Fenix 5 OHR during non activity

My resting heart rate is about 45 when sitting, and when I stand up it goes to about 75 to 80 and settles down to about 60 when walking.
So, what you describe seems logical and normal. Also, your wrist is (obviously) not your heart, so it will take the reading a while to adjust.

The GPS and Elevation matters have been discussed at length elsewhere and, within the limits of a device that you wear on your wrist,
all seem quite normal and are working well. If you want to change to another product, give it a go - but they're not scientific instruments.

My resting heart rate is about 45 when sitting, and when I stand up it goes to about 75 to 80 and settles down to about 60 when walking.
So, what you describe seems logical and normal. Also, your wrist is (obviously) not your heart, so it will take the reading a while to adjust.

The GPS and Elevation matters have been discussed at length elsewhere and, within the limits of a device that you wear on your wrist,
all seem quite normal and are working well. If you want to change to another product, give it a go - but they're not scientific instruments.

I fully expect a rise in heart rate when getting up and walking but a spike from 50 when sitting to 130 when walking is definitely not correct. I always wear a HRM for activities so I know my zones very well. There definitely seems to be some bad fluctuations with the OHR - even my previous watch (Vivoactive HR) was more precise that the F5.

The most common causes of OHR problems are poor watch positioning and placement. Excessive movement of the watch on the arm allows external light to enter the sensor, and messes with the readings. The watch band should be quite snug, and the watch positioned on the fleshy part of the wrist well away from the wrist bone - this is higher than most people typically wear a watch.

The 935 is the same size and has the same algorithms as the F5 - switching is not going to solve this problem.

Except when doing intervals, I find the OHR and chest straps produce very similar results for me - from mid 40s to 80 ish when walking. Although I do find I need to have the watch band one notch tighter for accurate OHR when running than I do for 24/7 monitoring.

The most common causes of OHR problems are poor watch positioning and placement. Excessive movement of the watch on the arm allows external light to enter the sensor, and messes with the readings. The watch band should be quite snug, and the watch positioned on the fleshy part of the wrist well away from the wrist bone - this is higher than most people typically wear a watch.

The 935 is the same size and has the same algorithms as the F5 - switching is not going to solve this problem.

Thanks for that info - are the F5 and FR935 100% the same OS and running same algorithms?

I will have a go at wearing the watch a little lower down the wrist as it's usually quite close to the wrist bone.

Other than the OHR and elevation issue, I absolutely adore the watch and prefer it, especially looks wise, to the FR.

As described in another post - i also have an issue.
recently replaced a faulty fenix 5, which had an accurate OHR. Now, with my replacement unit, the HR seems well off.
Old unit displayed a resting HR of about 45, new unit displays 32! watch is snug on wrist and has been reset, but with no positive effect.
very frustrating to have spent so much money on this yet there seems to be different problems with the unit

I fully expect a rise in heart rate when getting up and walking but a spike from 50 when sitting to 130 when walking is definitely not correct. I always wear a HRM for activities so I know my zones very well. There definitely seems to be some bad fluctuations with the OHR - even my previous watch (Vivoactive HR) was more precise that the F5.

F5 has a really bad OHR (in my opinion a really bad FW implementation) compared with Vivo active HR and other brand OHR.

Try to increase the sampling rate at 1 sec. can improve a little

I'm trying to solve speaking with Garmin support but they are not accepting that something is not working here.
During short sprint (50 meters 100% power than 15m slow then repeat 5 times) my heart rate is not recorded above 130bps (and I know that in these conditions I go up to 165bps)
They say that is something that can not be managed by OHR technology, and give me the link to the limitation due to positioning the sensor, the skin color effect etc..
The fact is that I have this behavior only with F5 OHR, others are really much more close to chest strap HR recording (1 to 5 bps difference).
And... my skin color is not changing... :-P

I like the watch and I really would like Garmin to improve OHR on F5 for activities other than running and cycling.... it's sold as a multi sport watch...

F5 has a really bad OHR (in my opinion a really bad FW implementation) compared with Vivo active HR and other brand OHR.

Try to increase the sampling rate at 1 sec. can improve a little

I'm trying to solve speaking with Garmin support but they are not accepting that something is not working here.
During short sprint (50 meters 100% power than 15m slow then repeat 5 times) my heart rate is not recorded above 130bps (and I know that in these conditions I go up to 165bps)
They say that is something that can not be managed by OHR technology, and give me the link to the limitation due to positioning the sensor, the skin color effect etc..
The fact is that I have this behavior only with F5 OHR, others are really much more close to chest strap HR recording (1 to 5 bps difference).
And... my skin color is not changing... :-P

I like the watch and I really would like Garmin to improve OHR on F5 for activities other than running and cycling.... it's sold as a multi sport watch...

Hi how do you increase the sampling rate? Only OHR options I see are to turn it off and/or broadcast it...

My menù is in Italian but you should go in the set up menù and under System find something like data recording and change from Smart to 1 sec

My menù is in Italian but you should go in the set up menù and under System find something like data recording and change from Smart to 1 sec

Ahh thanks - but the 1 sec/smart option is for data recording during an activity. My issue is noticed when I am not in an activity and simply scroll to the heart rate widget when sat or walking around and find that it's a lot higher than it should be.. it also sometimes climbs and spikes to say 140 (when i'm at around 70) before coming back down to 70 after 10 seconds.