Hiking Hong Kong recently purchased the Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS watch in order to give our readers a little more of an idea of where to go when hiking the trails on our website. Drawing the trails manually on Google Maps was a pain in the proverbial. It was a great addition with many benefits to our readers, however after a couple of months that great addition has become a letdown and a headache.
Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS Watch
Often with products, they can seem great out of the box, but after some use, they show signs of wear and tear and generally let you down. The Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS watch is one of these products. Lets start with ‘the ugly’ to save you time, and end with ‘the good’.
We won’t be including any of the stats on weight, dimensions, full features etc. You can find detailed information on the Garmin Foretrex 401 at their website on the specs page.
The Ugly:
After 6 weeks of use, we developed a significant problem. Halfway through a hike, we received an error message stating that the wrong cable had been inserted. Of course, we had not plugged in a cable in the middle of nowhere, and no, the waterproof cover had not come off. After pressing the ok button, all seemed fine and we continued.
When the hike was over however, all was not fine. It appeared that moisture had developed in the USB socket and the result was that we could not interface the device with the computer. As the USB cable is the only way to get information off the Foretrex 401, we had a problem.
Garmin United States customer support was prompt with solutions in hand, and after a while we had the device connected again and data uploaded. Yay! … Not.
Another hike later, and the same problem presented itself once again. It seemed that moisture built up inside the USB socket consistently, with consistent results in interfacing the device with the computer. ie. it was not possible. Until that is about 24 hours later when we presume, the moisture had dried up. Then, once again the Foretrex 401 interfaced with the computer without a problem.
This is less than ideal and not very reliable. Looking into warranty and where to get it repaired, we were presented with another problem, or two. Warranty does not cover water damage.
This warranty does not apply to: (iii) damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, water, flood, fire, or other acts of nature or external causes;
Since the seals appear to be fine, I doubt that our Foretrex 401 will be repaired or replaced. That’s right, we have not sent the GPS watch in for repair as yet, as the other problem is that there is no repair center in Hong Kong where we are located. The closest repair center is Taiwan, with a return shipping cost of US$32 after repair.
We will be happy to set up a Return Material Authorization(RMA) for a warranty repair. Please be noted that the freight fee is USD$32 by DHL after repair.
US$32 is 15% of the original cost of the Foretrex 401. In my books, that is a little steep. Since the device is under warranty, I would think that Garmin would cover the shipping costs. But that is not the case:
Within [the warranty] period, Garmin will, at its sole option, repair or replace any components that fail in normal use. Such repairs or replacement will be made at no charge to the customer for parts or labor, provided that the customer shall be responsible for any transportation cost.
Well that’s not a lot of good, when transportation costs may exceed repair costs or even replacement costs in the long run. After all, who is to say that the Foretrex 401 won’t go faulty again 6 weeks after repair?
So in conclusion with the bad side of things, we can learn:
- Don’t buy a Garmin product in a country where Garmin does not have a repair center.
- Don’t buy a Garmin product that interfaces via a cable. Go wireless as cables introduce the risk of moisture and/or water damage.
- If you do decide to buy a Garmin product in a country that Garmin does not have a repair center, do so at your own risk.
The Good:
After the problem with interfacing with the computer, above, I ask myself if it is worth continuing with this review. After all, if one cannot get the data off the device, what is the use of having it? I will continue anyway, as if the above problem did not exist as perhaps it is just my bad luck, and this is not a common problem!?
The Garmin Foretrex 401 is a nifty little device. Here are some pros and cons about the device that we will expand on:
Pros:
- Very light.
- Packed with stats.
- Can be linked to a heart rate monitor or cadence device.
- Hands free operation.
- Rubberised buttons.
- Backlight.
- Online Garmin Connect software.
Cons:
- Quite large for a watch.
- Not Wireless.
- Velcro wrist strap.
- Poor instructions for beginners.
- Occasionally produces inaccurate results, particularly in total ascent and descent values.
Cons:
Yes, as a watch the Garmin Foretrex 401 is quite large, however it is also very light and often you forget that you are even wearing it. This is significant, as ordinarily I do not wear a watch because I find them irritating and weighty.
Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS Watch
The Foretrex 401 is not wireless (see problems associated with this above), however it can wirelessly connect with other similar devices. I do not understand why Garmin could not therefore also make it transmit wirelessly to the computer.
The Velcro wrist strap can become irritating as it catches on your clothes as you swing your arm back and forth. This causes it to become loose and you may find yourself adjusting the strap intermittently.
