Garmin Edge 1000 Review

Posted in: Blog, Cycling | Mar 15, 2016 at 6:47 AM

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INTRODUCTION

So my Garmin Edge 810 was completely dead. Every time I turned it on it went straight into the maintenance mode. The USB socket only charged but not transmitted any data. Therefore, any ride data needed to be uploaded via Bluetooth. Long story short I decided to let it go. I’ve owned it for more than 2 years and time for me to get a new toy.

After looking at some second-hands 810 and 800 – and yes they were half the price – I still decided to go ahead with Garmin Edge 1000. The reason was because it’s using the latest technology but more than that, it has adequate battery life (from what I read in the reviews), can connect to Wi-Fi and bluetooth; and most importantly it connects to 2 satellites instead of one (this is a biggie for me because my Edge 810 and 500 kept losing signal and ended up not recording the rides correctly).

I bought it off Pushys and cost me about AUD$600 including the silicon case. So I just thought of writing a quick review of how it goes. The latest big ride I took it to was the 2016 Peaks Challenge Falls Creek – 235km with 4000m+ elevation and 13 hours time limit. Below is the Strava ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/515709203

FEATURES

I have to be honest that I don’t use all of the features the device has. Therefore, I’m not in the position of writing down all of the features. You can always read these yourself on the net. There are already tons of information on them. For me, I use the following features:

2 Custom Activity Profiles – RIDE and DRIVING

With RIDE profile I have 2 screens set, one contains 10 fields and another is the map fields. On the first screen I specify power, altitude, etc all the fields I require for my ride. You can set up to 10 fields on this screen which is very helpful. Then on the map section I specify 2 fields: power and elapsed time. This way – should I use the GPS map for my ride – I can always gauge how intense I’m going (through Power) and how long I’ve been riding (through Elapsed Time) – which would determine if I need to drink or eat. I try to drink and eat every 15-20 mins.

Then on the DRIVING profile I only use the map fields because most likely I’ll be using the GPS anyway. And yes Garmin Edge 1000 allows you to choose profile types eg. Walking, Driving, Cycling, etc which would automatically set how the routing and mapping would operate. You can also set it manually to avoid highways, off-roads, etc but with these profile types you don’t have to worry about it.

BATTERY LIFE

Some reviews say that it only lasts for around 10 hours – which made me a bit nervous taking it to the Peaks Challenge because I’m not that strong of a rider and there is no way I would have completed it in 10 hours.

But in reality, a full charge was finished in 12 hours and 46 mins (see my Strava ride above) which was amazing! I was only 2km away from the finish line when the battery was fully dead.

I had to turn off Wi-Fi, using the lowest brightness and set “turn off display after 15 seconds” and connected to 1 satellite only though. Otherwise, the Garmin wouldn’t have made it to 12:46. Along the way I tinkered with the screens, sometimes I would try to change from one screen to another and this caused the background light to be triggered. Had I not done that I believe I would have stretched it to 13 hours.

But yes, battery life is quiet impressive in my opinion. Your biggest killer would be screen brightness, Wi-Fi and connection to 2 satellites (more on this later).

SATELLITE CONNECTION

So Garmin Edge 1000 can connect to 2 satellites named GPS and GOLASS. If you want the best connection then you would connect to both. Throughout the Peaks Challenge ride though, I was only connected to GPS to save battery. If you connect to both it would have used 20-30% more battery. I would connect to both when I’m driving only.

Now, on the way home from Falls Creek to Melbourne (driving) I haven’t changed the satellite connection to both. It took about 10 minutes to find the route home using the GPS-only mode! As soon as I changed the connection to GPS and GOLASS, bam….in less than 5 seconds it found the route! That’s how powerful this is. But again, battery life is shorter by 20-30%. I doubt – even using the same settings as my bike ride – that it would make it to 8 hours on full charge.

BUGS

So the Garmin decided to install update on my Edge 1000 about 2 days ago (13-03-2016). Since then the device would turn off by itself intermittently when you use the GPS map! Prior to the install everything was fine. Now I’m a bit nervous that the old bug of 500 and 810 would come back ie. if it loses signal, sometimes it would just turn itself off.

I hope this is rectified soon otherwise I’ll be disappointed.

SUMMARY

In summary I love this device and hands-down is the best Garmin Edge version to date! It’s slim and tall. Display is crisp. Even when the background light is turned off, the display is still very clear under the sun. This wasn’t always the case with my 810 and 500. And most importantly, the biggest wins for me was the connection to 2 satellites and the battery life.

The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is helpful too in the sense that you don’t have to keep connecting through the USB port to upload your rides. Eventually that port will get loose and – just like my 810 – when it’s finally fully dull, you will no longer be able to upload your rides. Especially when it rains and all, water may get in through the rubber and may cause the port to rust. Therefore, the more you connect through that port, the riskier it becomes to get loose and rusty.

So, that’s all from me. If you haven’t got one, you better get one and you won’t be disappointed!

Have a great day,

Tommy

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