Owners--would you buy an 830 again?

I had the Fenix 1,3,5 and am now on the FR 945. The 830 is my first Edge, it replaced an etrex35 on my bike for everyday riding (commuting, shopping,...) and touring.

Im used to Garmins confusing menus, so after setting it up once, it just works for me. I have speed and cadence sensors connected to it, my FR945 broadcasting HR or a HR belt and the remote. I never experienced sensor dropout nor do I recognize loss of bt connection.

Autozoom behavior annoys me, it zooms in correctly (say from 300m to 80m on a turn) and forgets to zoom out again.

I am recommending it together with the 530 for budget reasons. If you only paid 260$, I wouldn't even think about returning and replacing. The dealer I got mine from sold the 830 MTB Bundle I got for the price of the 530 MTB Bundle, was pretty happy to get it that way.

I am happy with my Edge 830.  I would recommend them.  I upgraded from my Edge 800.  It just works for me like my 800 did.  It has some navigation quirks but so did my 800 and I suspect other brands would have navigation quirks too.

Quite a few complaints are about Bluetooth connections.  If you don't use that then it is a non issue.  Quite a lot of Bluetooth issues will be down to the device you are trying to connect the Edge to, not the Edge.  Bluetooth can be problematic in its implementation.  Don't think it is always properly implemented on all phones.

Well, the 830 has still some flaws. However, for me it was a good choice over the Wahoo Elemnt ROAM, although the ROAM has some very interesting features. But I wanted a touch screen and the possibility to navigate to an address without the necessity of a smartphone. In addition, I love the combination of the 830 with the Varia RTL Radar taillight and the UT800 frontlight.

I am still debating whether to buy a 1030. I use a Cyclo 505 HC, and I have been immensely impressed with its ruggedness, user friendly (even if dated looking) layouts, and the ability to customise it intuitively .

My gripe with it is the battery life - but I replaced the battery (a very simple job) and get almost twice as long as I had, but still need a battery backup pack if I ride longer than 6 hours, just in case. I even managed to overcome the issues people had with the 505 when in the rain and the screen was slow responding - a simple screen protector cut to size.

My concerns with the 1030 from a UK users  perspective is how it treats UK roads and will send you on a very circuitous route rather than cross or use certain A roads suitable for cyclists.

I had an opportunity to use a friends 1030, and while I liked the device a lot , excellent battery life, but the amount of faffing about to set it up and not so user friendly method of doing things, then having to customise and use other maps to solve issues has me thinking twice.Then there are the issues people report following every update

So, I am asking myself too, is Garmin worth the extra cost for a device that seems to have niggling issues that should not exist on a premium cost device, but offers a lot more customising to suit me as an individual, or do I stick with solid reliable, not updated as much but always works at half the cost  . 

Even I am in two minds, and may just wait another month and try the 1030 again. However,  If they solved the routing on UK map issue yes, I would buy the 1030

Remember that whatever the item you will always hear more complaints as people happy with them are much less likely to be as vocal about their satisfaction.  Of course some people have issues but it can be hard to work out what proportion of users have these issues.

Maps. Third party maps are available as you have noted but once you find a map source you like it isn't really any faff to occasionally update the maps.  If nothing changes in your area you don't have to touch the maps you put on.  I use the extreme method and actually create my own maps.  It only takes about 20 minutes to download the data, process it, and create a new map.  Just downloading a new ready made map and copying onto the unit isn't onerous.

Setup.  It can be a faff to set up the data screens and fields to how you want them. But once everything is setup you will be unlikely to want to change things in the future a lot.  It really is a one/two time effort to get things how you want them and then you just leave them alone.  Once I got my screens setup how I wan them I haven't touched them again unless something happened that made me want a new data field but that is rare (it happened when I bought a power meter).

With any of these mapping units I find it best to pre plan your routes beforehand so you don't get surprising routing issues whatever maps you use.

I have had no issues with my 830 or 800 before that.  It works for me just fine.

Wongataa- for me the faffing is about having to sort the maps out and having faith that they will work and not revert to the Garmin standard routing for UK users. Having to sort the device out to use 3rd party maps to make a premium priced product work as it should does not inspire confidence.

the 1030 should work straight out of the box for navigating A to B (especially for UK customers). This seems to be an issue that is overlooked. 

I would not buy a Mercedes or Bentley and expect to have to modify the satnav because it will not use B roads.

Arranging the data screens is similar for most devices to get them how you want, so that is a learning curve, and it not very intuitive on the Garmin.

As for other issues, I appreciate that with all the options and pairings of devices and accessories problems can arise, as there are too variables for any one company to test.. So you cannot please all

Pre-planning is fine if you wish to go rigidly stick to a route on a ride, but if touring and resting up with a well earned cuppa and slice of cake in a cafe, someone may suggest a better route via a certain point, or suggest a visit.  I would like to know that the expensive device worked as it should and not want to send me 30 miles to get there when 6 miles is all it should take.  You may as well use Google maps.

In my opinion mapping (on and off device) is one of the biggest disappointments of the 830. I still have not found a map that works flawlessly, including Garmin's own. Routing and/or display errors are the norm. Also, GPS reception quality is  lousy, elevation accuracy is very bad and the list goes on. These are core features that are not working as expected, and I find this unacceptable. Plus the freezes, crashes etc on top of that. I am not doubting your positive experience, just saying there are others.

Edit: this was meant as a reply to wongataa

Routing on the 1030 will be the same because the underlying maps are the same. 

i really would like to know what people see as a reference when the 830 ist such a bad machine for them. 

People complain about car sat navs not giving good routes too.  Updating maps in built in car sat navs can be problematic.  With these devices sometimes the routes are definitely non optimal but they usually get you to the destination.  Sometimes routing issues are down to the underlying map data.  As Garmin's cycle maps and the freely available maps for Edge units are based on OSM data you can fix errors yourself and on the next map update they fix should be applied.

At least you have different mapping options available if you want to try them to see if they suit you better.

It would be nice if the routing was always great but I don't think any map routing service gets it right all the time, even Google.  Google's cycle directions can be interesting at times.