The instructions on use are very basic in that unless you are an experienced user, you won’t have a clue on the difference between tracks, routes, way points etc. Further, customer support on this is also poor as words are not ‘dumbed’ down to an ordinary user level. I had not used a GPS device before and it took a lot of emails back and forth from Garmin customer support, friends, and searching online reviews to figure out how to use this device properly. Even now I am not using the full functions, because quite frankly I am also confused as to the difference between tracks, routes and way-points. It is one thing to boast about a products features eg. that it can store 500 way-points/favorites/locations, 20 routes, and 10,000 points with 10 saved track on a track log; but when you have no idea what these items are, then these features may as well be omitted from the device.
We have noticed that after having done a hike forwards, and then reversed, on the same day in the same conditions, we have achieved different results. Take for example the hike that we did on the 26th of October, 2010 (and uploaded on the 27th due to our computer-interface-delay problem): Quarry Bay Jogging Trail. On our first run, the Quarry Bay Jogging Trail Reversed registered the following stats: Elevation gain: 98 meters, elevation loss: 108 meters. On our second run, the Quarry Bay Jogging Trail registered the following stats: Elevation gain: 76 meters, elevation loss: 55 meters. In an ideal situation, the elevation gain of the first hike would have equaled the elevation loss of the second hike. Thus 98=55 and 108=76. These are some big differences for a trail that is only 2.4km long. I had purchased this device specifically due to it having a barometric altimeter, which supposedly gave it increased sensitivity in height variation. Now the problem of inaccuracy may lie in the fact that when I am out hiking, I am also photographing wildlife and the trail, or wiping my brow sweat, and thus changing the altitude of my arm by about 60cm each time. I did take less photos on the return run of this particular hike which could have been why elevation gain and loss were markedly less than the first run. This is something to consider!
Pros:
The Garmin Foretrex 401 is packed with statistics that can be displayed as you wish when you are hiking. My personal preference is ‘stop time’ and ‘speed’ on the compass page, and ‘total time’, ‘trip odometer’, ‘elevation’, ‘heartrate’, ‘total ascent’, ‘total descent’ and ‘current time’ on the stats page. All these stats can be arranged as you wish, depending on your preferences. You can choose from a total of 44 different stats. Great stuff.
Garmin Foretrex 401 Compass Page
Garmin Foretrex 401 Stats Page
The ability to connect the Foretrex 401 with a heart rate monitor and/or cadence device is a feature which attracted my attention as in the future I also planned to use it with my mountain bike. I did purchase the heart rate monitor strap along with the device for hiking, which is a welcome addition as I can see when my heart rate tops out and therefore when I either need to take a rest or slow down a little.
Since the Foretrex 401 is mounted on your wrist, you can keep your hands free for other tasks. Many GPS units need to be held with one hand and operated with the other. When climbing over terrain, or carrying a camera, this is not possible. The rubberized buttons also make for easy use, especially when rain, sweat and humidity come into play.
Although I have not had to use the backlight yet, I can imagine that it would be a good feature to have if you are out hiking at night or if for some reason you finish your hike later than expected.
Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS Watch Backlight
Garmin Connect online software is excellent. I would like to add at this point also that the manual for the Foretrex 401 was so poor that it did not even list this software in it. I only found out about it’s existence when I didn’t know what to do with the data I had uploaded from the Foretrex 401. After contacting customer support crying help, did they give me the link.
Garmin Connect Dashboard
Continuing, on the dashboard (the welcome page) you can see the latest 5 activities that you have completed with a quick overview of the activity type, event type, distance, elevation gain and time, as well as the GPS map.
On the activities page you can see all of your activities in one place and you can compare them all with customizable columns.
Garmin Connect Activities
The calendar page shows you what activities you have done on which days in a monthly calendar view. You can also add your weight each day so you can easily track weight gain or loss. At the end of each week, totals are given showing total time and distance traveled.
Garmin Connect Calendar
Clicking on any one of your activities, shows you a whole load of detailed information. Here you can see your trail on Google Maps, a summary of times, elevation and heart rate as well as charts showing timing, elevation and heart rate. Garmin Connect offers an easy to embed link for your website, sharing features for social media sites, export features to various GPS files, a Google Earth map, and the ability to print your information or to send it to your device.
Garmin Connect Activity Summary
Also a great feature of the Garmin Connect software is the Player page where you can directly compare time, distance, elevation, speed and heart rate on a moving graph as well as a map which shows your progress on Google Maps.
Garmin Connect Player
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