I've just seen reviews on Amazon for the Garmin 800 and so many of them say that the device is useless as it suffers badly if there is any moisture around. Living in England there is going to be plenty of rain around, so is it as bad as they say?

(comments say that the device will till work but won't connect to a computer, or it just dies.)

I'm really pleased with the way that my Garmin 500 works, but now my family are riding they are interested in getting a 500, so I was thinking about getting the 800 and letting them have the 500.... Obviously if the 800 is bad, I'll give it a miss.

I live in NW Louisiana which, during a typical summer, sees 80+ percent humidity pretty much daily. I've had an 800 since June of 2011 and have had no such issues with mine. I've used it in rain, sleet, all weather. Maybe I'm just lucky but I can't imagine what kinds of problems they're having unless it's being submerged.

I don't live in a particular wet area but have used my Garmin Edge 800 in many storms (we tend to get a lot of rain quickly rather than a rain all day so to speak) and never had issues with it getting wet internally. I couldn't say the same for my Garmin 305 but.

I suspect there a lot of users in the UK. I would have thought there would be a lot about the issue if there was one in forums such as CTC, YACF and Cyclechat. Maybe work a search in those might be informative.

Andrew

Cheers. I find it odd that I really haven't seen anything, but Amazon is full of the comments. I would have thought a universal yes or no would be rather easy to find.

On with the search!

+1 I have the 800, have ridden through many rainstorms and have never had moisture related issues. Moisture is not one of my complaints about the 800

I've never owned one, but all the local rando-nuts told me not to get one because of this reason. Most of them have plastic bags cut and rigged up to protect theirs, and there are still failures.

I got the eTrex 20, which has a better reputation for weather protection.

Edit: Note of course that a rando ride in the PNW will sometimes involve 7-10 hours of riding in moderate to heavy rain. Those conditions may be outside the area of concern for most (sane) users.

Never had a problem with failure in downpours, drizzles, snow etc.

Only problem when it rains is that the altimeter info is pretty messed up.