Wrong heart rate monitor during training

Dr Phil said:

Yes it is inherent OHR limitation. Why else would a two year old thread have relevance currently?

It is not OHR limitation. On top of those problems that were reported 2 years ago, there are new ones reported 6-7 months ago and they are same for all users that experience them - very slow HR to respond (sometimes even 10 minutes into workout) and not being able to capture changes (HR algorithm smoothes/averages HR too much and is very slow to respond to HR changes). 

As I said, this thread is only small part of discussion on this OHR topic, there are many other HR related threads and for all Garmin watches I mentioned (forerunners, fenix 7 and epix), most of which you are well aware but choose to conveniently ignore and cherry pick in order to try to persuade users that it is not Garmin's fault but technological limitation. If that was the case, same problems would be present from the beginning.

Here are just 2 recent ones from this thread that illustrate the point:

4892632 said:

I’ve got the epix since it was released and had no issues until a few updates back. To me the optical HR was so good that I stopped using the HRM Pro band. 

8374040 said:

I raised this with garmin support quite some time ago, and since then 2 updates have come out, neither of which have resolved this major issue. The screenshot is from todays run, where my heart rate didn’t go above 122 for over 6 minutes and then jumped to the mid 160 range

So, let's stop pretending that these issues are due to OHR limitations - if that was the case, these users would have their watches operate as good as they operated when they bought them. 

Problems that occured with HR tracking in last 6-7 months occurred after software updates. Garmin took very long time to acknowledge the OHR problem and 7 months passed and it still did not resolve the issue. So, actual questions (as I already said) are:

1. Will Garmin fix these issues?

2. When will Garmin fix HR accuracy issues that were introduced by its software updates?

3. Why is Garmin so quiet about those issues based on which all relevant training metrics is calculated (garbage in=garbage out)?

Thanks to clarify this again and your patience with some users who steadily ignore this problem.

Let's hope that Garmin will answer this questions within a few days and proof with their answers and actions (time schedule for solution or a solution via update) that they do care about their customers!

I have a suspicion that the OHR issues might exist because of the extreme power optimization they are trying to make. For example, in the past the OHR readings for the Hiking/Walking activities - and in general NON Demanding activities - were painfully inaccurate. I am guessing that the OHR sensors (including LEDs) were set to low power due to them not expecting extreme shifts in HR or thinking the users weren't expecting high reliability. On the other hand, when doing a Running activity the OHR always responded fairly quickly to changes in HR and was generally much more accurate than all other "non demanding" activity profiles. (This was partly confirmed here on the forums as well - users noticed the LEDs in the OHR sensor unit were "less bright" or pulsed differently in some activity profiles)

I'm guessing nowadays this power optimization has slowly migrated also to the Running activity profile, and they're trying to optimize the software as much as possible to overcome the imposed power limitations, and currently failing to find the winning algorithm. 

In my humble opinion - if the scenario above would be true - why not allow users to choose the OHR accuracy level / power draw? Users serious about their training can choose extreme power/accuracy even if they have to charge their watches more often - I for one would always choose accuracy over power (for example I have my GPS systems always to dual channel + ALL on). Less demanding users can choose a softer power profile for their OHR or better yet make this "soft" profile default, as to not confuse users, and allow "power users" the options needed for extreme accuracy. 

There is also the discussion regarding the longevity of the sensors/LEDS and maybe they've discovered that the power needed for "good" OHR accuracy shortens the sensors'/LEDs' lifespan. It happened recently to the Temperature sensor as well, which apparently was disabled for Pool Swim activities because they discovered it would get damaged by the chlorine in pool water :-)

Well, mightbe that you're right. But those things are only assumptions which could be true or not. Only Garmin knows and they should take care of their customers and inform them what's going in to find a solution and give a rough time schedule about that.

And finally, if you're right, Garmin is doing the software development of their devices on the run with sold products which should be working but don't work at all as promised. Those development stuff belongs in Garmins lab and not in my bought device which I paid a lot of money for. The longer I have it and find more and more issues I have the feeling that Garmin sold an unready device to us and is doing the software development on the run with it's customers. And this leads to unsatisfied customers and I have the feeling that this doesn't concern Garmin at all!

Simple Yes/No question:

Does anyone really believe that a software update from Garmin will provide an OHR solution for 100% of the time for 100% of users?

No.  Of course not.

No, of course not. Has anyone ever claimed this in this thread? I don't think so! So that's not the point!

Question to you: will your question help to solve this issue? Simple answer is no!

It's up to Garmin to give us customers a status report of this issue and take care of its customers if they take care about us. It's half a year now and I think we have the right to know what they are doing to resolve this issue.

Right now the impression is that Garmin doesn't take care at all! They have the possibility to change this situation but up to know there wasn't any action by Garmin. Really sad!

Your efforts to divert attention from the topic at hand are too obvious. I said before that pretending there is no OHR issues in last 6-7 months does not help, but you keep doing it. 

Instead of dancing around the issue, let's focus on the actual questions users asked (which were not answered, and practically only Garmin can provide proper answers to if they care to do so). 

Has anyone realized that garmin seems to use different smoothing algorithms for running, treadmill and stepper if using the OHR?

The values seemed much more staircase-shaped on the treadmill and even more on the stepper.

Kind of related to this HR issue, is there a way to reset your garmin connect account to as if you just started? If I delete the account, can I then create a new account with the same email address that will be brand new? I've been using it for a few years, but with all the testing and trying different things to get the HR working again this last month, it's screwed up all my metrics. I had eventually wanted to do this anyways, even before this HR issue started.