Garmin chest straps near useless for people in great shape.

I have around a 40 bpm resting hr. The TriHRM like all Garmin HRM's doesn't activate until over 80bpm. Useless for anyone with a good heart, because a low intensity workout may not bring our hr up enough to pop the straps min hr threshold. It's useless for those of us with a good heart trying to record pre/post workout hr's and also for warmups and cool downs. The Fenix 5x will however the HRM is advertised it can be used solo and then sync to the watch, which it does when it actually records hr, but not before the 80bpm threshold. The Fenix 5x says hr in a pool may not work and says use the chest strap, but if my heart rate is too low the workout (usually beginning) is not recorded if I only wear the hr strap because my bpm was too low to wake up the strap.

Why doesn't the strap start working as soon as it detects HR, if I put the strap on I want it to record hr or I wouldn't have put it on in the first place? Why is there an 80bpm threshold? Probably because this cheep garbage can't detect hr under 80bpm.

It's not a battery thing unless you all are wearing your HR straps around as a fashion accessory to look cool when not working out? No? Are not a retard trying to look cool? Ok then. The device should detect HR when put on no matter what the HR rate. NO ONE wears a chest strap around that DOES NOT want hr recorded... that's why they put the strap on in the place; to record god damn hr. Why do you think they put the chest strap on in the first place you morons? It feels good? Moral support? Fashion? Garmin is run by Idiots.

Edit just to mock Garmin for their incompetence and irony: The trihrm and Fenix 5x are the two most expensive offerings in their class by Garmin. They are advertised for athletes, and those serious about fitness. They are not considered "amateur" device like $50'fitbit garbage "trackers". I guess Garmin doesn't know athletes bodies very well; ironic for a company selling some of the most expensive health trackers on the planet marketed at athletes. What next is Garmin going to make a deal with fast food companies to offer Garmin fitness users discounts on quarter pounders, super sized sodas, and large "fatty" fries? Because every athlete needs a Myocardial infarction now and again.

0 Dr Phil over 7 years ago

The TriHRM like all Garmin HRM's doesn't activate until over 80bpm.

Like others have noted, my 'other' HRMs have all been fine with heart rate much less than 80. It's either something specific to the HRM-Tri or a faulty HRM-Tri.

It's certainly not applicable to "all Garmin HRMs"

0 wojtek_b over 7 years ago

On the contrary, I always had HR dropouts on strength activity. Also on 920XT, which was never affected by connectivity issues. I always blamed HRM Run on this.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Chest straps require good electrical conductivity; which means your skin needs to be damp.

If you're sat there with a HR of a 40 then you would likely also have very dry skin (no sweat) so this could be the issue. Make sure the contact points are wet or get some electrode gel (which can be bought for cheap).

Just wetting them may not be enough if you don't start sweating right away because the area could just dry up.

0 Dexter101010 over 7 years ago

Mine it's working very well without any need of gel or to be wet.

0 tickerguy over 7 years ago

I lick the contact area before I put my HRM-Run on. Why? Because in dry (cooler) weather, or if I don't wait a bit before starting heavy exertion, I've had it record ridiculously high (looks like it's double-counting!) heart rates for a minute or two right at the start of the activity until I get some sweat going on my chest. My previous HRM strap (without the little running guy) did the same thing under the same conditions.

This of course plays all sorts of amusing games with "performance condition" reports never mind if you looked at the graph you'd think I was a literal walking heart attack (I've seen rates materially over 200 and I assure you they're not real!)

It never happens if the contact surfaces have a bit of moisture on them, but if they're dry it will on a reasonably-reliable basis -- but just for the first couple of minutes of the activity, then it sorts itself out.

0 thalinor over 7 years ago

You can say all you want, I have Garmin on a taped line saying it won't WAKEUP until it hits 60-80 bpm. Directly from their tech support. It will record low 40's but WONT WAKE UP THE DEVICE.

0 Pitz66 over 7 years ago

You believe everything someone in tech support tells you? Just saved themselves the cost of replacing your strap. Your choice but the evidence of many others including myself would suggest you have been given a load of codswallop by the Techie to shut you up....

0 TomasMelbourne over 7 years ago

You can say all you want, I have Garmin on a taped line saying it won't WAKEUP until it hits 60-80 bpm. Directly from their tech support. It will record low 40's but WONT WAKE UP THE DEVICE.

So the person you spoke with was ill-informed. I run mine under the warm tap to wet it and then put it on; it wakes up each and every time. And I have a resting HR around 30-35 most days.

0 HermanB over 7 years ago

FWIW, a belt working in the way described in the OP - would make the Garmin HRV Stress Score pretty much completely useless.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix5x/EN-US/GUID-6F1082A9-D190-420E-A31D-C4474A015322.html

Guessing that there's some confusion at play.

0 thalinor over 7 years ago

You believe everything someone in tech support tells you? Just saved themselves the cost of replacing your strap. Your choice but the evidence of many others including myself would suggest you have been given a load of codswallop by the Techie to shut you up....

And no one else sees this as an issue? Just going to buy another one and put the one that was broken out of box back into the box then return it. Not my fault it was faulty out of box and not my fault I was LIED TO by Garmins own representatives for over a month while my return period ended. That should be criminal fraud, lying to people just to run out the return policy.