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Anyone STILL having heart rate accuracy issues with their Fenix 6?

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

Hi all,

Super frustrated, but I am still having issues with my Fenix 6S and heart rate accuracy even with the 4.20 software update. I'm wondering if it's just me or what the deal is? I had a 5S Plus before this and had no issues doing the same activities so I really don't think it's user error. My heart rate hardly reads over 110 during really vigorous exercise when my heart rate is closer to 160+. I have tried wearing on the inside of my wrist, tried my other wrist with no luck. It consistently reads 80-110 bpm the whole time. I wouldn't have bothered to upgrade if I knew this was going to be an issue. I know that wearing a chest strap is the most accurate, but I don't like to have to wear it for all of my work outs and my old Fenix was totally fine as well as my apple watch before that. Any suggestions? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Shave your arm hair...tested with 2 devices ssme time and everything is spot....on

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    i also experience this, but only for hike activities. when i cycle or indoor row, my heart rate feels more accurate. but when hiking, it under reports by like 30-40bpm! i don't get it.. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Patk

    I shaved bro. No diff. Now im a bald eagle:S

  • Former Member
    +1 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to 4336216

    agree here. it seems to disproportionally under report for hiking activities for me. cycling and indoor rowing look fine, but always my hiking hr is like 100bpm average, even when my heart is pounding on an extended ascent. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to AndreiDracul

    Same here, I just finished a set of 15 HiiT running intervals. Each time my heart was pounding at the end yet my Fenix 6s Pro never reported heart rates over 155 bpm. 

    This is absolutely unacceptable for a product in the top tier category, especially when combined with all the other clearly known bugs in their software that Garmin has been aware of for years in some cases such as the music player, playlists not deleting properly, etc etc.

    I might be wrong but it seems to me that while Garmin has provided this forum for us to vent (?), there is little to no engagement on their side with the community to address our concerns. Yet, we get a new software update for a dog collar every 10 seconds? Common, if you can push out new features no-one has asked for, why can't you focus on fixing existing ones?

    /endrant

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I got my Fenix 6S Pro in Nov.  The heart rate seemed very accurate for about 1.5 months.  Then all of a sudden in the last 3 weeks it is reading high at rest (90 when I'm usually in the mid 50's to low 60's) and low when working out, reading 120 on a run that normally registers in the 160's.  I have cleaned the sensors, tightened the watch and no improvement.

  • +1 over 5 years ago

    Retested Broadcast Heart Rate from Broadcast widget with FW6.0 and it is still not working acceptably.  Problem area highlighted in purple, you can see it dropped from ~140-150 down to 70-80 for an extended stretch.  At exactly mile 2 I switched from Broadcast HR from widget to Indoor Biking and it works acceptably.  Full activity here https://www.strava.com/activities/3039916083/analysis/15/550

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Similar issue. Bought in Nov and HR was acceptable (not perfect). Then last week, out of the blue it starts reading crazy high during workouts ... 20-60 BPM high. It also reads high during non-exercise time, ~5-20 BPM high. Downloaded 6.0 update, but does not seem to help. Wondering if Garmin made some change that impacts HR accuracy. I’ve tried all the Garmin recommendations, i.e. cleaning, etc to no avail.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to gassman1

    Anyone ever try a factory reset to fix the problem?