UKC

I have the Silva 4 which has stopped working. The needle is wondering all over the place. No receipt so cant claim on warranty.

Time to replace it so I'm interested in what you folks use/recommend?

In reply to skizxi:

Did you carry your compass next to your mobile phone?

In reply to FOXY55:
Come to think of it yes, which explains why its not working

In reply to skizxi:

It ought to be fairly easy to re-magnetize the needle - all you need is a strong magnet.

In reply to skizxi:
You don't need a receipt, I got mine replaced free of charge under warranty with out my proof of purchase.

There is a letter/letters under your base plate in the bezel. e.g The letter C means it was made 2013 I believe. I have another compass with XY and that makes older than 5 years old. See what the letter is and if it's something between A to D then you should be able to get it replaced at no cost.

In reply to skizxi:

As folk above have said, if it's within warranty period, odds are it'll be replaced even without a receipt - Silva are pretty good for this.

If you do need to buy a new one, I really don't think that you can go far wrong with the Type 4 - good selection of roamers, mm scale , long base for easy using establishing a bearing on longer legs and sits nicely in a mitted hand. Big enough for bezel to be used by mits as well.
Not the best for running / racing though.

If you do a lot of sighting / resection then type 54 is good too - but you'd need to be using it a LOT to justify the extra cost.

Most compasses from established companies are pretty good, but I'd avoid ones without roamers on the base - when the weather is crap, I'd rather not have to do maths to figure out distances from a mm scale!

Cheers,

In reply to skizxi:

Phone them up and read out the small letter on the base. THey'll either send you a new one or like me phone up a local shop where I then went in and swapped my compass.

Worrying though ,thats now the 3rd type 4 I've seen affected. Dodgy batch?

In reply to prog99:

Don't think they're dodgy, they just don't fair so well next to phones and GPS' I think or indeed other compasses, or anything with iron in/made of steel.

In reply to Bluebird:

Just to clarify, mine and a friend both got air bubbles in our type 4s so a different problem in this case.