Garmin Instinct and rowing

2872536 said:

I strongly suggest serious rowers avoid the original Instinct, but the Instinct Solar is worth the extra investment.

That's an exagerated generalization, based on a subjective experience with a single unit, possibly a defectuous one. While I believe that you had problems with the HRM of your Instinct, it in no way means it is the case for every Instinct owner. I have no problems whatsever, with the HR detection of the basic Instinct, regardles of the sport I do. Works as well for running, cycling, as for rowing. And it likely works well for most of other Instinct owners as well, otherwise we would see many more complaints about the HRM here on the forum.

That told, Instinct Solar certainly usues a superior HRM hardware, but knowing that the MSRP for the basic Instict was $199 until recently (and you can still find the watch for that price), while Instinct Solar's MSRP is double of that, I still think that the basic Instinct is a good deal (even for serious rowers).

Rowing is notoriously difficult to get an accurate wrist measured heart rate. Unless you want to wear a chest strap it makes sense to get the watch with the better hardware. In my limited experience the Instinct Solar could cope, the original Instinct could not. You are not saving money buying a cheaper product if it does not do what you want it to.

Using wrist based HR  sensor will give you more or less inaccurate results while rowing or biking (or anything else really). This tech is based on optical data, your hand is twisting and constantly moving the sensor around, sweat lowers the precision, too [EDIT: not even going into how each person fits their sensor in different place, with slightly different pressure etc. etc.]. It's very plausible that big part of gathered wrist HR data is garbage and is smoothed out by the software (everywhere, not only in Garmin or this particular model - it's a poor way of measuring HR, it's popular because of the convenience). IMO if you are serious about any sport that involves heart rate monitoring go grab a chest strap (HRM Dual for Instinct). This is the right tech for the job. Wrist based HRM is for general (while not in activity) tracking and a fallback if you forget/loose/break your chest strap  

PS. Congrats on the Solar, I'm planning the switch, too - battery life is amazing.

2872536 said:

Rowing is notoriously difficult to get an accurate wrist measured heart rate.

As I wrote, this is individiual and subjective, hence the generalizing and scaring people off the purchase, is inappropriate. For me, and for the friends who bought and use the same standard Instinct, the HRM works reliably for rowing, as well as for biking, or running.

I agree, a chest strap is far more reliable, but I believe the HRM dual is only rated for 1atm water resistance and I would be nervous using it for OTW rowing. The more water resistant straps are not listed as being compatible with the Instinct series and I have not tried them, so cannot comment. The Instinct Solar is accurate enough for basic heart rate zone training when rowing. My original instinct was fine for non rowing activities.

2872536 said:

I agree, a chest strap is far more reliable, but I believe the HRM dual is only rated for 1atm water resistance and I would be nervous using it for OTW rowing. The more water resistant straps are not listed as being compatible with the Instinct series and I have not tried them, so cannot comment.

A chest strap is definitely the way to go.  FYI, the HRM-Tri which has plenty of water resistance is definitely compatible with the Instinct:

You probably won't get all the fancy running dynamics on the Instinct that you would get on the fenix 6 series, for example, but you will certainly get all the data available on the HRM-Dual.

HTH

Thanks,

I never understood why the HRM Tri was not listed as a compatible device with the Instinct.

Because of the fact that the Instinct does not support advanced running metrics the HRM Tri delivers, so stating that they are fully compatible would be false advertising, esp with the HRM Trips price tag.