I had a long chat with Garmin Support in the UK earlier today.
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My VA3 elevation has always been wrong and recently started to report - 200m. The elevation profile, whilst completely wrong is always the same shape - for a near flat out and back 5km run it drops for most of the run, before starting to increase for the last km, but always ending on a much lower elevation than at the start. I've always thought my results suggested a systematic error in the elevation processing software.
The good news Garmin have identified it is a software issue for my VA3 and are working on a software change to fix the elevation issue I'm having with my VA3. The not so good news they don't have any timescales for releasing the updated software.
The next bit is important.
There are at least 3, possibly more, different build standards of VA3 that either have elevation issues or not.
My VA3 is in a manufacturing batch that need the software change to fix the elevation issues.
If I have a replacement VA3 from Garmin - my VA3 may have battery drain issue that is a hardware fault - that would be from a later manufacturing batch which would not have elevation issue And woulld not require the software fix. This suggests to me the later build VA3 has a different barometer.
Also I believe there may be some earlier manufacturing batches that have barometers that can't be fixed by software - these VA3s would need to be replaced.
Bottom line, if you are having elevation issues, phone Garmin Support and see in which category is your VA3.
