HR sensor craking issue

Was told today by Joe a supervisor at Garmin support that they used the same exact oHR sensor in the new 5s+/5+/5x+ as they did in the old 5x...so take that as you may. (Someone that has exchanged his 5x 3 times due to cracking oHR sensors)

Thanks Tommylee for your feedback.

very disappointing news... I don't understand how Garmin (who is aware of this issue) can reproduce the same mistake with their new model ! It doesn't take so much effort to replace a piece of plastic by a more resistant one !

Definitely not for me...Don't want to spend 850 Euros in a watch that will be broken in few months...

Thanks Tommylee for your feedback.

very disappointing news... I don't understand how Garmin (who is aware of this issue) can reproduce the same mistake with their new model ! It doesn't take so much effort to replace a piece of plastic by a more resistant one !

Definitely not for me...Don't want to spend 850 Euros in a watch that will be broken in few months...

I've had my Fenix 5 since launch and have had zero issues with the HR sensor, or anything else for that matter. If you avoided all products just because some people had an issue with some aspect of them you would literally have nothing.

Reference the HR cracking issue, it's entirely possible that this is related to chemical attack on the plastic used. Suncream, aftershave, insect repellent would all attack plastic. I'm not saying that it is, just that it doesn't strike me as a systematic problem the Fenix 5 series based on the number of people affected and the number of Fenix 5's sold.

In short, if you look for problems you will find them.

I don't use sunscreen, aftershave, insect repellent, yet I've had 3 crack on me. I'm just saying there was a change to the oHR and/or the backing from the F3HR to the F5x that was causing the cracking issue. The guy has every right to be worried cause it was a problem and only a few people post on the forums vs how many people might have just returned it back to the store/garmin directly. This is just like the people that looked for the GPS issues when moving from the F3HR to the 5x, I'm surprised the question over on the 5s+/5+ side haven't came up yet asking about ant+/BT connections and if they haven't been improved. When a product has a history of issues from the previous versions people are cautious about dropping $849 for a new model that might have the same issues as before.

Same sensor? Probably. Same housing? Definitely not identical because the 5x now has the SpOx sensor in it as well. So they've done *something* different, anyway.

I'm a day 1 Fenix user of *every* model. Every one. Never had a hardware problem while I've had them, but my 3HR that I passed down to my kid has lost it's vibration device. I'm sure Garmin would take care of it, but my kid says he doesn't care if it doesn't work and doesn't want to be without it otherwise while they fixed it.

Anyway, take it for what you will. It's not like you're *out* the money for the watch if it breaks easily...they are replacing them when it happens. But based on what Ray has said about how many of these Garmin is selling, I think the amount that are breaking is actually quite a small percentage. I'm certainly sorry for anyone who has it happen, let alone happen 3 times, but I still think that's a pretty rare thing, not the norm.


--Donnie

I don't for a minute deny that some people have had issues with cracking HR sensors. They have, the evidence is clear. I you do a quick search you will also see that some F3HR owners had the issue too. However, the problem doesn't seem to be so endemic that it is a systematic design flaw and it would seem that it is probable that some environmental factor is contributing to the failure mode.

Similarly with the GPS performance. I've owned a 305, 310xt, 910xt, Fenix 2, Fenix 3, Fenix 5, Edge 800, Edge 100 and I can honestly say the average GPS performance of all of these have been on par for me. Sometimes you get crappy tracks, it's the nature of GPS. What I have noticed is that with the F3 and the F5 the GPS wearable became more popular and attracted more first timers with extremely unrealistic expectations form a wrist-worn consumer device. Like always though, some people had genuine issues.

Forum posts give you a skewed view of reality. People are less inclined to expend the effort to post about the positives than they are to seek help or post about their perceived negatives, real or otherwise.

I have 3 models of the Fenix 5 series and the Fenix 5x has cracks on the sensor with a chip now, but the other models are fine. Granted I don’t wear the other 2 nearly as much now due them being only purchased to review.

that being said, based on my testing it does not affect the readings of the sensor when I did some tests with s chest HR as comparison

I read a lot of post but it is not clear if this cracking is coming from sweat, alcohol or other product on the skin or if it's just normal just that is causing this cracking. I don't know if this cracks are also affecting water resistance of the watch, since water can go through these cracks.

They should have made the oHR like on the Suunto9, the sensor is part of the case, orlike on my Samsung Gear S3, the sensor is inside the case.

Similarly with the GPS performance. I've owned a 305, 310xt, 910xt, Fenix 2, Fenix 3, Fenix 5, Edge 800, Edge 100 and I can honestly say the average GPS performance of all of these have been on par for me. Sometimes you get crappy tracks, it's the nature of GPS. What I have noticed is that with the F3 and the F5 the GPS wearable became more popular and attracted more first timers with extremely unrealistic expectations form a wrist-worn consumer device. Like always though, some people had genuine issues.

Me a 60csx, a 310XT, 3 units of 910XT (1 extra due to replacement and the third comes from the wish to see 8 data fields at one time), an Edge 705 and 2 Fenix 3 HR ( replacement due to buggy barometer). And the list is restricted to Garmin, I also owned 2 Cyclops/Powertap Joule GPS

I always (really always) check the recorded tracklogs and although it is true that there are bad days and good days there are also systematic differences between the gadgets.I mean a lot of differences between different products, and sometimes a small one between the units of the same product.

So you are a free man to declare that you are pleased with your products, but I guess I can state that it is unfair to say that you get he same GPS accuracy when you buy different products with GPS receivers.

Moreover what I noticed is just the opposite to yours, the newcomers tend to be more pleased with a mediocre GPS accuracy, because they tend to accept it is the nature of GPS receivers The older players, who could see the development of the GPS accuracy back in 10 years or more, are more sensitive to GPS quality, becuase they do not want to step back.

Namaste!

Garmin probably has some batch of watches with cracking oHR sensors. Probably something mixed in wrong amounts during the process. My Fenix 5X is now older than a year and no cracks...