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Altimeter Fenix 5

This morning, as I always do, I drove 22 miles to work in the North west of England. According to several websites there is a difference in altitude between my start and finish points of circa 220 feet, the altimeter on my Fenix 5 shows no difference in altitude at any time in the last 4 hours. Is there a setting that I have wrong or is it a faulty unit?

I've had the watch less than a week so haven't noticed this before, so I don't know if this is the first occasion or whether or not the unit has been showing different altitudes previously.

Any assistance would be really appreciated.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Followed this topic for a week.
Got the same problem on my Fenix 5 Sapphire as most of people here.

Yesterday tried all possible ways to fix problem (soapy water, reset, switch to barometer mode, etc) and it did not help.
Late night received software update to 8.0, now everything work perfect (cross my fingers).
So I really hope that it was software issue and everybody with similar problems will fix them after update!

0 Letoxeroy over 7 years ago

Hi All,

Fenix 5: all was cool until update v8.00 this morning. I ran 280m elevation route, now have 10m elevation gain in GC, 6 floors climbed.

This was reportedly broken in the last 7.9x beta! Why release 8 to production?

0 GrantH over 7 years ago

My altimeter was working great for a few hours yesterday, that is, until I went to grab some blankets out from the closet generating static electricity. At that point the altimeter shot up to like 50000 feet altitude.

0 Ursus over 7 years ago

Hi All,

Fenix 5: all was cool until update v8.00 this morning. I ran 280m elevation route, now have 10m elevation gain in GC, 6 floors climbed.

This was reportedly broken in the last 7.9x beta! Why release 8 to production?

Are you saying that your altimeter was fine until 8.0?

I hoped it will fix it, not break it.

It seems that is not connected with software and it's hardware issue.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Ok, I have only had my Fenix 5 for a couple of weeks now, but have found a telling problem. Whilst I am wearing my jumper, which is full of static, my elevation swings from anything like -64000 to +64000 ft. However, if I wear a sweat top instead of a woollen jumper, the elevation on my watch is fairly steady and close enough not to be a problem. Hope this helps some others. It is definitely a static problem probably due to the metal casing. Will now see if there is anything I can do to insulate the casing around the hole to hopefully reduce the static charge around it.

0 AJ0305 over 7 years ago

All,

I have had a Fenix 5 since Mid June 2017 and I cannot seem to get any decent altitude gain measurements compared to other devices i.e. Fitbit Charge 2, iWatch (Series 2).

Garmin have refused to admit any issue and I have tried:
1. Resetting watch
2. Upgrading firmware
3. Cleaning watch
4. Calibrating watch at sea level

I went for a 90 minute ride today and got the following results:

Fenix 5 Altitude gain = 118m
Apple iwatch = 282m
Strava corrected = 271m

Any ideas?

AJ

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Have the 5S and 5X been having the same widespread altimeter problems as the 5? It seems like after searching in these forums and elsewhere that most of the complaints are coming from the 5 users. Maybe the bezels/casings of the other models don't attract the static the same?

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Well, my 5S is on 7.54 SW and altimeter seems to be working fine (comparing measurements to available altitude maps). Then again, there are indeed lots of people having crazy readings indicating some serious issues. Today, for a change, went to the seaside with my dog and calibrated the altimeter tjwre and the reading was spot on. Where I am on a daily basis the fluctuations are within 10 meters, thats enough for me.

0 GrantH over 7 years ago

Nice that yours works. Mine is reporting negative 85642 feet right now after calibration.

0 karen26.2 over 7 years ago

Add me to the list! This is my second 5x, first one had issues with temperature (locked up and was forever on 88) but don't recall altitude being off. GPS was wonky though. This one has been fine until last week, temperature locked up again, now it's 113 degrees, with occasional drops to 111. Altitude is 26k+. I've calibrated both altimeter and barometer using GPS & it does correctly reflect ~1100 feet. But as soon as I start a run or a bike ride it shoots up to 26k immediately & stays there the rest of the workout. What else can I try? Or is it a goner? I hate getting new watches & having to set everything up again. Plus the "hey this is your longest run" messages are annoying. Any suggestions?