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

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? 

  • The same problem for me!

    The HR sensor hub doesn't work.

    I hoped with the software updated there were improvements but zero. No way.  It doesn't work

    So no suggestions for you, unfortunately. The HR sensor doesn 't work

  • hello, after two days from update firmware 9.00 beta , my garmin fenix x6 pro is death, it is turn on anymore. 

  • Talked to Garmin today. Apparently, the Fenix 6 WHR has two separate programs it uses to track HR. 

    1. Not active: roughly upper limit 115 bpm

    2. Active: you're limit unknown. 

    My 80 BPM while cycling was the result from not turning on the activity profile. I was biking but I was using my edge 530 while wearing my watch and using the Rhythm HR monitor. So my watch was stuck at about 80 BPM not active profile. Yeah, I know it's weird if the upper limit is around 115. Why didn't it go higher? No clue.

    Anyway, for today's ride, I connected my watch to my vector 3 and concurrently recorded both from my edge 530 and my Garmin fenix 6. After 2 hours my avg HR was the same. However, until I actually pressed start, my edge 530 showed 123 BPM while my fenix showed 50 BPM. Lol. It takes a few minutes for the Fenix to catch up but it's no big deal. I'm used to leaving the Rhythm HRM at home with my Garmin 935XT. I was going to return the Fenix 6 if it couldn't give me a better experience than the 935XT but I'm glad it was resolved.

    Good luck everyone. Just remember that the Fenix HRM takes a few minutes to adjust once you press the start activity button. That's always been a known issue for all Garmin WHR. I'm off the watch market for 3 years after this purchase. Looking forward to Fenix 8. That'll be the next time I spend another $1k on a triathlon watch. Lol

  • I went for a run last night and was shocked to see the difference in wrist hr measurements between the Garmin and the AW after I stopped the activity and took my HR strap off.

    The Garmin was showing 70bpm, while the AW was at 110!!! I waited for about five minutes comparing the two and taking my own pulse. 

    The AW was correct (based on my manual measurement and gradually went down, while the Fenix was stuck at 75. 

    I started walking, while looking at both still and the Fenix went up to 95 (compared to 105 on the AW); 

    I am currently sat down to get some rest at home and the two watches are within 1bpm. I am finally starting to see what the wrist heart rate outcry is all about. This is just rubbish.

  • It is truly insane. I never had this problem on the Fenix 3/3HR or Fenix 5 Plus+MARQ Adventurer for that matter. Garmin is acting as if these are watches with a battery run time of 24 hours!!!

    I am suddenly really pleased that I never go out running or cycling without a HR strap. What's really bizarre here is that even the massive outcry hasn't been enough for Garmin to reconsider their highly flawed approach to this.

  • I went for a run last night and was shocked to see the difference in wrist hr measurements between the Garmin and the AW after I stopped the activity and took my HR strap off.

    The Garmin was showing 70bpm, while the AW was at 110!!! I waited for about five minutes comparing the two and taking my own pulse. 

    Maybe a stupid question but after running and pressing Stop, did you waited ~90 seconds to get recovery bpm to screen before selecting "save"? As long as you've not Saved the activity, I think watch measures with higher bit rate and so, goes over 100bpm readings.

  • Still issues with HR sensor and Firmware 9.0 and Sensor Hub 5.07 installed. The HR accuracy during a hiking activity ist just not acceptable - for me it‘s sometimes 40-50 bpm off the true value. 

  • Its actually much better and on my end I can say its fixed for running atleast.

    Did theses tests during 30 min runs (slow , medium runs)

    F6x whr only vs:

    H7 : h7 starts high at first ...than after 1 min they are 2 ..3 beats difference...it was cold that morning like minus 3 celsius

    Hrm tri : pretty much same 

    Rythm+ : same like exactly 

    Morpheus band : morpheus is abit higher but nothing crazy.

    I have too many devices....Grinning

    So its fixed for moi!

  • Try doing the same test immediately after you finish the activity and hit save. The HR values produced by the Garmin when not in an activity are so out of touch with reality it's not even funny.

  • After update to 9.0 a still have HR problems. It is slightly better in the moments and slightly different but still big problems. Today i have done some work with chainsaw and HR was outstanding, as should be. But then i test HR within activity and disappointment again and then i test without activity (cpuch and stairs and some push ups)and again big disappointment too. I dont know what is the problem with this HR anymore, and i am really tired with all of this.