Altimeter/Floor Count inaccuracies

I can't offer any advice for the altimeter other than do a forum search on the topic as there are numerous explanations as to why it behaves as you describe. My current F5 Sapphire and previous F3HR both behaved this way.

I have found that doing a more exaggerated than usual arm swing on your watch hand while ascending the stairs one at a time really helps with getting a more accurate floors climbed total. If I don't swing the arm much, or climb real fast, or take two steps at a time it will tend to not count those floors.

Hth.

I can't offer any advice for the altimeter other than do a forum search on the topic as there are numerous explanations as to why it behaves as you describe. My current F5 Sapphire and previous F3HR both behaved this way.

I have found that doing a more exaggerated than usual arm swing on your watch hand while ascending the stairs one at a time really helps with getting a more accurate floors climbed total. If I don't swing the arm much, or climb real fast, or take two steps at a time it will tend to not count those floors.

Hth.

Thanks Vince,

Have you seen inaccuracies with the altimeter? Mine is never accurate for my location, even using GPS calibration. I regularly visit the beach and last time I went the watch had my elevation as -10mtrs and I wasn't using scuba gear, I was stood on the beach :D:D

I spoke with support today, my watch is going back tomorrow.

A barometric altimeter is subject to natural changes in ambient air pressure - generally over several hours. An altimeter is excellent at measuring CHANGES in altitude, but a GPS with a good signal is a better absolute measure of elevation.

But using the GPS calibration it was also wrong so should I be making an adjustment to what I saw stood on the beach or is it faulty?

Just wanted to give credit where its due. I had my 5 replaced by Garmin support and I posted it back on Monday, so it arrived at Garmin before 1pm on Tuesday. The replacement was delivered to me this afternoon.

Well done Garmin.

My altimeter has worked reasonably steadily for the last week, then today all of a sudden my altitude dropped by 70 mtrs and barometric pressure also dropped from 1020mb to 1011mb (I hadn't moved). This is the second unit I have had from Garmin.

Does anyone know if Garmin will give refunds when the watch is out of the 30day return to the shop period? I really am fed up with the issues with the F5 now.

+/-10 meters doesn't seem like that big of a error margin for a small consumer device.

Mine has been reasonably consitant; hitting my floors goal at roughly the same place in my work building as I walk to my floor each day to a margin give or taking a floor or so.

In what way are the floors counting wrong? Keep in mind that a "floor" will be different from building to building so the number of floors it lists may not correspond to how many actual floors in the building you have climbed; but if you repeat the same climb day to day then it should be reasonably constant each time.

+/-10 meters doesn't seem like that big of a error margin for a small consumer device.

Mine has been reasonably consitant; hitting my floors goal at roughly the same place in my work building as I walk to my floor each day to a margin give or taking a floor or so.

In what way are the floors counting wrong? Keep in mind that a "floor" will be different from building to building so the number of floors it lists may not correspond to how many actual floors in the building you have climbed; but if you repeat the same climb day to day then it should be reasonably constant each time.

Hi,

My altimeter reading dropped by 70mtrs today for no apparent reason and as for floor count I am talking mainly about a flight of domestic stairs which my FB Blaze counted accurately every day that I had it, the Fenix 5 counts sometimes then not others, but always under by about 60-70%. So on average I climb stairs circa 10 times per day and my F5 has never counted more than 6 and mostly it shows 3-4 per day.

It may well be faulty.

But I think it's more likely that there will be a minimum altitude change required before it counts a "floor" as being climbed.

I'm guessing but lets say it's 3 meters.

You could have a single flight of stairs that are 3.5 meters so if you walk up them it will generally trigger a floor count.

But all altimeters will have a margin of error; and in little consumer devices, especially wrist based ones where body heat transfer can affect the readings, this margin could be quite large.

But lets say its quite low, +/- 1 meter.

That means you could walk up and down that flight of stairs all day long and if it keeps landing at the minus end of the margin of error then it would never trigger a floor count because you are simply not going up enough floors to hit the minimum change

Your fitbit could simply have a lower minimum change needed to count as a floor that fell more in line with the height of your stairs.

It's also entirely possible for the watch to show altitude changes when you were stationary because it's reacting to changes in air pressure and can be affected by temperature.

If you were walking up several flights of stairs that clearly would account for multiple floors then I would expect it to be reasonably accurate and consistent; if you are just walking up and down 1 flight then I could see it being problematic. If you are walking up multiple flights and I've just misunderstood then as I said at the top, it may be faulty.