Garmin Edge 830’s user here. My unit is 4 years old, has been quite reliable most of the time (I’ve ridden more than 60 000 km with it, never lost data). Unfortunately, after the last weekend’s ride in the rain its display delaminated, water got in and since then buttons and top part of the touch display do not work, so I am looking for a new head unit. Among others, I am considering the new Elemnt ROAM 3 too.
With Garmin, I’ve been using Bontrager/Trek Ion 200 RT (front light) and Garmin Varia radar (tail light) which are controlled by the Smart Bike Lights IQ Connect application (it allows to turn on/off lights and set different modes for them).
It would be neat if Elemnt ROAM 3 allowed to control my lights in a similar way. I checked the documentation and found that Elemnt ROAM v2 supports Smart light control (Bontrager/Trek and Varia lights particularly):
I also contacted Wahoo support regarding the Smart light control feature. Their feedback was as follows:
“The v3 products operate in the same fashion with the supported Smart lights as the v2 units, with the exception of the Set Elemnt to Auto-Control Bike Lights feature.
Auto control of bike lights, where the ELEMNT will turn the lights on to their last chosen setting when a ride is started, and off when a ride recording is ended,is enabled by default, but being able to toggle this is something we are looking to implement in the future.”
Sorry I’m too late in some regard, but for what it’s worth to you, I received a complete replacement EDGE 840 more than 4 years after purchase for my problematic EDGE 830 (many times had issues and worked with Garmin to resolve, but things kept happening, albeit fairly far between; lost some data but very little; really was just frustrating too many times.)
I didn’t have the catastrophic failure you had, though I’ve heard of others with the same problem, and it definitely seems an unacceptable defect unless you had drop damages that led to it. (I always used a silicone case on mine that did give some cushion for the occasional drop, and I’ve missed having that on my 840, but I’m extra careful with it, mindful of how delicate those edges seem. (WHY don’t these manufacturers design with a rubber case that is both effective AND replaceable?)
Anyway, glad you’ve got a new unit. And depending on your experience with Garmin, I personally would be working with them to try to get a replacement, regardless of it being 4yrs old for you. They just may come through for you as the did for me.
In cases like this, it may be beneficial to move on and try something new. From my point of view, Edge 840 is not such improvement compared to 830 (similar overcomplicated sluggish GUI, unreliable sensor connections etc.)
With my new ROAM3, I have ridden around 800 km so far and I must say it is a pleasant surprise! (And hopefully it will stay like that.) In many aspects ROAM3 is simply better than Edge 830/840: more logical and responsive GUI, more readable maps with smoother zooming, very quick upload of longer routes (with Edge 830 it took ages until a longer route profile was processed) etc.
I would have to disagree about 840 vs 830. I found the differences to be HUGE. Far better in pretty much every way. I’ve had some glitches on the 840, but not many, and overall behavior is so much better. And with the 840, all the buttons the 540 have are there, so if the screen becomes unresponsive to touch, like when it’s raining, it gives an out to be able to control the device. I had many times on 830 that I couldn’t do a thing with it, even stop the recording.
I will say one downside of the 840 is that it is MORE sensitive to giving failing elevation numbers when it rains. The location of the holes that the barometer uses is terrible, and it fouls up pretty easily with road spray coming up from the wheel below. Why they didn’t design covering for that, I’ll never know.
