Barometer issue

It really bothers me when I think I’ve got a €750 watch that doesn’t work properly..

First a battery issue and now a very annoying barometer issue. Add also the time I wasted to ship my watch back and forth to Garmin assistance and the related long waits... well, this is making me preeeeetty nervous.

Surely, if one of the forum moderators could at least confirm that the barometer issue will be sorted via firmware update I’d feel a bit better!

Next Monday I’ll call Garmin assistance and ask them to get this watch back because of this damn problem with the barometer.

It really bothers me when I think I’ve got a €750 watch that doesn’t work properly..

First a battery issue and now a very annoying barometer issue. Add also the time I wasted to ship my watch back and forth to Garmin assistance and the related long waits... well, this is making me preeeeetty nervous.

Surely, if one of the forum moderators could at least confirm that the barometer issue will be sorted via firmware update I’d feel a bit better!

Next Monday I’ll call Garmin assistance and ask them to get this watch back because of this damn problem with the barometer.

I'm interested in what you're told. Garmin support (via email) said a +10mb was 'expected' and let me know how to calibrate the altimeter, which of course only treats a symptom.

It is very steady +10mb, so it does seem like a simple calibration error.

Garmin again refuses to add proper altimeter calibration ... again.

I have a Fenix 3. Before the Fenix 3 I owned an Epix. I didn't buy the 5x, after my horrible experience with the latter ...

It is/was and stayed impossible to calibrate the barometric altimeter of these two watches, other than the way Garmin provided them with, namely:
Input of the altitude of current location above mean sea level ...
that is: IF you happen to know your current elevation ...
Most people don't, in any case not when staying in unfamiliar locations without a map.
Garmin provides GPS auto-calibration, but this is inherently unprecise.

Oh and: Input of a negative elevation is not possible alas. People in the Netherlands (like me), of which 25% of the land lies beneath the sea level or in Death Valley (in the US) for example, therefore even cannot use known elevation method properly ...

The functionality they SHOULD add to the mix of course, is calibration by input of the current air pressure!!
Pilots do this all the time and call this value QNH. You and I can find this value, because it is part of the normal weather reports in news papers, on the internet, the wx apps on your mobile phone.. etc. These values are frequently updated, several times per day, for several local areas.
Why Garmin refuses to add this functonality .. beats me ... They did in their Oregon handhelds, with success, so why they don't in their watches is a mystery to me ...

I have a Fenix 3. Before the Fenix 3 I owned an Epix. I didn't buy the 5x, after my horrible experience with the latter ...

It is/was and stayed impossible to calibrate the barometric altimeter of these two watches, other than the way Garmin provided them with, namely:
Input of the altitude of current location above mean sea level ...
that is: IF you happen to know your current elevation ...
Most people don't, in any case not when staying in unfamiliar locations without a map.
Garmin provides GPS auto-calibration, but this is inherently unprecise.

Oh and: Input of a negative elevation is not possible alas. People in the Netherlands (like me), of which 25% of the land lies beneath the sea level or in Death Valley (in the US) for example, therefore even cannot use known elevation method properly ...

The functionality they SHOULD add to the mix of course, is calibration by input of the current air pressure!!
Pilots do this all the time and call this value QNH. You and I can find this value, because it is part of the normal weather reports in news papers, on the internet, the wx apps on your mobile phone.. etc. These values are frequently updated, several times per day, for several local areas.
Why Garmin refuses to add this functonality .. beats me ... They did in their Oregon handhelds, with success, so why they don't in their watches is a mystery to me ...

what? You don't know your current altitude (you can use an application in your smartphone to get that information) but you know the current air pressure in your exact position??? Really? I think that current altitude can be known easily. For air pressure you need another accurate barometer ( airport information is not valid but you are at airport because air pressure is different in each location ).

Good morning
I want to update the information about values of the barometer from my Fenix ​​5x
Two months ago, when I received my RMA watch (screen flickering), the barometer showed a difference between 11 and 13mb compared to my fenix 3 and my weather station
During these two months, the difference has been increasing up to 18mb - 19mb

In addition, I can verify the following (manually calibrating the altimeter of fenix 3 and fenix 5x before starting the activity and no auto-calibration) :
-The total ascent or descent is about 5-6 meters less by each 100m in the fenix5x
-The altitude (barometric, not GPS) is about 3-4 meters less by each 100m elevation or descent

For example:
Activity MTB coming out and returning to the same point. Manual calibration of the two watches at 30m altitude.
-Distance 30km (2 hours)
- Total ascent in the FENIX 3: 725m
- Total ascent in the FENIX 5x: 685m
-FENIX 3 MAXIMUM ALTITUDE: 525m
-FENIX 5X MAXIMUM ALTITUDE: 500m

The highest point with GPS reading (not barometer) is 520m (in both watches)

When the activity finishes the two watches shows the same barometric altitude (2 meters difference)

I guess that the sensor of my Fenix 5x is dying progressively

I added a field that shows Ambient and baro. pressure to my Fenix 5. My Galaxy S8+ has a barometer in it and since that is the only other barometer I have handy I compared the two. Ambient pressure seems to be +/- .02 hPa from the Samsung unit.

How does the Fenix calibrate altitude based off this number? I have an app on my Galaxy S8+ uses the data connection to find the nearest airport reference sea level pressure. I'm roughly 6 miles from this location so the barometric altitude tends to be pretty close. It doesn't seem like the Fenix make any external connections when you calibrate, but it is also not exactly matching GPS elevation, so what exactly is it doing?

There is this widget making calibration of the barometer possible: https://apps.garmin.com/da-DK/apps/c4c7fb2b-05ba-4b01-9dcd-f19fa2c298b5#0

Thanks for the link Allan.
I'm trying to understand why the F3-F5 has a different way of accruing elevation between climb/descent and this widget might just help me find and understand why.
Example -> walk straight down from 150 to 2. Coming back uphill 10 minutes later from 2 to 156.

This escapes me to this day.

I've downloaded and reviews your widget Allen. Looks pretty good. For me the barometer works well.

I'd not realised there was an issue but since reading this thread I've been comparing my watch data vs data online from internet. Typically less than 1 or 2 mb variance which I'm satisfied with.