UKH

My 22 year old Suunto Vector needs a repair, again. I’m happy enough sending it off to get repaired. But reading how cheap I can get a Casio altimeter, am I better off just accepting the Vector is past it’s best and I should just buy a new Casio?

I only use it as a timepiece and altimeter. I use OS locate on my phone as an altimeter but obviously that carries battery issues.

Be careful sending it to Suunto. Recently rang them re my c10yr old Observer as the altimeter was stuck. They said send it off for repair. I did and 3 weeks later got an email saying they couldn’t repair it as they no longer had parts for that model and offered to change the battery and send it back unrepaired, if I paid 60 euros in advance, otherwise they’d recycle it! Cue long email chain arguing with them!

Thanks. Paid £85 a couple of years ago to fix the back and service it. Thinking £50 for a new Casio seems fair enough. Compared to a potentially costly repair.

If it helps, I've used Casio's for 20 years and found then excellent.

(One should pop out of Been a glacier soon!)

It does. Thanks. Decision made 😀

Recently, Suunto have annoyed me so much that I would suggest buying any alternative.

That was my experience, told them where to go.

I've used Casios for years - solar powered Pro Treks, so as to never have to worry about battery life & swaps. Found them great apart from one major limitation you should probably be aware of - the altimeter reading only updates every two minutes. No problem for hiking; might be a bit of an issue for e.g. ski descents if you were trying to avoid dropping off a cliff band in poor visibility or something like that.

Exactly the same experience for me too.  One of the buttons on my ~10yo Observer was stuck meaning that I could not do anything to change functions/settings on the watch.  Suunto said I could send it back them, but didn't think they had the parts to repair it and, if that was the case, they'd offer me a discount on a new one.

Yes, me too. Told them to keep it and I’d put an appropriate review on their website. Just had an email today saying they are returning it unrepaired for free.

Now bought Garmin Fenix 5 (refurb) instead.