Water Leakage on Colorado 400T

[docjames]

I live in Taiwan. I bought a Colorado 400T during June 2008. I used it for navigation during jetskiing (attached to the handle bar with it's handlebar mount) from the main island to nearby smaller islands. During my first ride only 2 days after it was purchased, we ran into a Beaufort number 7-8 wind and one of a friend's jetski perished and 2 good friends died (a father and his son). They didn't pack a GPS with them. It was a headline news here. Luckily, I had the GPS and I must admit it saved my life.

However, after I reached the island just 34 Km from the starting point, the GPS died on me. No one else had any problem using older model of Garmin water proof GPS. I later found out that night, water had gone into the battery compartment. I had it sent in for repair and Garmin was kind enough to replace a new one for me.

After receiving a new unit, I carefully inspected the unit and I found a flaw in its design. The O-ring (seal) that suppose to keep the water out of the battery compartment would be squished upward whenever I tried sliding the case up. That's why so many people in other forums that are discussion they are having trouble getting the cover completely slide up and closing the gap at the top completely. You simply can not slide it up completely if there's detached O-ring getting caught between the main body and the CO. In another word, if the top can not be completely slide up, you are not only going to have water seep into the battery compartment, you will also have water going into the SD slot that are not sealed. If you take a very close look, after the O-ring was pushed up, there are detached parts of the O-ring (supposely glued to it's bottom) that seperates and allow water to seep in.

I believe it's a design flaw and the company should solve this problem. The only way I can make sure that won't happen again is to buy some camera O-ring grease and allow the case to slide more smoothly so the O-ring won't detach and get squished together. Unlike Garmin's previous water proof GPS, they were manufactured so that the back plate was placed over the seal and tightened by screws. In that way, there's no sliding force on a dry detachable O-ring seal. Lastly, after using the grease, it's hell trying to remove the greased sticky sliding case off for battery replacement. I'm going to wipe the grease off completely next time I go out with my jetski, it's just too greasy. I'm sure water will get in and I'll get this GPS replaced with a new one. And again, I might probably get several new ones before this warrantee rans out next year. Come to think of it, it really angers me that Garmin doesn't even make a sound addressing to this problem.

http://www.ryvaltech.com/colorado.jpg

That's how water got into the battery compartment on the new unit they replaced.

Garmin is a Taiwanese Company in a nearby city, and they called me several times the immediate day after I posted this thread at another forum and told me they would gladly send a personel to pick up my GPS for O-ring replacement. I told them the reason I posted this thread was not because I wanted a new O-ring, but for them to recognize that there exist a flaw in its design to make it a waterproof unit, and this may result in a failure for a consumer during time of desperate need. They could not offer much more than a sorry and told me that the O-ring seal are OEM then glued on by an outside company. So much for that. The colorado 400T states that it's suppose to withstand up to 1 M submerged under water for 30n minutes. We ride out on the sea at speeds of less than 15-30 km/h. I did not submerge it in the water, it, however did received lots of splashes of sea water. Then again, so did others.

That said, I'm still very grateful to this unit that saved my life. To me, it's worth more than a million bucks. I've send in this replaced second unit again for a new replacement.

[philpugh]

Sounds like you have had a bit of bad luck there.

My Colorado 300 (same design) has not had this problem and it spent a week clipped to the deck of a yacht off the coast of West Scotland in upto Force 7 winds (with sea and rain all over it).

No leaks. Similarly when walking in UK - which is usually wet and windy - no problems.
_________________
Phil

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!