Who repairs older Garmin products?

[Hawkeye]

I have a 12-14 year old Garmin GPSmap 478 unit that won't power up. The "power" button (on/off) is slightly depressed indicating wear, perhaps why the unit won't power up. In a detailed search on the internet and by just asking around I can't seem to find anyone who fixes older Garmin units. Are there any hobbyists out there who will take my money? I'd hate to scrap this thing because one (very important) button has failed.

[Shrew]

We live in a disposable economy. The cost to repair it would more than likely be greater than the cost to replace it with an identical used model. Parts are not universal and the technology is obsolete. It's not like the old days when a tube was a tube and a plug was a plug.

There are not many TV repair shops lately either. Radio Shack was the store that used to carry all that stuff, and even they are closed now.

[sbu22]

There's a place on ebay advertising repairs - $195 - but they're in Russia and you pay shipping. Might be a little shakey.

I'm looking to fix an old 162. No luck in several months of occasional research. About decided to buy a used unit.

[MartySchwartz]

Check with Steve at Marine Electronics Repair in Florida. He has done work for me on my Raymarine stuff and has been great to work with.

Marty.......................

[sbu22]

I bookmarked that, Marty - thanks. Unfortunately, they don't list Garmin as a "supported manfacturer." Still worth a call. I didn't think anybody repaired anything electronic anymore.

Off the subject, I did find a guy in Arizona that was able to fully clean and bring my boat's Craig 8 track back to life. Even found me good deals on usable 8 track cassettes. We occasionally have oldies night.

[Dougcole]

I'm going to give you a little tough love here, I hope you don't take it the wrong way.


Replace that unit with a new one, don't be foolish and throw good money after bad. I just replaced the 13 year old pair of Raymarine e90's on my flybridge with a pair of garmin 942xs. They are not that expensive and I think you can find the 742xs for under $1,000 if you look around. God what a difference, I should have done it years ago.


I sent parts of my Raymarine network (Radar, DSM, the e120 at the lower helm) back to Raymarine a few times for repairs and probably spent $3,000 keeping them running. It wasn't worth it.


Bite the bullet. Buy new stuff. Or at least barely used recent stuff.


Just my 2 cents.