Garmin 220 heart rate monitor - it's not working right

Elise- Have you had any luck with your HR monitor? I am wondering because i am having the same problem.

No it's still not working properly.

I've also contacted Garmin help/support twice but they are too rude to even reply whatsoever - I'm extremely unimpressed with them, the least helpful 'help' of any company I've ever encountered...

I bought it at the end of November last year but I've had problems with it from the start. Initially it was that it 'just' didn't find my heartbeat, it would take ages to find it (there was no problem with the connection to the watch). Then that got better but now it's miss-reading it all the time.

On top of not getting the reading right it now got really odd with the calorie count. I got 286 calories burned after a 10km run and 243 for a 5km run...

Here are 2 examples of what goes wrong for me and belive me, my heart was beating at full speed, the kind that used to record at over 170-180 beats:

Having the same issue with my Garmin Edge 810 - on the cycling computer it shows the correct HR when I am cycling but when the ride uploads to garmin connect it records too low!! Battery can't be the problem here cause it displays correct and I have even taken my pulse to verify this. Also, my garmin syncs to my Strava account and the recorded HR is displaying correctly on Strava... Sounds like something could be wrong with Garmin connect!!

It might just be a bad strap or sending unit (pod). If you've had this since November last year, you should still be in warranty. Make sure you get hold of Garmin Support. They'll likely send you another free once they have you try a few possible fixes.

I've never had an issue contacting support. If email, I'd always get a response within 3 days. However for issues like this, I'd call. The sit on the phone is worth it as you can tell them immediately whether you've already tried one of the possible fixes instead of getting into a long back and forth with emails.

Have a look here

It might just be a bad strap or sending unit (pod). If you've had this since November last year, you should still be in warranty. Make sure you get hold of Garmin Support. They'll likely send you another free once they have you try a few possible fixes.

I've never had an issue contacting support. If email, I'd always get a response within 3 days. However for issues like this, I'd call. The sit on the phone is worth it as you can tell them immediately whether you've already tried one of the possible fixes instead of getting into a long back and forth with emails.

I've tried twice to contact the support though the website and neither time have they bothered to reply at all.

Probably best to call them and put up with the long hold time. Once you get in touch with them most people find they honor their warranty and will send you another strap and/or device whichever they determine is defective.

Hi. I had very similar problems with my new 220. Placing the HRM sensor a little higher up the sternum seems to have worked for me. Since changing the position of the sensor, I have had no HRM connectivity issues.

With my FR220 after a few HR measuring problems I found a solution (no problem since) :

- Put water on three point of the HRM Strap (like the manual said).
- IMPORTANT: Shift the strap to the left so that the black/grey fabric junction is just in the middle of the body.

It was a DEFINITIVE solution for me !!!!
Hope it helps you...

Hi. I had very similar problems with my new 220. Placing the HRM sensor a little higher up the sternum seems to have worked for me. Since changing the position of the sensor, I have had no HRM connectivity issues.

I can't physically put it any higher as I'm a woman.