internal back-up battery for Garmin 12XL handheld

I just had an awful customer service experience with Garmin’s customer support center. My handheld GPS gave me a message yesterday that the internal back-up battery is low and all of my waypoints stored since 2000 are lost. All my honey holes, everything!!!!! I can get over that in time.

I figured I could go buy a new battery, pop it in myself and be on my way. Wrong. No way to get the cover off and no access panels. Called tech support and they will “take a look at it” for a starting price of $89 plus shipping plus the battery if that’s what it needs. The unit was only worth $200 bucks brand new 5 years ago but it still works and I’m happy with it and there’s no reason to scrap it but that’s what their pricing is intended to do; get me to go buy another one and add to the local landfill. I may go buy another one but this time it will be another brand as will be all my new fishfinders when my present Garmin units finally die.

They wouldn’t even tell me how to access the battery. So for a lousy $5 replacement battery they’re trying everything they can to charge me $100+ and lose a customer in the process. Unbelievable.

Do any of you folks have a suggestion or experience on how to get at that internal battery myself and replace it? I can’t see throwing the unit away but I suppose it was designed to be disposable(like a diaper). Seems like a damn shame. Thanks for any advice.

Pete, That’s a shame. I hate to hear it. My first thought is that this is a good reminder for everyone to be sure to back up those waypoints. You never know if something might happen to your GPS and then your valuable waypoints are lost for good. I’m really sorry to hear that happened to you. As for the Garmin customer service situation that’s pretty disappointing to hear. I’m not sure what the rationale is behind the stance but their customer service has generally been very good. I understand that some of their customer service staff take the time to read our forum once in a while and maybe they will see this and consider a better alternative for you. My suggestion is to ask to speak to a customer service supervisor and very CALMLY explain your situation and your displeasure. Maybe you can work out an arrangement that works for you and for Garmin. Maybe someone else here will have another suggestion for you. I wish you luck and please let us know how this turns out.

The Garmin 12XL has a 10 year battery if I remember right. Once it goes it is cheaper to upgrade and buy a new unit than it is to have Garmin repair it. When mine went dead I tore it apart trying to figure out how to replace it myself and unless you are a electrical magician, it aint happening! If and when you do upgrade, make sure to get one you can download waypoints onto your computer, that will save you a ton of headaches! When I got mine I wasnt convinced of whether it was the ticket or not so I had written all my waypoints in a log book – glad I had or I would have lost them all. Good luck!

When it was about 3 years old. They recommended always keeping some fresh batteries in there though so I guess the backup battery gets some assistance from the normal batteries… Guvner..

It appears the internal battery is charged by the normal batteries, somewhat anyways, If that doesn’t work you do need a new backup battery. if it were mine I take it apart and find a replacement battery somewhere and replace it myself, long before I paid garmin anyways.

http://gpsinformation.net/main/g12xl-mem-bat.txt

The problem with replacing internal batteries is that some companies solder the batteries on to the printed circuit board which tends to make it planned obsolescence which sounds like the case here. To bad there isn’t a place like this for you guys.
http://www.ipodjuice.com/
WarrenMN

You should be able to heat the solder the up enough to pull the old battery off, and reheat again to reconnect the new one, garmin claims they can replace them.