What's happening to Elevation Gain accuracy?

I have been trying to figure out what settings in my APAC Enduro are causing elevation gains to be inconsistent. I have the following settings configured:

The first two times, there were no drastic changes in atmospheric pressure, it was either rainy or sunny during the entire hike. Then this morning's hike, there was sun and then a storm and I am beginning to wonder if Altimeter Auto Cal During Activity should be left ON instead. I have read from multiple posts that many have found Auto to be unrealiable therefore I turned it off and made sure I calibrate before each activity (using DEM if available, otherwise GPS)

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago +1 verified

This Support Center article will help as you try different settings and use the one that works best for you: Understanding How the Barometric Altimeter Sensor Works on a Garmin Outdoor Watch

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+1 Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago

This Support Center article will help as you try different settings and use the one that works best for you: Understanding How the Barometric Altimeter Sensor Works on a Garmin Outdoor Watch

0 Dr Phil over 3 years ago

I've always left my watches set up as follows:

Altimeter - During Activity - Continuous; Not During Activity - Yes

Barmometer - Watch Mode - Auto

While there are small variation in the start and stop elevation these are not large.

I don't get to spend a lot of time in the mountains but do run where I can experience 400m elevation gain/descent over the course of 7 to 10lms. The settings I have work well for me in those conditions. Not sure there is a one-size-fits-all setting for all conditions so as mentioned, it might be best to try difference settings to what works best for different circumstances.

0 jan.shim over 3 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Unfortunately the Enduro does not have the 'Continuous' option for Altimeter Auto Cal. This is something I discovered from another forum discussion, realized that's one of the differences that set the Fenix 6 series apart between a pro and non-pro 6 and that the Enduro has the same or similar feature set as a non-pro 6.

If I leave Barometer Watch Mode in Auto, I get even higher elevation gain to the point of being ridiculous. It had taken me several months to reach a certain conclusion and thought everything was finally working with a fair degree of certainly and then on the third attempt (started the hike about the same time, exact same course) elevation gain went from 900m+ to 1200m+ ... the only difference I can think of that attributes to the change is weather conditions that affected atmospheric pressure

I posted the changes I made to the Enduro https://shimworld.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/garmin-enduro-settings-to-change-for-elevation-accuracy/ but there aren't any other settings I can try besides a factory reset which I'm hesistant.

0 Dr Phil over 3 years ago in reply to jan.shim

jan.shim said:
Unfortunately the Enduro does not have Continuous options for Altimeter Auto Cal.

Ahh! I did not know that. But certainly underlying pressure changes that are not accounted for in the calculations could well be the cause of the differences.

0 IamTC over 3 years ago

Jan,

Are you already on the latest firmware available for APAC Enduros?

0 jan.shim over 3 years ago in reply to IamTC

Yup. 16.80 is the latest for the APAC model.

0 jan.shim over 3 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Even Garmin themselves do not realize the Enduro doesn't have Continuous Mode when they released these support notes

support.garmin.com/.../

0 IamTC over 3 years ago in reply to jan.shim

I am in the midst of considering whether upgrading from 15.4 is worth it. Thank you for the response.