ALBECH

I am not sure you have understood my post. I cannot get the unit serviced or battery replaced by the vendor because I dd not have the battery changed within a proscribed period. The option of the vendor doing the extensive testing is not available to me. I perhaps don't have as deep pockets as some so will try and make do. I do have quite a bit of experience in reliability engineering in the oil and gas area. The components within my EPIRB should result in the device having a SIL (safety integrity level) rating suitable for a very low probability of failure on demand. A presumably high spec p

You are correct, I would prefer they fitted new batteries and sent me on my way. I would make that choice because I know there is actually nothing wrong with the unit and with new batteries it would be fit for the purpose I intend using it. It has a test function hence the potential for latent failure is small and when combined with the other safety precautions, overall risk is very small. The standard looks like a lot of things these days OTT. It would be interesting to see if GME and the legislators have published any MTF (mean time between failure) statistics which relate to their warr

I bought my unit in 2014 so its only 8 years old. The issue according to GME is that the battery wasn't replaced at the right interval (due to COVID) and therefore cannot be refurbished. A heap of BS. I'm an inshore sailor who is after something which is going to be of use should my yacht, VHF, phones, tender etc all fail me and it just annoys me that GME have the cheek to suggest (have decided) that these units are not serviceable. My recommendation is that we give GME a very wide berth because they are not actually interested in safety at sea.

Just ran into this issue with an MT406G and have been told by GME that these units cannot have the batteries replaced or unit refurbished . Quite baffling as this should be a high spec electronics piece of equipment. I guess things can always fail but in my experience its rare these days, I cannot remember when something of this nature has failed at home, car etc and the electronic components involved would be of significantly less quality build than an EPIRB. I agree with no short cuts on safety but if you want to be 100% safe then not venturing out might be the best option. Seems like the