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Rain and moisture has serious detrimental effect on 830

As winter approaches, I have had my first encounters with heavy rain. I understand from comments on this forum that the 830 has the barometer ports located behind the USB cover. Hoped this would resolve the issues I've had over a decade with Edge devices getting the barometer sensor holes plugged with water and then not recording elevation data properly. Only the 1030 has seemed immune to this. Resorted to covering devices with plastic bags and rubber bands in the past to prevent issues. Seemed like 830 position would resolve this. Unfortunately NOT!

100 mile gravel race a few weeks ago turned to pouring rain about 5 miles in. I had both 1030 mounted (on the out front mount) and 830 (on the stem). The pictures below show what happened once the rain plugged it up. I stopped at one point and put the plastic baggy on the 830 (after locking screen), but it made no difference. At the end of the ride it only had 6000' climbing for an event that had 10,000' climbing. Meanwhile 1030 had no problems at all and recorded good data all the way to the end.

Here's the 830 at a certain point on a climb

At the same moment in time, here is the 1030 below (my eyes and legs definitely agreed with the 1030)

Later on here is another example of 830:

Here is the 1030 at the same point

I will say I am quite disappointed in the 830. My friend riding with me also had an 830. His flaked out even worse than mine and only got around 5000' climbing. When he Strava elevation corrected it, total climbing went to 10,300'. He also put a plastic bag on and it made no difference. Because there are no visible holes, the trick of previous Edge devices from the 305 onwards of blowing in the holes to clear out the water is not possible, thus bad data is recorded until things dry out.

So for whatever reason, it seems that the 830 is the worst for barometric readings. Not sure why the 1030 is so good.

Even a week later, the elevation on the 830 was really whacky.

I started a ride in a different location hundreds of miles away. When turning on both devices, they came up with radically different elevation. I adjusted them both to the correct elevation and started riding. By 6.5 miles, the 1030 showed my elevation as 3600'. The 830 meanwhile had jumped back up and showed me at 4360'. No idea what was going on, but after many days, the 830 started agreeing with the 1030 both on total climbing and also elevation. When things are dry they are almost exactly synchronized.

830 Elevation

And below is 1030 elevation at the same point - both are pretty close in Total Ascent though, which is odd.

  • Same with mine edge 830 device. 

  • Thanks for the excellent and detailed post.  I have had similar issues, although recently the 830 has been behaving itself.  I wonder if Garmin will read this and come up with any suggestions on how to address.

  • I have the same Problems!!!

  • Also had the same problem yesterday in the rain, on 4.25 Beta.

  • I have purchased a silicon cover for my 830 (used one on my 800 in the past).  I haven't used it in a really heavy rain yet but it has at least behaved in drizzle and off and on rain.  Anybody else using one?  buy.garmin.com/.../624341

  • I'm still having a problem with rain like this even now with the recent beta firmware 5.28 loaded. Just this last weekend I did a ride in the rain and the elevation was just as messed up and grade said I was descending a -4% grade when my 1030 which functioned perfectly in the same conditions showed I was ascending a 6% grade. Anyone ever find a solution?

  • FWIW, I've had ridiculous elevation decoupling issues with my 830. I'm not sure if it's moisture related or not, but I've replaced the device 3 times under warranty, and my latest device has just recently started getting elevation completely wrong. I'm not sure I've seen a consistent theme with the decouple, but it's happened on 4 devices now. My Elemnt Bolt and also my Fenix 5 are both extremely close to the corrected elevation, but the 830 is next to useless. It's funny to me that ClimbPro is supposed to be a big feature on the 830, but the computer can't even get elevation correct, which turns ClimbPro essentially into turd polish.

  • I am bringing this issue UP again... 

    same thing happening in my second (first was replaced by warranty) Edge 830. Since few days back, the barometer of my Edge 830 has gone crazy and is reporting non-sense. Guess water, moisture, sweat, ... or who kows what got into the barometer port hole. 

    Anyones knows how to free the barometer port and make it work properly again? 

    I am not fighting with Garmin warranty again (yet). Last time they insisted it was my fault and only after several backs and forths, they sent me a replacement unit as act-of-goodwill (literaly). 

    I am desperate with altimeter reading in my Edge 830, cumulative ascend, gradient, altitude and the readings alike rely on the barometer and it is not working. :-(

  • A comparison on my last ride ...
    I've done this ride many times and I know the STRAVA corrected values are OK. 

  • A comparison on my last ride ...
    I've done this ride many times and I know the STRAVA corrected values are OK.