ANT+ issues with Garmin sensors

On a forum, you will most likely meet people who have issues with their products. Considering that the ANT+ connection seems to be the most common issue with F5/F5S, do not expect to find tons of people telling you that everything's perfect with their F5/F5S.

I had a few issues in the past with one of my Garmin product, that's why I have an account here.

However, I have no issue with my F5 and no issue when my F5 is connected to the chest strap. It just works fine.

In my experience, the F5 is a really good product. I like it a lot. At some point I also considered buying the FR935, and I still think this is a very good watch. But it is a (very expensive) plastic watch. And I wear my watch 5 days a week at work + during my social life outside of work. This is much more than the time I run or exercise. The F5 does not look like a pure sport watch. The FR935 does.

You could get 5x, from what I understand it doesn't have the ant issues. I would not risk getting the 5.

My issues with the Fenix 5 were mostly while i was on the bike. With the watch on the right side of the handle bars and the Garmin cadence sensor on the left I'd get signal drops. I also would lose the signal from my chest strap HRM (Wahoo Tickr x via ANT+) from time to time while riding. I never observed a dropout of the chest strap while running, but I tend to keep my arms in pretty close as it helped me learn to not over-stride when I first started running.

I should also mention that I had a really short range of Bluetooth connectivity to my phone. sometimes the connection would be lost or flaky sitting in the same room.

I upgraded to a 5x and all my connectivity issues went away. There appears to be a real issue with connectivity and the Fenix 5, which is a shame because I rather liked the size of the unit. That said the 5x was easy to get used to and the wider bands make it quite comfortable on the wrist. The upgrade was a good choice. The added bonus of the maps is also more useful than I expected. I bought mine from REI which has a really solid return policy. I'm glad I did.

I would agree with the 5x suggestions, unless you have small wrists like I do. I think a 5x would dwarf a 6.4 inch wrist.

Relative to the problems with ANT+/Bluetooth connectivity, has anyone been able to send their watch back to GARMIN Support and get their money back or exchange it for another watch? Or the returns/exchanges mentioned in this forum are only with others online our physical stores with "No Questions Asked Return Policy"