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Epix Heart rate reading way too low

5051010
over 1 year ago

I've had tis issue since Feb 2024 (even though my Epix Gen 2 is musch olser). The watch records extra-ordinarily low heart rates during walks and cycling activity. Rendering all the great Garmin metrics useless, such as exercise load,  as they depend on heart rate. I tried the Garmin Heart rate strap (with a new battery)... still the same problem. And it is intermittent. Some days it is fine and on other days it records way to low - at least 20 bpm below what it should be. I bought the Epix in 2022 and this was never an issue until beginning of feb 2024. This problem has rendered the expensive Epix and the great Garmin metrics,  basically useless.

I have found a non-reliable way to somehow kick the low heart rate readings back into normal readings, by stopping and resuming the activity during the activity. But it only works sometimes and is not reliable at all. and this method does not always work and often leaves me with typically a 26 exercise load for a 28km cycling activity. Way to low.

See the heart rate chart inserted. I stopped and resumed the walking activity at around 22mins, and in this case the heart rate started giving the correct readings by jumping up a factor of about 20 bpm-  so frustrating. According to this it really seems like it is a software problem that Garmin has to solve ASAP.

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  • +1 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin Bug
    Garmin Bug said:
    Why haven't your engineers done that during the development phase?

    All software releases are thoroughly tested. And then not released if issues are found. However some issues may effect some, but not everyone. So may not be discovered during testing. While a number of customers have reported this concern, this is nowhere near all users. So our engineers are wanting to take a closer look to see why some are having this issue, while others don't. This is because every users experience is important, even when it is not the majority.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Experienced the exact same issue with my Epix. HR worked completely fine for many runs then all of a sudden the issue cropped up. 

    I definitely recommend filing a ticket with Garmin support and asking for a replacement if they can't troubleshoot a solution. This issue has been reported by so many at this point and Garmin doesn't seem to be taking it seriously which is very strange, and makes me think it may actually be a hardware issue.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6010987
    6010987 said:
    This issue has been reported by so many at this point and Garmin doesn't seem to be taking it seriously which is very strange, and makes me think it may actually be a hardware issue.

    Yes, it is quite strange (not to use more harsh word) that after reporting this issue for so long, they are still only investigating the issue. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Hi Everyone, I have this issue with running.  Because I mainly run, I do not know if it occurs with other activities.  I was on software v15.77.  So it is not specific to latest software version.

    My issue started around 1 month ago.  I run around 6-7 days a week.  So in the past month, this has occurred around 5 times.  Quite intermittent.

    When issue occurs, HR reported is around 90-110 bpm.  I can be running for more than 15-20 minutes.  And it is stuck at low HR.

    The work-around is to turn off the device; and turn-on the device.  Then immediately my HR jumps up to 130-160 bpm.  This has worked every single time.  Not a permanent fix, but I want to share this.

    This issue happened again today.  I figured I should update to latest software, if available.  And I saw v16.22 has been out since 3/18.  So I updated to the v16.22.  Then I saw this thread.  I will contact Garmin support and share my experience.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I seem to have exactly the same issue on my new Epix. Have logged with Support who have requested more information

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to D00M

    I contacted Garmin Support.  Advice is to update to latest firmware v16.22, which I already did.  Do a soft reset.  Previously, I only power cycle (power off and power on) the device.

    Unfortunately, this does not resolve the issue.  v16.22 is actually worse.  On v15.77, I had 5 occurrences in 30-40 activities.  On 16.22, the occurrence rate is close to 100%.  I had couple easy runs in past week, where my HR didn't go up much.  In those cases, it is not definitive if the reading had issue.

    So today, I took out my Vivoactive 4.  Compared Epix (Gen 2) on left wrist vs Vivoactive 4 on right wrist.

    Epix (Gen 2) had low HR reading for initial18 minutes.  And then jumped up to the correct reading.  I didn't reboot my watch in this case.  It just corrected itself.

    Vivoactive 4 showed very consistent HR reading, right after warm-up.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to D00M

    There are multiple threads on this same issue.  And also with other models.  I see similar complaint in Fenix forum.

    Is there anyone who doesn't have this problem?  And has anyone done a hard reset?  If it is due to some setting that is corrupted, then hard reset can potentially fix this issue.  Obviously would prefer not to do hard reset, as then I need to spend 1-2 hours to repeat setup.

    Right now, this is affecting me daily.  So spending couple hours for re-setup is lesser or 2 evils.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

    My last bike ride was a real lung buster (for me) but the heart rates that were recorded were way down in what they should have been. I am aware that wrist based heart rate can be intermittent on a bike if the fit is not right… however, all other rides have given accurate data. Only after installing 16.22 have I noticed this issue.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to D00M
    D00M said:
    Is there anyone who doesn't have this problem?

    Yep. A few of us have reported no problems. This is a comparison between two watches for a bike ride today. One is definitely on WHR and the other connected to a HRM-Pro+. The correlation is that good I had to check! For reference the blue is connected to the strap. The drops in the strap are not uncommon for me and deemed to be physiological. On occasion it's possible to see, although not as large, dips in the WHR at the same point as with the strap.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dr Phil

    Thanks for your input that you don't have this problem. 

    Just putting on my engineering hat...  If this issue is device dependent, it can be:

    - Hardware/firmware conflict.  This can be due to revisions in the hardware.  Only Garmin will know.

    - Firmware/Software setting conflict or corruption.

    - Or we are not using the watch in the same way.  Such as different activity, training plan, spotify music, etc.

    Today, I already warmed up before my run.  I did soft reboot right before starting my run activity on Epix (Gen 2).  Nope, low HR.  On Vivoactive 4, my HR immediately went up to 120-130 bpm.  I restarted my Epix (Gen 2), HR immediately went up to actual.  The workaround is to restart the Epix after starting the activity.  Ridiculous.