Heart Rate (WHR) is showing complete wrong data since upgrade to version 4.10

Before the upgrade to version 4.10 the HR was very accurate and almost 100% aligned with Treadmill sensors and chest strap sensor. Now the HR is about 20-30 beats too high!!

I changed to Garmin because I wanted to get rid of the chest strap... And now i'm really considering to return the watch (as it is even less accurate than my former cheap Fitbit which was for which I only paid 100 bucks...). 

Has anyone else the same issue???

  • I have also problem with whr. During activity my heart rate is max 106 bpm.

    There is a lot of posts about wrong and inaccurate whr.

  • Did some interval training today with the fenix 6 (4.10) as well as a pulse band monitoring my pulse (for comparison) . Did 5 intervals where each interval consisted of 3 minutes in green zone, 2 in yellow and 1 in red. I thought that the watch would be able to track this kind of accurately as the increase of pulse was incremental as well as the intervals not being very short. During the beging of the first interval the watch tracked my HR accurately up until reaching approximately 140 bpm there is stopped. During some intervals it was as low as 50-70 during the whole interval.... I wore the watch high up on the wrist and tightly.. 

    Do you think this is due to the hardware being faulty or is it software related so that we can expect a fix?

    With this bad accuracy all the "conclusions" by firstbeat are useless....

  • Don't expect any satisfaction from any watch with optical heart rate for 'active' activities. If it works great ou are likely to be one of the few for whom it does work accurately. It's always been the case for the majority that a chest strap is needed for accuracy for anything other than activities of daily life.

    That said, Garmin have made massive strides in the technology. For me anyway, it's right more often now than it's wrong but still not completely trustworthy as a source when I want to track data more accurately. Garmin have also got it to a reasonable level swimming too. It's no longer a flight of fancy when swimming but very close to reality.

    And yes it does change as software changes as Garmin tweak the sensor data calculations. So expect a bumpy ride as they constantly try to improve the results. But there is no escaping the fact that for the majority the technology in Garmin or other watches is not quite there yet for wrist worn optical heart rate sensing.

    As noted, there are many posts about this because every individual seems to think only they are having difficulties. Take a few minutes and you'll soon find posts just like yours "WHT got worse after the last update". "WHR doesn't work." And you'll see the same replies time and time again.

  • Thank you for your thorough reply. As you said there are multiple people reporting unaccurate readings. However most of the reports I've stumbled upon are people with readings that are 20-30bpm off. That I've expected all the time. I was fully aware that for accurate readings I would need an external sensor. But as I'm not a professional athlete I'm not looking for 100% accurate data to deep dive into but rather an indication to how hard I'm training. In other words 20 bpm off is acceptable to me. However, seeing the watch show a pulse varying between 50-60 bpm during a time period of 5 minutes when my pulse was at 140 at lowest and as high as 185 at some points makes me worried that the "indication" I'm seeking won't be a functionality provided by this watch.

    Wanted to know if a measurement that off indicated a faulty hardware or if this is normal... 

    Thanks! 

  • My Garmin Fenix 6x was working perfectly since I got it. Then a few days after the 4.10 update I started experiencing issues where the HR would hang in the 80’s even though I was well into the 130s and beyond. Then other times I find that it just won’t capture my heart rate when I get above 140 or so. I am showing anaerobic shortage because of it. Even though I have done some really intense HIIT workouts.

    The one work around I have found helps is to power cycle the watch before each workout. Doing so seems to get me through a workout though this still is not helping capture my really high intensity workouts.

    I have a question for everyone are you using the Broadcast HR over ANT for workouts? I have been doing my workouts with it on and today I happen to turn it off because I was trying to isolate the issue and my HR was fairly consistent today.

  • I have been EXTREMELY disappointed in the OHRM on the watch. I am coming from an Apple Watch 2, yeah three years old technology, and its wrist based OHRM was sssssoooo much better. I know wrist based optical monitors aren't perfect, but this one is ridiculous.

    I mountain biked for two hours today most of it hovering around 150-160 bpm, and the watch never read above above 85 bpm. It is extremely frustrating to spend so much money and have three year old technology be better. I might be sending my back in and checking out Suunto. 

  • I was experiencing a low HR on runs, biking, and hiking, also my OX readings seemed low. I noticed that any HR over 120 became erratic on my Fenix 6 Solar. I got a replacement and it seems to be working well now.

  • Problems for me are since 4.10.  Walking Tuesday I checked the watch and it showed a 170HR.  Stopped checked manually was at 96.  Sitting in a chair yesterday HR showed 114.  Manually checked not even close.  Really believe 4.10 is the cause as did not have the issue before.

  • Have any of you guys found a fix or seen improvement? I thought 4.20 was going to help but hasn't at all. My heart rate basically doesn't read over 110 now even when it's closer to 160+. I know it's not user error cause I had a fenix 5S plus before this that was just fine for me. Super frustrating because I am trying to track intensity, aerobic/anaerobic, and calories. I've been trending this for some time and trying to make improvements knowing that the watch is probably not 100% accurate. It's been accurate enough to see improvements and reading continuity in similar workouts. Super frustrated. 

  • Garmin is still investigate. There is no fix yet.