Issue with Fenix 5x Altimeter

Former Member over 5 years ago

I recently bought a Fenix 5x and I've been having issues with the altimeter readings. For example, yesterday I manually calibrated it at a known elevation location near where I live, after that went for a walk around the neighborhood (not recording any activity) and by the time I got to the same spot the elevation was off by 40ish ft. I keep calibrating every day and the elevation keeps going off by 40-60 ft every time. I have the auto calibration off. Another example, today I went for a hike and re calibrate it to the know elevation, at the highest elevation of the hike I have a 45 ft elevation difference with the elevation for that spot according to USGS quad maps (got the gpx into caltopo to cross-reference elevations). I'm starting to think that there something wrong with the watch sensors. Have anyone else experience something like this? It's frustrating.

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RUI_LOPES over 5 years ago +1

Hi ,

Same problem. I live near the sea, around 13 meters altitude. Go to bed and set it to 17m (1st floor) and wake up in between -5 and 40m... Stressed most times, of course, because don't know if my…

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0 RUI_LOPES over 5 years ago

Hi ,

Same problem. I live near the sea, around 13 meters altitude. Go to bed and set it to 17m (1st floor) and wake up in between -5 and 40m... Stressed most times, of course, because don't know if my house moved over night (it doesn't happen everyday, but more than I wanted to).

Altimeter keeps changing, giving me storm alerts randomly, even if the sky remains blue and weather unchanged. If I move to different altitudes, value will change, but most times I cannot trust value.

I had (still have) a fenix 3 and that one use to be much better keeping some consistency when I was moving around. Fenix 5X in that department is really bad. Never understood why didn't fenix software team ever looked at it properly, when they had other models working much better.

I was a bit pissed off, initially, now I just gave up, Garmin software teams are useless most times. I try to enjoy my watch, run, exercise, hike, but ignore Altimeter and Barometer, sadly.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RUI_LOPES

Thanks for replying. Something similar is happening to me too. Last night I was watching tv, and in a matter of an hour I the elevation dropped like 30 ft without any remarkable change in weather. Is super frustrating because the main function fro which I got the 5x is the mapping features for hiking and mountaineering and I was expecting a somewhat reliable elevation reading, well at least consistent even if it's 30 ft off or some.

0 Jarek K. over 5 years ago

Hello,

Just think how altimeter could work: it takes data from GPS signal/known position to set Your elevation or You can set elevation manually, than it looks for changes in air pressure (in case of lost gps signal or to preserve battery) to correct altitude (via small hole on right side of watch). So without additional data (eg GPS or some meteo-pressure-info for current location) altimeter could show such strange values, even if You don't move. Outside air pressure change is enough to change readings from sensor.