Motorola Motoactv :: Water Failure Mode - Through Volume Button?

i did a bit of research before getting a motoactv to serve as my primary training data tool. i read dc rainmaker's report, watched his Internet video of the thing in the shower, and read all the stories of people having water caused failures and motorola invalidating the warranties. i loved the looks and the features, and i wrote off the water complaints as the voice of a loud internet minority, most of whom probably didn't do something right. i was worried about the warranty not being honored, so i made my purchase at rei, who essentially grant lifetime return of anything that they sell.all my workouts are sweaty. encouraged by dc rainmaker's video, which he said was conducted on motorola's terms, i wore the motoactv into the shower after a run. the headset grommet and usb port cover were firmly in place. there were no signs of trouble during the shower (as there weren't in the video), but about 40 minutes later, i caught a glimpse of some small white text on a black screen, then the watch went dark. i powered it back on, which went normally, but once fully booted up, the up volume was constantly activated, with the overlay message showing the speaker icon and the horizontal volume bar showing full volume.

i could sometimes get the indicated volume to go down with the down volume button, only to see the volume quickly ramp all the way back up. i played with this for a while, then powered the thing down to save the battery, as the up volume input was keeping the screen on. suspecting water damage, i checked the usb port and it was dry. a day later, all was back to normal. that was a month ago. i accidently wore it into the shower for all of 10 seconds yesterday, only long enough for it to take a few splashes, and not even long enough to wet the entire case. the phantom volume ramp returned within 10 minutes, but i was able to eventually make it go away by actuating the up volume and music buttons. again, the usb port looked dry. this morning the watch was dead dead dead, with only a brief bootloader message when i tried turning it on. hooking it up to the usb on the computer was enough to get the juice flowing again and start to fill the battery. i was able to power up after about 15 minutes. the phantom volume has returned and won't go away.

i will be exchaning the unit for another at rei today. given the backup of rei's return policy, i will be sticking with the motoactv as my training data device for now. i'm writing all of this to inform people about what they might expect, and to encourage motorola to get their act together on making these things work for their intended purpose. from now on, i'll be cleaning sweat off with a moist paper towel. if it rains, the motoactv will be coming out with me like it or not, and i'll just make another trip to rei if the thing conks out. if rei sees a pattern, i'm sure they will do a better job of encouraging motorola to make the necessary changes than i could.