Various issues with my Fenix 5X

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hi, I got my Fenix 5X on Friday 31st March but am having various issues with it:

HEART DATE
Heart rate data is very inaccurate here are some examples: On Saturday 1st April I ran a 5 mile race in a new pb so was clearly pushing but my average heart rate for the race was recorded as an average of 145 with a max of 162. Then 1 1/2 hours later I did a 12 mile run the first 8 or 9 miles of which were at a nice easy pace and in between tthe 5 mile race and this run I didn't take off the watch, adjust the strap etc but around 40 mins in my heart rate suddenly jumps to around 160 and then stays there. Then around 1 hour in when I decided to up my pace and push myself the is no noticeable increase in my heart rate if anything it dropped. Then finally near the end of the run I eased my oace right off but my heart rate doesn't drop. In subsequent Easy pace runs my haart rate also seems very high.

PACE
On the same 5 mile race my pace drops a couple of times to around 7:20 min mile / pace whereas in reality it could never have gone slower than 6:20 min / mile pace.

3rd April I did a 6 and a bit mile Easy pace run, a run I have done literally hundreds of times so when I downloaded the data to Strava I was surprised to see the distance had been increased and my pace therefore made faster. When I look at the data on Strava Connect I see I had a fastest pace of 4:29 min / mile which clearly is wrong as are the occasions where the data shows circa 9 min / mile. I contacted Strava about this and they said "it looked like some erroneous GPS data in the file was causing your distance to be over estimated. *I recalculated your distance ignoring the GPS data".

4 April same issue as yesterday although this time I haven't as yet contacted Strava.

My watch is running Software 2.50 (9032377), for running I have the watch set to GPS + GLONASS, I have 3d speed on, 3d distance on plus in general settings also data recording to Every second.

Here are the runs I have mentioned:
5 mile race Check out my running activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1654036834?share_unique_id=8

12 mile run Check out my running activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1654207228?share_unique_id=10

3rd April run Check out my running activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1655566375?share_unique_id=12

4th April run Check out my running activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1657293908?share_unique_id=14

0 FlipStone over 8 years ago

Fenix5 owner here, heart rate seems fine in my case.

Do you wear the watch (very) tight when running? That is necessary for proper heart rate... Are you darker skinned? From what I read and heard heartrate can be an issue with a darker skin due to the sensor/technique.

About the pace, try the 2.72beta software. This has improved things a lot for me, but the pace (and gps) is still more unstable then for example my 735xt. But at least with 2.72 it seems quite usable... It unfortunately seems an consequence resulting from the material used and/or designed of the fenix series. Less stable gps signal -> more variation -> also in pace.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Many thanks for the reply. I have the watch tight enough so that it is leaving indentation marks on my skin, if it was any tighter it would be uncomfortable and I suspect cutting circulation to my hand. I am white, in fact pale white, no tattoos, not hairy etc etc so probably the best possible "subject" to be wearing the watch for hrm accuracy.

The fact that the pace info is noticeably worse than my nearly 10 year old Garmin 310xt is extremely disappointing, this is Garmin's flagship watch, it the pace is inaccurate it's not a great starting point and then with the hrm also being so inaccurate all the other data the watch produces based at least in part on the hrm must by default also be inaccurate. at the moment it appears as though I have a fairly expensive piece of jewellery that isn't much for anything other than telling the time....

As you can probably tell I am a tad disappointed.

Is it safe / wise to use beta software? Given lots of other people aren't reporting the same issues I wonder if it is a simple case of me having a "duff" watch?

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Try updating to v2.72 beta. It seems it is pretty stable and fixes some GPS issues at least it fixed them for me (from v2.40)

0 bglover11 over 8 years ago

If you care much at all about accurate HR data then pick up an HRM Run strap and don't look back. I've never cared much for the wildly inaccurate HR data from any wrist based reader (not just from Garmin). Not to mention you get so many other metrics like ground contact time, cadence, balance, etc with the HR strap. The wrist based reading is more a novelty than an accurate tool in my opinion

0 tickerguy over 8 years ago

I've not had any trouble with pace nor the HRM.

However, for running I do wear a HRM-RUN strap -- because I want the advanced dynamics. There is now a "pod" for that (smaller and worn on the shorts instead of the chest) but I don't know what the HRM stability is when running with the optical. For everything else I do it's spot-on.

