Fenix 5 - very Poor Heart Tracking with Tennis

I have had my Fenix 5 now for 3 weeks. With Running and Cycling Optical heart rate tracking works fine and gives me ball park figures (i train with a separate heart rate strap so can control the numbers). However in with tennis the values are just, to put it bluntly POOR. i know from experience that the HR should be between 130-170bpm in hectic games. I am not a OHR noob, have had a Polar A360 just for tennis for a while but made the switch to Garmin. The A360 2 years old worked better than the Fenix 5.

I have set up a training called tennis on the watch with only OHR on (no GPS)

I did the normal things to control the OHR. (wait for a lock, correct wrist fit, even shaved some hair of my wrist, put a sweat band over the watch to occlude ambient light, checked fit), but alas. My Fenix tells me my heart rate is 70-85bpm for most of a match... I know a chest strap is always better than OHR but this is just poor! especially in a €600 watch. See screen below

Anyone have an idea if the accelerometer / OHR maybe have a bug? Or the algorithms at Garmin are not up to interval training?

I hope Garmin reads these threads and can reply on this.

Top Replies

Ma73ko over 7 years ago +1

Really I can not accept that Garmin is focused to introduce new Yoga profile and not a Tennis profile. Coming from a Polar M600 I trust that OHR can be in the ball park even during tennis activities.
I…

All Replies

0 andrej-svk over 7 years ago

Hello, I had exactly the same results with OHR in fenix 5 (2 units tested). Garmin should work on algorithm or something what will improved accuracy of eleveate sensor. Main problem is when you are doing strenght training or internal training - rounds training. I treid everything - different watch position, shaved my arm, 10m warm up but nothing helped. Such expensive device and with such poor results. As was written above... for example with Polar 430 or Fitbit Ionic I had better results! This is really point for improvement. Im going to try Suunto newest watch how they are reliable for srenght - cardio training, what is for me important. I hope that Garmin will bring some update of OHR sensor.

0 JSRUNNER_ over 7 years ago

@Mako73ko Understand your frustration but not sure I fully understand your post above - if this is a key point for you and you must use OHR rather than chest strap then return for a refund

I think it's unlikely that it is the algorithm if you say that OHR for this activity works on some other Garmins - which ones have you tried?

As for support that is poor that you have had no response I have always received a response to emails in 24hrs - but other people have had better luck phoning support rather than emailing

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I have the same problem. Running looks sort of fine with a drop for around 10-15 minutes. Strength Training or EMS training looks completely of the page. Recorded 60-80 BPM where on a workout with a chest strap is around 130-160 BPM. When I am doing EMS training I am not able to wear a chest strap as the electrical impulse destroys the chest strap. So the only chance I have is the measurement on the wrist. I have had a Fenix 3 HR before which has delivered much better results for capturing OHR. I have the problem with any workout rather the running......

I am a Garmin user for more than 3 years now but the Fenix 5 is by far the woerst when it comes to OHR.

0 Ma73ko over 7 years ago

@Mako73ko Understand your frustration but not sure I fully understand your post above - if this is a key point for you and you must use OHR rather than chest strap then return for a refund

I think it's unlikely that it is the algorithm if you say that OHR for this activity works on some other Garmins - which ones have you tried?

As for support that is poor that you have had no response I have always received a response to emails in 24hrs - but other people have had better luck phoning support rather than emailing

I try to post as simple as my English knowledge let me do.
a) I think that the poor results are due to some bug in the FW, and is not a OHR related (vivo active HR seam is working and polar OHR are really ok with fitness and High intensity training)
b) I like the style of the fenix, and I spent some money taking the sapphire version, so i would like Garmin to fix the bug.
c) Garmin sale the watch as "Multisport GPS Watch for Fitness, Adventure and Style"..."Premium multisport GPS watch with Elevate

wrist heart rate technology" ...not me.
d) Garmin support is not responding to me, this is a fact. I'll try Phoning and let you know.
c) I think that the forum is a good place to inform other potential buyer that the watch is not working under some condition and in any case not as stated by Garmin.

If you are lucky or happy It's ok, but a lot of people here are saying that something is not working for fitness, strength and tennis activities we would like to have a reply from Garmin

0 andrej-svk over 7 years ago

I try to post as simple as my English knowledge let me do.
a) I think that the poor results are due to some bug in the FW, and is not a OHR related (vivo active HR seam is working and polar OHR are really ok with fitness and High intensity training)
b) I like the style of the fenix, and I spent some money taking the sapphire version, so i would like Garmin to fix the bug.
c) Garmin sale the watch as "Multisport GPS Watch for Fitness, Adventure and Style"..."Premium multisport GPS watch with Elevate wrist heart rate technology" ...not me.
d) Garmin support is not responding to me, this is a fact. I'll try Phoning and let you know.
c) I think that the forum is a good place to inform other potential buyer that the watch is not working under some condition and in any case not as stated by Garmin.

If you are lucky or happy It's ok, but a lot of people here are saying that something is not working for fitness, strength and tennis activities we would like to have a reply from Garmin

100% agree with your point of view!
Garmin should respond to this officially where the problem is!

0 Ma73ko over 7 years ago

I'm trying to understand better.. looking in to TCX file I noticed that the sampling rate is erratic ranging from 1 to more than 10 second per sampling point...
I think that this behavior is not correct (compared with other TCX files).
Somebody knows the sampling rate of the elevate sensor?

0 Ma73ko over 7 years ago

I found that there is an option where you can define sampling rate (smart or 1 second).
I tried this setting and now I'm able to see higher HR but in any case always 20/40 Bps lower than a chest strap.
I' ll try the beta fw...I took a tcx from a vivoactive HR and hr data are higher (I can' t see anything higher than 130bps)

GARMIN a reply please...(support here in Italy is ridiculous)

0 Ma73ko over 7 years ago

Let me show you a comparison.
First 2 graph are taken with a F5 with OHR and with a chest strap ( 1 set each)
Third graph is another tennis session with the polar M600.

F5 OHR

F5 Chest HR:

M600

0 Ferarana over 7 years ago

Hi friends, I also have a Garmin and I practice tennis and squash, I also have set up a training and what I have noticed, after reading a lot of forums and talking with some specialists who use this type of watches is that the Garmin that detects your heartbeats and registers them, what the OHR does is record the beats for intervals of time (every 6 to 8 seconds) and not in real time, and in high intensity sports in a few time intervals the beaks are lost .
There is a option record smart / 1 second, but this only applies to GPS.
What Garmin should do is give an option to choose that the recording of the OHR be per second and not by intervals, as is currently the case.
I already wrote to Garmin but I do not get an answer on this point yet.
Regards,

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Guest from vivoactive 3 forum. Glad that someone did comparison, maybe that will get garmin attention. You are not only one, who have bad heart rate readings, i contacted garmin support they claim that there can be some misreadings. But when you get 80-90bpm during high intensity workouts its unacceptable, even cheaper fitbit is working better. I think they wont solve the problem utill they get more complains. I got this problem in training mode cardio.