Geiserailie Compass Reviews?

[u/Money-Violinist9176]

I’m the director of a brand new search & rescue team with very minimal funding. As much as I would love to purchase Silva compasses for all my volunteers, there’s no way we can swing it just yet. Putting on an orienteering class at the end of the month. I’ve seen these all over Amazon and Temu. Any experience with these cheap alternatives? This will be ideally just for class and not for wilderness rescue.

[u/Positive_Savings8449]

From my experience working with silva, most silva dealers are really receptive to working and collaberation with sar units. Shoot a dealer a message you might get a discounted pricing especially as you buy in bulk

Stay away from the cheap stuff, lives depend on this.

[u/Hidesuru → u/Positive_Savings8449]

I would imagine there's a number of places that offer pro deals that carry decent compasses as well.

[u/The_Stargazer]

Any of these cheap orienteering compasses are garbage.

When I got my SARTECH II the only people to fail the compass course were using these compasses.

Why do you have to provide them with a compass? Most SAR groups or classes require people to bring their own?

[u/Money-Violinist9176 → u/The_Stargazer]

Very good point, and good question. This is a rural area and most volunteers can’t afford much. They have all recently bought uniforms and packs. For their personal compass I will encourage them to purchase one but it’s best to capitalize on our starting momentum to knock this class out.

[u/dvcxfg → u/Money-Violinist9176]

Fwiw most modern smartphones (which they likely have) have compass apps built in. So that might be something to consider.

[u/Motor-Letter-635 → u/dvcxfg]

Can’t count the number of times here on the North Shore where the problem started with the map app on a phone and was exacerbated by that phone dying. (Lower Mainland, BC)

[u/dvcxfg → u/Motor-Letter-635]

Yeah, I mean, I agree. Relying upon mobile devices as a primary is never a good idea. Anyway, I retract my passing thought. A basic, functional compass from a reputable manufacturer is not a big ticket expense.

[u/New-Instance9196 → u/dvcxfg]

I don't see how you could teach a course with those

[u/dvcxfg → u/New-Instance9196]

True

Edit: I misread and missed the sentence about putting on a course. Either way, yeah it's worth it for members to buy their own entry-level compasses that are actually made by a reputable manufacturer. A lot of people buy compasses and don't use them so it might be worth it for your members to reach out to family and friends and see if they can borrow/get it paid forward. communities tend to like supporting SAR teams, so it might be an easy sell.

[u/New-Instance9196]

I know nothing about these ones, but the mirror is quite important in my experience. Also, all cheep compasses I have used kinda suck.

Ps if there's no declanation adjustment they are basically useless.

[u/Hidesuru → u/New-Instance9196]

I got by with a compass with no mirror for many many miles of hiking as a lad in the old boy scouts. Works fine. Mirror makes it easier to get better precision, but it's not exactly critical.

Just my two cents though.

[u/Hidesuru → u/[deleted]]

Appreciate you throwing out even one alternative though. Reading through here before I was left thinking "surely there's now than one single beans of good compass out there these days" lol. But I honestly wasn't sure who either.

[u/lukipedia → u/New-Instance9196]

 Ps if there's no declanation adjustment they are basically useless

That’s a little extreme. You can always +/- your declination manually. That’s tougher for beginners, but not impossible.

But any durable compass with a good bearing will have declination adjustment, too, so in that sense I agree with you in that declination adjustment is a good indicator of overall quality. 

[u/SecInteriorNotSure]

Not bad for intro/education…. with much actual use, however, the bezel ring holding the compass to the flat wears loose and falls out.

[u/Narwhal-Intelligent]

My family uses the cheap ones for “intro to orienteering” courses for Girl Scouts and the like.

[u/Signal-Weight8300]

I have a big pile of similar cheap compasses that I use for my Scout troop. They are very sensitive to being even a tiny bit off level and the needles aren't well damped, they bounce and shake quite a bit. I've had better luck with Silva, but they always seem to get a bubble in the fluid after a year or so. I have switched to Suunto and I've been very pleased. I use it for Scouts as well as competitive orienteering meets, it gets used a lot.

[u/sowedkooned]

Does, or could, your life depend on this tool? Yes. Buy once, cry once.

[u/thebyrdhouse]

Are actual SAR teams still using compasses? Genuinely curious if any teams are actually using them and how? I’ve never had a patient give us a compass bearing, if even if they did, we’d just plot it in SARTopo.

I know it’s been outdoor dogma forever, but in the last decade of personal outings alpine climbing, ski touring, canyoneering, ect, I haven’t carried one. Beyond personal recreation, compasses seem particularly unnecessary in well-managed SAR context. Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but a compass seems like a “tacticool” prepper accessory in 2025 and of little practical utility.

[u/smittydc → u/thebyrdhouse]

It’s still important to understand the core basic concepts of cartography and navigation but I agree some units are a bit over obsessed with some of the old school nitty gritty. “What if your phone battery dies”? Well, then I use the garmin gps I’m carrying, or the gps in my watch, or I recharge the phone, or we rely on my teammates for backup. What if you drop your compass? No, I will not be estimating my step cadence on beads instead of using this perfectly good satellite positioning system.

[u/sauvagedunord → u/thebyrdhouse]

Our team still uses compasses. Knowing the foundations and fundamentals of traditional navigation makes use of modern methods more effective. We use GPS and SARTopo as a primary; we have paper map and wet compass as a back-up. Additionally, the most experienced navigators on the team will use a combined method: Modern methods while planning and stationary; a wet compass while moving to stay oriented.

[u/Money-Violinist9176]

Thank you for the positive and mostly negative comments. Yes, I know they’re probably not going to be the best. But these are strictly for instructing the very basics of land navigation to a group of beginners.

[u/Torvaldicus_Unknown]

Well at least you won't have to worry about one being wrong

[u/Legitimate_Hunt_7400]

You practice how you play

[u/thrwaway75132]

For that style check Bunton TruArc

[u/toolgirl77]

I prefer the Camenga Lensatic or Suunto MC-2 and I would strongly advise that you avoid buying the cheapest / bulk compasses. Burton Compass is also an excellent manufacturer.