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Varia RTL515 won’t stay on. Was repeatedly disconnecting, now won’t even stay on longer than 4 secs it’s fully charged. I’ve deleted it, reset it x times

RTL515 won’t stay on.

I’ve charged it, can see (briefly via 1030) that it’s fully charged. I’ve deleted it, reset it & recharged it several times, and tried with 2 1030’s and a phone app.
I was able to connect for a minute or so at a time yesterday before it disconnected. Today, after recharging again, The main light switches on, the blue light flickers for about 3 seconds then it all shuts down and won’t even connect.

Is it time to return for a refund? It’s 6 months old - was working fine until last week

  • Same issue for me. Garmin Edge 520 Plus. Both devices up to date

  • I’d bought mine from Tredz and sent it back; they were great, and gave a full refund. Faulty device, probably won’t buy another - it was too temperamental 

  • I will send mine to assistance as per customers support suggestion. Hope they will fix the issue.

  • This is the second time this is occurred. I sent back the first one back and they replaced it after troubleshooting. However, again this issue has arisen. I either can’t switch the light on, or if I can it stays on for about three or four seconds flashes twice and shuts down. This is not a good outcome as I rely on this light and have become used to it. There was no warning this was going to occur, and there hasn’t been any wet days here for four or five months, so one can’t blame the environment. Garmin needs to better explain what is going on? It appears to be a common issue.

    it is Easter at the moment and I will contact their support crew to see what can be done next week. I’ve been looking around to see if any other organisation or firm produces a similar device, which I hope would be more reliable given this is not a cheap item.

    any suggestions?

  • I'm not aware of any other radar unit being available. I recently read that I think Specialized has a radar device for one of their new bikes but it uses Garmin technology. Garmin may have a patent on bike radar.

    Have you tried resetting the radar by holding down the button for around 10 seconds? It does sound like it is not fully charged and perhaps try another charging source and make sure a Garmin cable is used. Garmin devices are sensitive to what cables can be used.

    I have the RTL510 model and it has worked fine for several years.

  • Thanks Creracogoff,

    There must be something I a doing that causes this. I only use the Garmin cable, & perhaps I will use a different source. I will hold down the button again for more than 10 seconds just se if it makes a difference.

    I always keep my equipment in perfect condition, so it’s definitely not any sort of abuse.

    I always keep my equipment in perfect condition, so it’s definitely not any sort of abuse.

    If I don’t have any joy I’ll have to get in touch with Garmin.

  • I sent it back to Garmin assistance. Hope they'll be able to fix it. How many weeks did did they take to fix it in your case?

  • Garmin will not actually repair the Varia you send in.  They will send you a refurbished Varia. Don’t be concerned it’s refurbished. It will look and perform like a new one. Garmin has done this for many years and it greatly reduces the turn around time. 

  • I have not had a good experience with the Varia or Garmin: I purchased two Garmin Vario RTL 515s from Bike tires Direct approximately 16 months ago. My spouse's unit will not take a charge after using it a maybe 10 times. I called Garmin and they refused to do anything for me because "the one year warranty has lapsed" other than to let us purchase a "reconditioned" unit for half price with the unit having a 90 day warranty. Now why would I pay ANYTHING to Garmin for a unit with a 90 day warranty, after having a virtually brand new unit go bad after 10 uses? More precisely: Why would I pay Garmin to screw me a second time?

    EDIT: Within 10 minutes of posting I got a message from Garmin claiming that my comment was SPAM, and was slated to be removed. Clearly a Garmin employee is tasked to keep complaints off of this site. Bui what else would I expect from this company? 

  • EDIT: Within 10 minutes of posting I got a message from Garmin claiming that my comment was SPAM, and was slated to be removed. Clearly a Garmin employee is tasked to keep complaints off of this site. Bui what else would I expect from this company? 

    The post was flagged as spam not because of the content or complaint, but because you posted an identical post multiple times. 5 times to be exact. This is one of the indicators of potential spam and therefor automatically enters the moderator's queue for review.

    I hope you understand and please feel free to send me a private message if you would like more details. Thanks