RIP Fenix 7 Pro - Another Casualty of the Sticky Button issue.

Well, looks like my fix for sticky buttons (soaking in distilled water) didn’t hold. After another pool swim my watch kept having issues with the lap button. I eventually tried rebooting it, and now it won’t turn on at all or take a charge.

Luckily for me, I contacted Garmin support and they are replacing the device. This will be my SECOND replacement for this same issue. I did my first triathlon with my first Fenix 7 Pro, and my first marathon with this replacement. I’m a bit sad that I won’t have the same device for my next big milestone. The first replacement was a reconditioned device, the one they are sending out now is apparently brand new. I wonder if they have made any changes to the button QA on these, or if they fix is only on the Fenix 8? Seems like for something marketed as a Triathlon watch, it really doesn’t handle swimming very well… I have friends with Forerunners and other garmins who swim and no one has ever had button issues but me, with the “Higher-end” Fenix lol.

I’m leaving on a trip and my replacement won’t arrive before I leave, so I’ll be going analog for my workouts for the next week or so… just going to use a stopwatch for my splits lol. I’m glad Garmin support is still such that they are replacing these, but I feel like it’ll be a pretty tough sell to get a FOURTH device if the same thing happens to this one. As it was, I was only supposed to have 90 day guarantee on the reconditioned replacement, but to their credit they did replace it well after that window had closed.

I’m pretty all-in on the Garmin ecosystem so it is a tough spot to be in… I just want my device to work. It would be hard to trick myself into getting a Fenix 8 after all these issues, how can I be sure there won’t be some other QA issue with that one even if the button issue that has been plaguing me is fixed? I guess maybe I’ll just have to soak my watch, rather than just rinsing it, after EVERY swim and hope for the best…