Managed to drop my edge 500 last week, while putting the bike away. Cracked the outer case and smashed the LCD screen. Contacted Garmin and have been quoted £75 for a replacement (which I actually think is a little bit steep, given that it is discontinued).

I used Mrs Mcavennie’s 200 for route following on Sunday and realised that the course functionality is actually loads better on the 200 than the 500, which made me realise that I’m actually not particularly keen on paying out for another 500. The 200 is not for me though as I use HRM and cadence.

Has anyone purchased a refurbed replacement from Garmin before, and have they been allowed to upgrade during the process? I’ve dropped them an email asking whether it might be possible to get a price on a 510 or an 810, but haven’t got a response yet.

I got a non gen case and screen off eBay for not a lot of money

Easy fit and worked well

Garmin have been fair I think £75 to replace a unit you’ve broken. Why should they subsidise your upgrade?

I have had a number of replacements from Garmin over the years and they haven’t always cashed the cheque.
£75 seems reasonable for something still on sale for ~£140. Another option if you have a aldi nearby is get a edge 25 for £79.99.

the £75 should get more expensive to account for them holding onto discontinued stock really

Edge 25 is £59.99 at weston super mare aldi

I had one a few days ago and they had a few left

I bought an Edge 520 from Halfords recently for £170, admittedly with my BC discount. In your position I’d just get a new one.

trail_rat – Member
I got a non gen case and screen off eBay for not a lot of money

Easy fit and worked well

Are they genuinely easy to fit? I’ve looked around on the net and couldn’t see any examples of detatching the broken screen from the circuit board and re-attaching the new one – is it just unplug?

bruneep – Member
Garmin have been fair I think £75 to replace a unit you’ve broken. Why should they subsidise your upgrade?

That’s not really what I asked though is it? The unit sells for around £100, so a refurbed unit for 75% of street price seemed high. I merely asked if anyone had any experiences of buying better models (for more money) which garmin might be interested in in order to retain customer loyalty.Certainly no need to over react with italics.

riddoch – Member
Another option if you have a aldi nearby is get a edge 25 for £79.99.

Interesting – I mistakenly assumed that the 25 didn’t do HRM & Cadence, so I’ll check it out. Cheers.

legend – Member
the £75 should get more expensive to account for them holding onto discontinued stock really

Interesting concept, but not really how discontinued stock works in any major company.

Would you have prefered Garmin to say (careful here come the italics) Sorry you broke it, its your problem Instead they have given you a discount on a replacement unit. My wife has had 2 Garmin units replaced with refurbished units and honestly couldn’t tell them from new.

Ooooh Nooo italics

Would you have prefered Garmin to say Sorry you broke it, its your problem

yes, that is exactly what I would have wanted

You seem to think that I believe Garmin to have been unfair, when I questioned the 75% refurbished price. I said that I thought it to be a little bit steep.

You then decided to get all italic on me, frothing at the mouth with your passive aggression.

aye that’ll be me

get over yersel

That is almost exactly how I’ve been picturing you posting on here.

scott_mcavennie2 – Member

Interesting concept, but not really how discontinued stock works in any major company.

You’re assuming that they’re still burning through old stock there, and not having to produce new stuff to support old kit

Yes, that is exactly what I am assuming.

I had a crash replacement 700 when it was just superseded. You genuinely wouldn’t have known it wasn’t a brand new one.

Out of interest, I found a “repairer” who quoted to do mine at the time, and there was a tenner in it. £75 would only cover 1 hour labour and leave £25 for parts, so sounds pretty reasonable I reckon.

I’ve got an edge 25 and it’s brilliant, really small but very clear and easy to read whilst biking.
Displays text messages to which is handy.
ANT+ Bluetooth so good for cadence and hrm.
I use mine on both the road bike and mtb. Excellent so far

scott_mcavennie2 – Member

Has anyone purchased a refurbed replacement from Garmin before, and have they been allowed to upgrade during the process? I’ve dropped them an email asking whether it might be possible to get a price on a 510 or an 810, but haven’t got a response yet.

When my Edge 500 was playing up (they told me it was a software fault, when it actually turned out to be a faulty switch), they mentioned the £75 for a refurb thing.
I asked about upgrading (for an additional cost, obviously) to the 510 and was told no chance.

scott_mcavennie2 – Member

Are they genuinely easy to fit? I’ve looked around on the net and couldn’t see any examples of detatching the broken screen from the circuit board and re-attaching the new one – is it just unplug?

It’s a fairly weeny ZIFF connector I think (ribbon with a clamping connector) -they are pretty easy to change, so long as the clamping bar doesn’t break while tightening it up, which can happen if you are a bit heavy handed.

I took my 500 apart to investigate the faulty switch. I’ll see if I can find any pics on photobucket (I definitely took some pics, just not sure what I did with them…

sorry i missed your comments above in the melee of italics rage.

4 tiny torx and a decent tug to get the clamshell apart- as mentioned above the little ribbon to remove the screen – tiny jewelers screw driver

I found a 2 sets of tweezers handy but i have meat claws for fingers.

as for the shell , getting the seal right can be a fiddle but its possible , a little lube to let it all slide together without pinching helps.

Found a photo, but not very useful, as it’s the wrong side of the circuit board.

The screen is the white boxy thing underneath the circuit board.
On the back side of the board is the connector.

It’s pretty easy to take the whole thing apart, but when I did it to have a switch replaced by a friend, I left the screen attached to the board as I didn’t want to disturb the connector unnecessarily.

I have an Edge 500 with a dodgy menu button you’re welcome to strip for parts. £25 posted?

schmiken – Member

I have an Edge 500 with a dodgy menu button you’re welcome to strip for parts. £25 posted?

Dunno if you want to get it working again or not, but I found a bloke on ebay selling the micro switches – same thing happened to mine, the menu button failed.
They are very small surface mount component so not easy to change, but luckily a friend of mine works for an electronics manufacturer so was able to get one of the production guys to look at it for me. Working as good as new now.
If you know someone who could do the soldering, you could probably get it repaired for under a tenner….