Pulse OX not accurate

Hi,

When measuring my Ox at the doctor I am between 97% and 99%. With the Garmin Fenix, I am arroud 80% (between 78 and 81%). Values seem very low. I am at ground level so not climbing moutains or other thing.

Measurement seems not accurate. Is it the case for you too ? Does it need a calibration or something like this ?

Thanks

I tried a demo 5X+ on at the store. Moved to the oxygen saturation widget and let it measure. It told me 80 % saturation. I pulled my phone out, opened Samsung Health, and it old me 97 %.

The number from the Garmin is obviously out of range for any healthy individual. I don't know how accurate the phone is, but the number is at least believable.

I have tried it tonight again...

(Bloody invalid files when trying to upload anything in this forums....)



I'm at 100% !! Guess I'm getting acclimated to my bedroom !!

You should return you faulty Fenix or get a new wrist !! :-D

Anyone know how to take a 'Manual' pulse ox reading? I switch it to 'Manual' in the Pulse Ox Options, but when going to the widget, I press the start/enter button and it shows a graph with the question "Turn on all-day mode?" followed by "yes?". That is the only option. No "take manual reading now?" option. I don't see a way to just take one manual reading.

BTW, 80% of all my readings on "auto" are pretty much a joke. Most readings are so low that a person w/ a deadly case of COPD wouldn't show a readings this low. If they did, they would be in the hospital hooked up to a ventilator. Garmin should have just worked on refining their watch's other features, instead of adding untested ones. This feature should have been scrapped due to unrealistic readings. At this price point, it should work as advertised.

joshtee just let the widget sit for a few seconds. It will start taking a measurement.

Also I get the sense that few people wear their watches tight enough for this feature to actually provide reliable data. I'd bet that most people error on the too lose side of fitment. If you can see light under the watch, it is too lose and you'll probably get poor readings.

nmyeti, Thanks. I just tried it a few times taking you advice. I put the watch high on the wrist (more toward the elbow, past wrist bones) and tightened it down. Got 91% and 93%. I then did one more, actually pressing on the watch slightly and got another 93%. I guess it would only be useful if you could get a consistent, inaccurate baseline to go off. 91 and 93 are readings someone with very poor lung function, would have.

joshtee it is very sensitive to movement. Honestly I've only gotten expected results when my arm was basically supported and the watch was tight. I'm going to try to see what happens tonight as I'm wearing the watch tighter than I normally would. I'll let the "all day" setting collect information overnight. In the last 24hrs, I've only gotten a handful of readings in the "all day" mode. I'd like to feel good about this feature as I'm heading to Chicago Basin in Colorado next week to climb some peaks. We'll be sleeping at over 11,000 feet and hopefully will top out over 14k 4x times. If I can get consistent readings overnight that will be very interesting data. I'll try to sit still on the peaks for a reading or two as well.

Mine is not tight but loose as I got a titanium bracelet: i can pass a finger between the band and the skin.
But I wear my watch high on my arm, let say it slides on my arm and this morning I was still at 100%.
The OX level seems to work perfectly on mine.
In this forum reading all those threads titles can be a little depressing don't you think ? Especially when issues are mostly due to not reading the f.... manual. ;-)

I tried again and I put the watch higher (but it's not natural) and I am at 90% but for me it is still innacurate. Happy to know it is woking fine for Nemo :)

Works fine for me and compares against a very expensive medical grade monitor.