Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Is This Planned Obsolescence?

3298720
over 1 year ago

Vivomove HR was not cheap. The OLED screens seem to routinely fade after the 2 year mark (including my own), which conveniently lies beyond the 2 year warranty duration. There are no solutions offered to repair your device, and Garmin likes to pretend it is not an issue. It is not even listed under the help section because they know they aren't able to "help" the issue and want you to buy a new one. Has anyone had luck getting Garmin to replace their device lately? Any enterprising lawyers feeling class-actiony?

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I am in the US and we only get a 1-yr warranty. Mine faded after 2 and a half year.

    Garmin offered either a replacement at a discount or 25% off another watch. I had been thinking to get a new one anyway, so I got a Silver Vivomove Style.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Batman

    Yes I picked up the Style (refurbished) when mine faded after 2 years I think. It’s a terrible thing planned obsolescence but many manufacturers do it and obviously Garmin too.

     The Style is good and ticks my boxes. However my concern now is the battery which I don’t know if it is replaceable

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Hkphooey

    I have had mine (purchased new) for almost three years. I still can get a solid 3 days on a charge, depending on how many activities I have. That is with Sleep PulseOx turned on. My activities are usually weight workouts four days a week and then alternating walk/run almost on a daily basis.

    However, I usually charge the watch every other day. It is better for the battery anyway to NOT go through continuous deep charge/discharge cycles.

    As for replacing the battery, the watch might have been factory-sealed when assembled, so trying to opening it could be destructive or so complex that the labor cost would be so high to make it not a viable option.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Batman

    Cheers - managed to find a good deal on eBay for another vivomove style so have taken a punt on that.

     Ultimately this shelf life on the product makes this watch essentially a “disposable” which is not the way I normally think of devices in this price range.

     For such a situation there should be a statutory requirement to indicate battery health on the device and via the helper app. I don’t believe there is. So am thinking of the parallels here with phones and their sealed battery, though obviously phone batteries can be serviced.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Hkphooey

    I am not sure there is any smartwatch out there with such feature (battery health indicator). At the most some of them indicate the remaining battery in percentage, but that is not the same thing.

    Not even the more expensive "super" smart watches made by the famous "A" and "S" company (hint: they also makes smartphones Smile ) I believe offer that.

    What can be considered disposable based on the useful life of the battery is open to debate. It is generally said that a typical Li-Ion battery looses about 20% capacity after two years. It means that starting from the 5-day battery life given by Garmin you can expect 4-day on a charge after such period of time. 

    Considering that regardless of how much you can get on a charge it is good practice to recharge a battery a little but more often rather than a lot but less frequently, even if a battery looses capacity over time and you do not know how much it has lost, it is not going to have a significant impact in a real life scenario, unless:

    1. The capacity has degraded to the point that you do not even get a day operation per charge

    2. You spend extended period of times away from a power source (i.e.: hiking or travel to remote places)

    The only battery operated devices I own with a "battery health" indication are my smartphone and my two DSLR cameras.