I have had 2 Fenix 5 plus units and one Fenix 5x plus. None of them have detected my heart rate. I am a Black American. I have a WHOOP strap and it works perfectly. When I put the Fenix on the palm of my hand or on the bottom of my feet, it detects my hear rate. When I put it on my wife, who is white, the Fenix works like a charm. At this point, I am livid. Anyone willing to join me in lobbying Garmin to get their engineering chops in gear? This is ridiculous. Sure, I can return it, but really? Any suggestions?
Would be an issue if the ohr didn’t work on dark skinned individuals. I have read issues with them failing when worn over dark tatoos. If your arm is hairy at the wrist try shaving there. I’m Lilly white but shave a patch for good seal.
Have you tried any other ohr type sensors? If worn snug and hair removed and still not working contact Garmin. Good luck.
Interesting the WHOOP is working but not the Garmin. Have you tried other wrist devices with oHR? Obviously talk to Garmin, but I suspect they'll go back to their default position, just like the other manufactures.
This is really odd, I let my friend who is a very dark African American use mine for a few hours cause he was running into issues with his amazfit stratos with the oHR and he was wondering if it was the senor and his darker skin but it was able to read it for multiple hours, but my girlfriend who is pasty white can't get her apple watch to pick up her HR and has my fenix drop her HR due to her having tiny veins in her wrist/hand. She has to use a scoshe rhythm+ to get her HR during any activity.
We're all different! For oHR to work, it has to be able to detect a colour change as blood pulses through the veins beneath the skin. Even individually, these veins will change in size or be closer or further away from the skin depending on temperature, hydration, physiology etc. These are not constant even within an individual.
So many factors make it very difficult for these sensors to detect a small fluctuation in colour. While dark skin likely presents more challenges, it the veins are big enough and close enough to the sensor, then the device might well work for one individual, but not for another.
The premise behind oHR is sound. The technicalities for getting it to work are very difficult.
Thank you all for the comments. I noticed that the OHR does work when I start an activity. So I made 2 custom activities: Day nonactive and Sleeping. I will make sure that the OHR works over longer periods of time and report my findings (all of the data files) to Garmin. So far, I can see my HR in the post workout analysis in the Garmin Connect app, not on the Fenix HR widget during the activity. I can also see my HR on the ArchHUD watch face while the "Day nonactive" activity is running. I hope this helps the engineers figure this out. They are so close!
Interested to know if this has changed or gotten any better with the recent software updates? I received my Fenix 5 Plus last week and was quite upset to see that it would not read my HR at all unless I wore the device on the underside of my wrist where my skin tone is a little lighter than the opposite side where I actually wear my watches.. I also have the Apple watch series 2 and a Fitbit Charge 2 neither of which give me any problems with reading my HR during the day. I was upgrading my Fenix 3 and wanted to really love the 5 plus so I could finally do away with wearing 2 devices... I've contacted Garmin about the issue and 1st they recommended updating to the beta software 4.6 which of course did not resolve the problem.. They then recommended I return the watch as it may be defective. But from reading this it seems that I'll either have to return it for a refund or live with an $700 device that won't do what a $100 device will.. so disappointing. I just wish it would work the way its supposed to...
Folk. I wrote on this problem this week under another post and I quoted JHNT in that document. It has been a journey over the last three months. Very frustrating. Here are my reports: 1. As of this week I noticed that if I put clear plastic under the sensor on my hand the oHR worked perfectly over the course of the day. I was preparing to wear my expensive watch with plastic (six). 2. However, I updated to beta 4.64 today and the oHR has been working perfectly for the last five hours. I hope this was deliberately addressed by software update. Would welcome further feedback after the latest debate.
That’s good to hear! I also gave the latest beta a try and it’s been more consistent for sure over the past 12 hours but I’m still hoping that they continue to fine tune it. I do plan on being active with my updates on this issue either way moving forward.
Folk. I wrote on this problem this week under another post and I quoted JHNT in that document. It has been a journey over the last three months. Very frustrating. Here are my reports: 1. As of this week I noticed that if I put clear plastic under the sensor on my hand the oHR worked perfectly over the course of the day. I was preparing to wear my expensive watch with plastic (six). 2. However, I updated to beta 4.64 today and the oHR has been working perfectly for the last five hours. I hope this was deliberately addressed by software update. Would welcome further feedback after the latest debate.
Beta 4.64 does nothing for me either.... just giving up and returning it. Which I hate to do because I actually like the functionality over my Fenix 3.. but the OHR is why I bought the watch and if it doesn't work to me it doesn't justify the purchase..