My daughter (who has a VivoActive) and I (with the F5) ran a 5k this weekend. Our distances were only off by one tick (0.01 mile), which is certainly within the range of reason (+/- one count ain't bad.) Track had some inaccuracy, but nothing awful; roughly the same as my F3.

I wear my watch on my right wrist because I'm left-handed. If the F5 GPS antenna is in the same place as on the F3, this is a disadvantage as it's "low" rather than "high". Sucks to be a lefty, I suppose, but only by a bit.

For comparison I have owned a 910XT, a 310XT and a 305 before that (in order) prior to going to the Fenix line. The 910XT and 310XT both used a SirF chipset for GPS and both were plastic-cased Both produced more-accurate tracks, but in terms of distance the error rate is indistinguishable. I think it's reasonable to assume the reason is that the GPS sensor antenna on both was literally facing the sky on your wrist since it was "below" the face of the watch -- but that doesn't work for a watch that looks like a watch for obvious reasons.

I'd like better track accuracy but the former penalty that used to be there for not using 1 second recording appears to be gone -- there was a penalty to be paid for using Smart recording but it looks like the F5 series incorporated more on-watch sensor data to shift the recording period shorter more-quickly, and it shows.

You might have a bad unit; I've got fairly light-skinned arms but they are somewhat hairy; it doesn't interfere with the HRM at all though.

Here's yesterday's heart-rate graph from Connect; during the run I was wearing a strap, but otherwise it was all optical... you can't argue much with that; there were two small gaps but both were where I took the watch off to shower.

0 Christopher995 over 8 years ago

StuartTrav - did you end up finding out anything? Mine was working fine at first (back in May) - and now looks like yours (totally inaccurate - which you can tell just by looking at how smoothed out it is, not to mention for me it runs about 20bpm low. I find the same thing - if I'm running fast, it's low - if I slow down - it jumps up.

I'm running the beta 4.12 right now at the request of Garmin support - but that did nothing for the problem.

0 JerBear100 over 7 years ago

5x owner here
My Hr is way off as well! Same as Christopher around 20+ bpm low. Thought it was just low for strength training ...Hr in this activity ranges from 70 to 105.. This is while super setting, crazy! Contacted Garmin and they say they haven't heard a word on 5x hr inaccuracies. Today I strapped on my old vivosmart hr and carried my Samsung S7 edge with HR sensor. Started a brisk walk and watched all 3 devices. The HR was extremely consistent on vivosmart and S7 climbed perfectly to match in the mid 120 range, whilst the Fenix 5x was jumping around from mid 80's to 105! I'm thinking, man this is crazy! I then proceeded to strap the Fenix 5 on the same wrist as the vivosmart just above it. The heart rate began to match. Big issue with this was the 5x was all the way up my arm. There's no way I could ever wear it this high on my arm!! I tried multiple positions on both the left and right arm just to see if anything would change, did it? No! It did not. There is definitely an issue with this device. I believe I'm going to go return it and possibly just get 5! Oh oh, and by the way, I am a white male with no tattoo and I even shave the hair on my arm for this test.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I've been persevering with my 5x for a couple of months hoping that the pacing issue will improve, but it's still entirely unusable as a training tool for me. Yesterday's session was a bunch of 4:15 min/km intervals, each 3.5km long on a long smooth loop, so plenty of time to monitor the pacing info and a steady pace for the 5x to get a handle on. The pacing read in excess of 5:00 min/km throughout, often as high as 5:45 min/km, yet the 1km splits were all in and around 4:10-4:15 min/km. And though my trainers are pretty dry, I still seem to run through a lot of lakes if the GPS is to be believed.

Back to the largely reliable 920xt for me.

0 Lucinda over 7 years ago

I contacted Garmin today as my 5s has stopped sampling my HR at acceptable intervals. When I bought it two months ago my HR graph was jagged, as expected when running hills. I'm getting lots of flat lines now where it shows the same HR
for extended periods. Garmin told me it's acceptable for the watch to sample every four to five MINUTES. Are you kidding me?!? I know that's not right as it worked perfectly for the first couple of months. So thankful I purchased from REI. They are exchanging with no issue. I do love the watch hopeful it's just a defective unit.

0 Darenasp over 7 years ago

Forst of all you shoul try to downgrade to the same working firmware.