Garmin Quest

[+GreyPurrson]

Hello All!!!! Newbie here. Got the book, Idot's guide to Geocaching and now we are looking to buy our GPS unit. I am really leaning towards the Garmin Quest. I would love to know all the Pro's and Con's from you seasoned "Treasure Hunters" to help me make my decision on wether to buy this unit or not.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Edited September 27, 2006 by GreyPurrson

[+Jamie Z]

I have the Quest 2, and overall I'm happy with it, although I have some big complaints.

 

For what do you plan to use it? Mainly geocaching?

 

If you're looking for a good geocaching unit, the Quest is probably not the way to go. You can find caches with it, but geocaching is not it's best attribute. The Quest is geared much more for driving use. When I cache, I typically use my Quest 2 to route me near the cache location, and then I use my other GPS to go find the cache.

 

Jamie

[appletree]

I have a Quest and I think it is an excellent unit for caching and other hand-held uses. It is definitely designed primarily for in-car navigation and it is great in that role. However, it is small, light, waterproof, easy to carry, read, and put in a pocket. When the off road routing option is selected, a navigation page with a compass and direction arrow is available for those who do not like working from a map. Reception is good with the flip-up antenna, but much better with an amplified external antenna, which also lets me keep signal lock and track recording with the Quest in my pocket. The built-in LiIon battery lasts a very long time.

 

There are better hand-held units for caching, but none that have voice prompts when used in a car, include the maps in the purchase price, or cost so little overall. The Quest is a great dual purpose GPS, and, in my opinion, the only good choice for a dual use unit as I think voice prompts are too valuable to miss for auto navigation and the compass page is important for caching. The external antenna is important, but cheap and easy to use.

[+Jamie Z]

Appletree,

 

Curious what you're using for an external antenna. The Quest has what I think is crappy reception. Crappy being a relative term. After using a coupld of Magellans and being used to their very good reception, I'm astounded at how easily the Quest loses lock. In mild tree cover, and even under the awning of a gas station I get the signal loss warning. This with the antenna in the open air of my motorcycle.

 

Is the external antenna better than the built-in antenna when both are out in the open?

 

I agree with Appletree that the voice prompts are very useful, although not everybody agrees. One friend I have exclaimed "Turn that annoying thing off!" after the first instruction when I demonstrated it for him. He's kinda a gadget geek, so I thought he'd get a kick out of it, but he said it was obnoxious. Another friend of mine who is totally non-technical said he found it quite useful and said he'd like to get one until I told him how much I paid.

 

I agree with Appletree that the Quest is small, light, and pocketable, but I still feel that it's only half as good as a standard hand-held GPS for geocaching. Perhaps I need more practice with it. I've just been unimpressed with the compass screen so far.

 

Jamie

[+embra]

As a Quest owner, I'll throw my two cents in, too. I tend to agree with Jamie's perspective (which is not too far out of line with Appletree's) that the Quest is an excellent road unit and a fair geocaching unit. I, too, was quite taken aback with how easily the unit would lose lock driving under a canopy of trees, and so I've never really tried geocaching with it. I can imagine that an external antenna would make it much more useful for that.

 

I like the voice prompts as does my wife (although they *can* becoome annoying on those rare occasions where the unit thinks you are deviating too much from its preferred route and keeps trying to urge you to take turns you don't want...I shut the unit off for a while at those times so long as I am sure of where I want to go for the immediate area before me).

 

I think the Quest would make sense for someone who primarily wants it for driving and also wanted to do a little caching on the side. But if you anticipate frequent caching you might like one of the other Garmins strike more of a balance. They lack voice prompts and a few of the route customization features of the Quest, but tend to work better for walking around.

 

Another thought...the rechargealbe Li-Ion battery of the Quest works fine for most forrays into the woods. Anyone taking an extended backpacking hike would probably want something that would allow for a battery swap.

[appletree]

Appletree,

 

Curious what you're using for an external antenna. The Quest has what I think is crappy reception. Crappy being a relative term. After using a coupld of Magellans and being used to their very good reception, I'm astounded at how easily the Quest loses lock. In mild tree cover, and even under the awning of a gas station I get the signal loss warning. This with the antenna in the open air of my motorcycle.

 

Is the external antenna better than the built-in antenna when both are out in the open?

 

I agree with Appletree that the voice prompts are very useful, although not everybody agrees. One friend I have exclaimed "Turn that annoying thing off!" after the first instruction when I demonstrated it for him. He's kinda a gadget geek, so I thought he'd get a kick out of it, but he said it was obnoxious. Another friend of mine who is totally non-technical said he found it quite useful and said he'd like to get one until I told him how much I paid.

 

I agree with Appletree that the Quest is small, light, and pocketable, but I still feel that it's only half as good as a standard hand-held GPS for geocaching. Perhaps I need more practice with it. I've just been unimpressed with the compass screen so far.

 

Jamie

This is the antenna I like best: http://kawamall.com/pd_one_piece_pda.cfm#, but I also have a Gilsson that works fine but is a bit larger and heavier. The cable on the kawamal antenna is much longer than I like, so I cut and splice to get a 3ft cable. One can just coil the excess. As to how the antennas compare with the built-in, I rarely lose signal with the built-in and almost never with the external. I think a large part of the problem is position. If you hold the Quest in front of you and look down at it, you will be blocking far more of the satellite energy than the trees. With the external antenna on my hat or shoulder, no problem.

 

As for the voice prompts, I vary the accent occasionally. Try Brittish English. Also, push and hold the speaker button on the Quest and a volume control display will pop up. Use the rocker pad to make it louder or softer without having to reach for or look at the speaker/plug while driving.