Altimeter Fenix 5

Hello,
I am also member of the club "my garmin fenix 5 saphir sensors go crazy".
After having no larger issues for the first 10 days with my brand new Fenix 5 Saphire, yesterday it started:
While driving my car in the morning about 300 km, the altitude jumped from approx. 200 m (which was correct) to 15500 within seconds. Then it continuously rised to more than 19500 meters. At the same time, the temperature dropped to -11,3 °C (in Gearmin Watch face) and did not change any more.
In the evening the data were still the same, and I decided to recalibrate Barometer and altitude using the GPS. No chance, I got the error message "calibration failed". I checked the barometer data with the widget and got only "- - - " on the display (in the meantime, it changed to N/A in the gearmin display). Then I remembered that there was a lot of static electricity that day (-12 °C and quite dry air), since I got kind of "electro shocks" almost every time when I entered or left my car and touched its door. After finding this thread here I put the watch into soapy water, and after a while it recovered. Its now working ok, but I assume it is just a matter of time until the problem is back. What a misery for a 600€ watch! Dont want to switch to another brand since then I could throw the HRM-Tri into the trash. Furthermore, I am a diver and already bought the dive IQ diving app in order to use the watch as a backup diving computer (https://www.diveiq.com/). However, withall these issues I assume it is not reliable at all even under water.

For me the worst fact is that Garmin doesnt comment on that issue and we still dont know for sure if it is a software or hardware problem. I strongly assume it is a hardware problem. Maybe thats the reason why the very new Garmin Descent diving computer (whichis based on the fenix 5x) i still not available (at least here in Europe) although it was released in October already. When this error would exist also for the diving watch, it would be life-threatening!!
Jens

My experience with this problem lead me to believe that is a hardware problem due to static electricity (that's why there so many reports regarding cars, wool or synthetic clothes and the problem appeared in the winter).

If things start to became crazy:
1 - Put some water in the barometer hole with a finger;
2 -Do not calibrate and wait. The altitude will, slowly, became correct;

1 - submerge the watch in warm water and soap for 20 min;
2 -Do not calibrate and wait. The altitude will, slowly, became correct;

Personally, when I noticed a problematic environment put the water in the hole as a preventive measure.

Hi all

just a quick observation I made yesterday. The altimeter went crazy when I arrived at home the last 2 days. And the air in my home is very dry since the outside weather is very cold here. Relative humidity is now below 25% and as mentioned above, having water on the watch , the altitude slowly come back to normal.


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I tried soapy water on my Fenix as well (updated to 8.00 yesterday, but this not bring any improvement) and did not see any change as well. Tried drop of water as well - no improvement.

After a week of showing nonsense in altimeter and barometric pressure, trying soapy water, droplets of water in sensor hole = nothing brought any improvement. An hour ago, I reset the watches to factory setting, prepared them to second RMA with support of seller, to push Garmin for replacement (first claim rejected, because after reset to factory setting, watches sensors were stable), both, altimeter and air pressure sensor, are stable, showing ± OK values - 279m a.s.l. (real 335m a.s.l.) and pressure 1013,6 hPa (real 1028,4 hPa), without any extra calibration, just wipe watches.
So can someone explain the teories about dry air and static charge, soapy water washing, droplet of waters, if just factory reset seems to fix this ... yes, question is, for how long.
I must say, I am confused, and do not know, what to think about. But anyway, once seller is open to change to new ones, I will send them out. But this is realy anoing. + I guess, I will face the issues again with new ones...

well mines going back its a joke and does not do what it is supposed to do.

just been on a flat 8 mile walk and come back with 5000ft of ascent...showing a max height of 11,119ft and a minimum of -1640ft work that one out.

Garmin we all know you have seen this thread, you are quick to show us your new devices and take the money, just have some balls and comment on here as the silence is simply embarrassing.

mine has shown me at -178,000 ft...ive reset re calibrated updated and it just does not do what it is sold to do....i have other issues as well like the auto stop not restarting,

i wont settle for anything less than all my money back as its not fit for purpose, if it comes back as not faulty like above please explain to me how i can be 5 times lower than the lowest point on earth at the bottom of the deepest ocean known to man.....

comment here....soon

It went back to "normal" state, after came to work, altimeter start rising up (real 240m a.s.l.) after two hours - I am on 690m a.s.l. + while barometer keeps same value. Strange is, that during the night (staying on one place) it worked OK. Will pack it today and send to RMA again...

Yesterday I reset my watch to defaults, let it soak in warm water and started using it without adding any connect iq items. The barometer and altimeter are working perfectly (within reason) today. Stairs are getting counted.

Thinking that the sensor issue might be impacted/exacerbated by watchfaces and/or widgets that are added. Granted I am wearing short sleeves today, this watch is only a few days old - first thing I did when I got it was load all the connect iq apps, widgets, clock faces and data fields I like.

Hello,
now I have the 3rd fenix 5. In the beginning with the same problems, all of them. The altimeter sensors went crazy. (FW 8.0)
Sins 3 days is everything fine.
What I did. I installed the beta version of the FW 7.93. Nothing happened. After it, I installed the FW 7.6. (was in the folder of the beta FW 7.93)
After the installation everything worked fine. Then the upgrade to 8.0. And the altimeter works good.
I tried the same with my 2nd fenix 5 (I didn't send it back to shop), and it works, too.
I didn't install any additional widgets. I didn't try to make any activity with. (I was 2 times on Zwift and there I don't use the watch)
I think, do not install the stair widget. I read in few forums, that it can be the main problem.

Hopefully it helps to anybody.


My installed widgets

Well, I did as some and returned the 3rd Fenix 5 and exchanged for the 935 (applied the remaining balance to the tri bundle) and have had no problems. Don't have to worry about watch faces, widgets, or static. Definitely a sacrifice in the looks department, but I couldn't be happier with the function. Works as intended.

Hopefully this will be fixed with future Fenix designs and I'll see you all back in the forums. Until then, I'll be content with a watch that just works.

Cheers.