Wrong heart rate monitor during training

My watch is out of the warranty period so I’m not sure this will work. 

Normally, I would dismiss this blunt comment, but I’m afraid that this bug may be a watch killer, maybe worst (for me) than a bug with the GPS…

I had my watch exchanged because of a faulty button. Took 7 days sending in my watch and getting the new one back.

I contact Garmin Support about this issue. I was told because it's a software issue they're unwilling to do anything about it, so exchange of watch or compensation. The watch is in warranty. The major feature of the watch which underpins every other functionality doesn't work and Garmin won't even deal with it. I was told to use an HRM Pro while they worked on a software fixed, with no estimation of how long that may take. What a joke! Why have I paid almost $1000 for a watch that doesn't work and Garmin won't even honour the warranty. 

Am also having this issue recently, heart rate never gets above around 130. 

Same issue here.. Terrible problem. All data affected and hard trainings don't go above 140-150bmp, even though I can't keep up. Did a full reset and set the watch up from scratch (no backup) which seemed to solve the issue. However, after update 17.28, the problem returned.. Doing the same training with an HR strap solves the problem, but this is not a solution that we should accept long term for a $1000 watch. 

I believe also non training data is affected (ie. HRV). The fact that such a vital function of the watch is presenting problems for months now scares me as it seems to indicate Garmin has not been able yet to find the problem.

That's why I think that all metrics are possibly affected by this issue. Who ensures that HRV and all other metrics which can't be tested so easy are working correct? Can I trust garmin training metrics anymore if they can't even solve such a simple issue with optical HR readings?

Is it still worth to buy a garmin anymore if they don't solve such issues fast and take care of their customers? I am not sure anymore. Stays the long battery life but this will possibly be obsolete with new watches like galaxy watch ultra and energy saving coprocessor and 3nm technology which might also give at least one week of battery life...

Nextgen solid state batteries will melt this advantage of garmin even further...

So for a month I have been frustrated with my HR readings during exercise, only to find that this is systemic right now. And I have the pro plus strap and always use it, but stil the HR is wrong in the beginning, and sometimes in the middle. It sucks because everything seemed to work fine before. I have my old quatix, maybe I should try using that till they fix this. And why is it taking so long to fix? It really sucks having bad HR data during workouts.

6066278 said:

I have the pro plus strap and always use it, but stil the HR is wrong in the beginning, and sometimes in the middle.

Check this setting: Settings>Sensors & Accessories>Wrist Heart Rate>Source Switching.

If it's on, turn it off. The wrist HR will override the chest strap if the watch thinks the signal is bad or if it drops. You might be better off just losing the occasional second or two of data than having wrist data mixed in.

Thanks. Actually, yesterday I turned that and the wrist HR off and finally got a responsive HR reading during my HIIT session. This morning I tried just turning off the Source Switching, and while it didn't lag like it did before (1/3 of the way into the session), it still had a 20 sec lag, which is obviously no good when my intervals are only 30 seconds long. I am going to test with a polar strap and with the pro plus strap without the watch.

Also, i noticed when I switch the watch HR back on, it took it a good 20 sec at least to catch up with my current HR. I was wearing another (not garmin) HR watch on my other hand. So they did something to the smoothing algorithm that is really bad.

Has Garmin issued a statement or anything on when or how this is going to be fixed. I've had a Quatix for 4 years and started using it religously for fitness and training since a year ago, and just updated to the Epix Pro Gen 2 a couple months ago. It seemed like the Epix was fine and responsive then. I know the Quatix was. Now I am trying to remember if this started when I got the Epix, or a little bit later. I'll have to go back and study the training logs.

But this is so serious, I don't understand why Garmin hasn't jumped on it and fixed it. Without an accurate and responsive HR, they are completly out of the fitness watch market. Such a rapid decent from best to last, over some kind of software bug?

I guess there is no way for us to load an older firmware? Probably not, since Connect is probably advanced in tandem.

Sorry for the long response, I am just in shock that Garmin went from best to last so fast and over a software glitch. Hopefully we will get some news, but wow, this has been a long time to address such a serious bug.