Not So "Waterproof" Oregon 550

[+gnome#4]

My Oregon 550 is on the fritz. I bought this GPS back in March for three reasons. It was touchscreen. You could download 2000 caches into in less than ten minutes. And it is "WATERPROOF". Everything else was a bonus. Now, waterproof to me means it would be submersable without issues. Otherwise, I would just consider something to be "water resistent" if it still has to potential to be penetrated by water. IE, your rain gear. In August, I was going on vacation and had plans to grab an underwater cache. I wanted to take an underwater picture at ground zero, so I decided to play with it in my swimming pool and see how well it worked. They take great pictures underwater but after about 15 pictures later, it started freezing up on me. I then noticed moisture inside the LCD screen. So out came the batteries. I managed to get the right tools and completely dismantled my GPS. Believe me, there are too many tiny little parts. I had all the electronics in rice for a couple of days and eventually, the moisture went away. Putting it back together is even more fun. Testing it the next couple of days went well and I believe I got lucky. She seems to be alright. Never will I dip this baby into water and I don't recommend anybody else with a waterproof Garmin to do this either. So now it's November, and I am grabbing more and more rainy caches these days. My cachemate and I did a 17 kilometre hike yesterday. For most of the day, we were either in the clouds, or it was snowing, hailing or raining. I was getting my GPS wet and constantly wiping it off. But it seems to be acting up now. I seem to be able to turn it on, however it does not want to stay connected to my computer. I looked at the port on the GPS, and it looks like there is white film on it. I have it in rice right now but have no intentions of taking it apart again.

 

Maybe I'm just venting right now. I love everything that the Oregon 550 does. Don't get me wrong, it is still a really good unit. I have a feeling that this one is not going to recover this time.

 

So, has anybody else had this problem with their Oregon? Or even a Dakota. They seem to be built the same.

 

Do you think this may be a result of my initial swim with it back in August?

 

I have recently bought the Topo and Garmin Street Maps CDs for it. I am under the impression that these programs will now only work for this specific GPS and I will not be able to load any of it into a new GPS. I also have an 8 gig chip in it. Some people tell me that once they can not be used in another device once installed into one. Does anyone know this for sure? I have invested over 800 dollars into the Oregon with the unit and all the accessories for it.

 

I would love to hear some feedback, even if people have not had waterproofing issues. Please, let me know what kind of water abuse your GPS has survived, or sucumbed.

 

Thanks

Edited November 12, 2011 by gnome#4

[jholly]

There is a difference between waterproof and pressure resistant. Waterproof means that if you have it out in the rain you don't have to worry about water entering the unit. If it falls into a shallow puddle you don't have to worry about it getting wet inside. In order to take it under water to take pictures you need a pressure resistant case. The Oregons and not advertised as such a unit. No doubt when you disassembled and reassembled the unit you compromised the seals and you lost it's waterproof feature.

 

The topos are not locked and can be use with any unit. I assume the other maps you refer to are the North American street maps, and yes, those are locked to a unit. You either buy another copy of the NA maps to go with any new unit you buy or you pony up the repair costs on your 550 so you can get Garmin to reset your lock so you can load the maps on your refurb unit.

[+Cacheoholic]

The Oregon 550 is IP7 waterproof as stated in your manual. IP7 is defined as up to 1 meter imersion for up to 30 minutes.

[+ngrrfan]

Leave it in the rice for at least 2 weeks, if not longer.

[+dfx]

So, has anybody else had this problem with their Oregon?

 

Nope. Got one Oregon 450 here, almost 1.5 years old. Went swimming with it (literally) multiple times, never had a problem. Never went below the rated depth either though and never took it apart. My wife's 550 is holding up equally well (didn't get as many dips in the water though).

 

The "freezing up" when taking pictures is a known firmware problem unfortunately. It happens infrequently, unpredictably and unreliably, and has nothing to do with water.

Edited November 13, 2011 by dfx

[+Unkle Fester]

I agree with dfx, sometimes my 550t freezes or locks up when taking pictures. I updated the firmware and that helped but it still happens occasionally. Has ever since it came out of the box.

 

But I still love it and would by another in a heartbeat