GPS Longevity

Recently, Longworth posted:

On Jan 16, 8:13 pm, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:
Which brings to mind the question of how long of a service life do
most of you experience on your handheldGPS's? Do you usually retire
them because someone has marketed a better mousetrap, because the
unit is unsupported, or because the unit no longer works properly?

Our Lowrance Airmap 1000 stopped working today after about 3 years
of frequent usage (~ 250 hrs/year). It had been working fine.
During a flight today, the screen just went blank. We thought
something was wrong with the power plug which drained the internal
batteries.
Coming home, we recharged the batteries and still could not power
it up. I put in a fresh set of batteries but the unit still as dead as
a door knob. Will call Lowrance Service center tomorrow.
The hand-held GPS has become an indispensable cross-country piece
of equipment for us. For navigation, we use all available sources of
information, charts, VORs, pilotage, dead reckoning etc. but the GPS
gives the most precise information.

How precise were the locations your blank screen?

I consider my hand-held GPS as a convenience aiding situational awareness,
and if it went blank in flight I'd simply ignore it for the rest of the
trip rather than fiddle with it en route beyond seeing whether the power
plug was loose.

--
Neil