Altimeter/Floor Count inaccuracies

Hi,

Is anyone else having issues with altimeter inaccuracy and also floor count inaccuracy?

Whenever I check my altimeter it shows the wrong data. It is out by as much as 10 metres wherever I am. I can recalibrate manually or using GPS and if I then leave that exact location, for example to take my dog for a walk, and then return home the unit never ever returns to the same elevation as previously. I have checked the elevation for certain locations using web resource and then entered that elevation manually and the same thing happens, I leave for a short walk/run and return and the altimeter never comes back to the same readout.

The floor count is counting maybe half the number that I am actually doing.

Can anyone shed any light/give any advice?
I am running Beta 3.11 on a Fenix 5 on Garmin supports suggestion but it hasn't made any difference.
Am I expecting too much? Surely there is no point in having an altimeter if it is never accurate?

0 rickj2903 over 8 years ago

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.

Hi,

Thanks for explaining (I wish Garmin support could be bothered to do the same) Unfortunately I am out of the 30 day return to shop period (although as Garmin replaced it within that time maybe I could still return it) if I can it will definitely be going back, for the money it has too many issues (GPS/Altimeter/Floor counting/dropouts etc.) and apparently isn't even as accurate as a watch a third of the price at counting floors. I really don't think that its too unreasonable to expect a unit costing £500 and upwards to do the job that it is sold to do.

Thanks again.

0 mcalista over 8 years ago

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 mbar is about the change you would expect with a 70 meter change in altitude, so that seems pretty consistent. The most likely explanation is that the ambient air pressure in your location has changed with the weather.

0 rickj2903 over 8 years ago

10 mbar is about the change you would expect with a 70 meter change in altitude, so that seems pretty consistent. The most likely explanation is that the ambient air pressure in your location has changed with the weather.

Hi mcalista,

I am in the North West of England and the weather has seen a very pleasant and consistent high pressure sitting over us for the last couple of days, would I have seen a change in weather with a 10 mbar change? Interestingly after my initial post I went back outside and calibrated the altimeter with GPS (back to the correct elevation 70-75mtrs higher than it was showing) and the barometer also shot back up by 10mbar again.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

My altimeter is terrible. Its wildly out all the time. Its often reporting +/- 50 m out and doesnt count floors correctly at all. I've been sat at my desk for the last 4 hours at a true elevation of 77m. This crept up slowly to 111 on the watch at which point I re-calibrated it back to 77. Over the last 2 hours its now ticked up to 89 and still going up. As I said, I havent moved for 4 hours...

I contacted support about this earlier in the week and they told me to reset the watch (I havent yet), and then said that if this doesnt work 'here's some links as to how the barometer works in your watch'. Totally unhelpful.

0 rickj2903 over 8 years ago

nissan mcclennan

My altimeter is terrible. Its wildly out all the time. Its often reporting +/- 50 m out and doesnt count floors correctly at all. I've been sat at my desk for the last 4 hours at a true elevation of 77m. This crept up slowly to 111 on the watch at which point I re-calibrated it back to 77. Over the last 2 hours its now ticked up to 89 and still going up. As I said, I havent moved for 4 hours...

I contacted support about this earlier in the week and they told me to reset the watch (I havent yet), and then said that if this doesnt work 'here's some links as to how the barometer works in your watch'. Totally unhelpful.

Hi Plumpmonkey and thanks for replying, I thought that I was the only one having these issues.

I did a factory reset on my watch last week and it seemed steadier until today. Then for no apparent reason it dropped 70mtrs, I reset the altimeter and have just got home from work and now the altitude is out by 100%, its showing 48mtrs when the correct elevation for my location is 24mtrs