12% gradient to be told that you have gained no height and it's flat.

I investigated further and discovered that the problem ALWAYS occurs after switching off the device mid-ride, then switching back on. I carried out an experiment.

With the Edge 130 and 130Plus recording I did a quick up and down ride. Both devices were accurate, and consistent with each other. I switched both off and on again and repeated the up-and-down ride. The 130 gave a similar result to the first lap, but the 130Plus elevation started to lag, only updating after a minute or so. See graph below. The Edge130Plus is the red line

I showed this data to Garmin Tech Support who agreed that there was a problem and agreed to replace it with a refurbished unit, which arrived yesterday. And this one has EXACLTY the same problem. See graph below. The unit takes more than a minute to update elevation (on longer rides I've known it to fail to update for many minutes.

So now I await Garmin's response. I wonder whether anyone else has had this problem?

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0 fabian over 2 years ago in reply to alMossah

I live in Chile, I doubt garmin Chile would give me a more expensive unit, customer protection sucks here.

0 fabian over 2 years ago in reply to 3257428

Nice, I've never used auto-pause, so the unit should never power off during a ride, right?
I was worried that the issue would affect me because of the random crashes.

0 alMossah over 2 years ago in reply to fabian

In my experience the problem only occurred after a switch-off (i.e. Auto or manual shutdown). I did not use it with auto-pause (where the unit remains switched on but stops recording?), so can't comment. But I am sure I did stop and start recording on a few occasions and did not notice the issue.

0 9864396 over 1 year ago

This happened to me twice in the past week when the 130 auto powered off while I was fixing a flat. Elevation and grade goes completely wonky. Guess I'll disable auto power off and see if it happens again.

Does Garmin actually read/respond to these posts or is there somewhere else one can report these bugs?

0 cheracogoff over 1 year ago in reply to 9864396

This is a user to user forum for individuals to discuss Garmin devices. Garmin occasionally responds to questions but it is best to call Garmin support in your area. Also can email them but the response time is long. Calling is by far the best way to get support.

0 pauln over 1 year ago

Bought an Edge 130 plus a couple of weeks ago and can report it has the same issue. Didn't notice on the first couple of rides as device didn't power off on first ride and second ride was on substantially flat terrain. On third ride I noticed that the gradient wasn't updating and total ascent was about 1000 feet out (I live in a hilly area). After finding your post I downloaded a CSV copy of the FIT file and as you describe the data recording for the altimeter drops from per second to every 60s after the device has powered off mid ride. This surely has to be an issue with the device firmware rather than a hardware problem so should be fixable by Garmin with an update. I'm not holding out much hope though. Meanwhile I've disabled auto power off. Disappointing.

0 luispcoutinho over 1 year ago

Just discussed this with Garmin also. They replaced the device one time, and their argument is just terrible s h i t t y . After a lot of emails and discussions, basically they're not going to fix it, and they argue that being a level entry device it's not supposed to work as it supposed too. This feature is not supposed to work even though it's available in the software. Their brilliant suggestion: NEVER POWER OFF!
Just Disappointing! Terrible customer support, I wouldn't recommend this device to anyone.

0 alMossah over 1 year ago in reply to luispcoutinho

I agree, total BS. The Edge 130 has this feature and it works fine. The Edge 130Plus is a more expensive unit, and the feature doesn't work as it should.

0 zweistein over 1 year ago in reply to alMossah

Even though you explained it clearly, it never sank in with me that the feature worked fine before they released the Plus version (I naively thought it was always broken and some tech might have looked into it and considered it too hard to fix). So the actual business strategy is: tweak some hardware, quickly tweak and mess up the firmware, and there you go, you've extended the product lifecycle with minimal cost.

0 3257428 over 1 year ago

As much as I would like to add more garmin devices and update to the latest - seeing this attitude I am starting to rethink - is it even worth it. Found some light and flexible micro-b cable and some powerbank that I keep in my feeding bag ha ha. With this methid it is quick to top it up and I have not had any problems (power off disabled).