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

The low heartrate issue outside activities isn’t fixed yet. The Ticket is still open.

Just an update on my experiences since my last post.  As I said before, I've been testing the Fenix 6s Pro OHR vs. a Garmin HRM-Dual.  Recently, I got a Polar OH1+ armband OHR and have been testing that.

Skate Skiing:  The other day I went skate skiing.  The Fenix 6 produced pretty much absolute garbage HR data.  The OH1+ was pretty good except in a few spots it suddenly gave much lower HRs than the HRM-Dual (the latter seemed correct because this was in the intense part of some intervals).  I think the OH1+ may have slipped a bit, but more testing is required.  I think the problems with the Fenix stem from using the poles.

Walking:  The Fenix continues to produce erratic results.  The OH1+ is very similar to the HRM-Dual, except at some points it goes nuts.  Again, more testing is required, but I'm hoping it's just positioning and tension (i.e. it slipped).  All I do on these walks is swing my arms, and occasionally throw snowballs for my dog.  But, even on walks where I don't throw snowballs, the Fenix has gone nuts sometimes for no apparent reason, even if I'm just standing still talking to someone!

Indoor Cycling:  Got a new trainer yesterday so tried this for the first time!  The Fenix was nuts for a few minutes, then I tightened the strap and it got pretty good (w/respect to the HRM-Dual paired with Zwift).  That is, until I finished an interval.  It stayed up high (the HR) for almost 1.5 minutes after I finished the high HR part of the interval.  The OH1+ in general didn't respond quite as quickly as the Fenix, but it didn't have such a large error after that particular interval (or any of the others).

Weight Lifting:  Did a legs workout the other day.  The Fenix surprisingly was garbage most of the time.  I thought, well, maybe since all I'm doing is dangling dumbbells occasionally at the ends of my arms while my legs did all the real work, that  it'd work well.  No.  It seems the wrist based OHR sensor can't handle ANY usage of your hands, except gently and quiescently holding onto a bar -- like for balance during standing calf raises.  The OH1+ was a very good match for the HRM-Dual except at one point at the end when it inexplicably went nuts and showed a low HR when my actual HR was elevated.  I added some dips and bicep curls in at the end of the leg workout to test the OH1+ while using my arms.  It was during the dips that the OH1+ missed the spike in my HR.  As a reference, on this workout, I wore the OH1+ high on the upper arm on the tricep.

My conclusions so far are:

1) The Fenix won't work if you're swinging your arms.

2) The Fenix won't work if you're gripping anything, rolling your arm to look at the watch, or really doing much of anything with your arm or wrist except quietly and lightly holding onto something -- like the bars on a bike, or a bar for balancing, etc. Oddly, the Fenix DID do well outdoor cycling when I was holding various parts of the handlebars and out of the saddle with lots of pulling on the bars (as I was pumping the pedals and swaying the bike).  But that was only one ride a week and a half ago.  I've only got to try it once as we now have 3 feet of snow everywhere!

3) When the Fenix IS working well, it has a fast response time.  So, it follows intervals quickly.  The OH1+ seems to be delayed by about 7 seconds most of the time (but not always!).

4) The OH1+ is more sluggish in its response to HR changes, but overall is more accurate -- right up to the points where it just loses its mind!  I think that's a slippage or other fit issue that I'm hoping I can figure out eventually.

5) The HRM-Dual seems to work great, but I hate chest straps.  Hence my attempts to find a more comfortable alternative.

The Fenix I have, the Fenix 6S Pro, is pretty cool.  I think it has value (I'm hoping!) in terms of all-day monitoring and sleep monitoring.  The sleep monitoring appears to be (possibly) accurate.  I say possibly because it does sometimes miss when I get up to pee, and I'm not sure its getting the sleep stages correct.  But, I have no way of knowing the latter.  I have logged things during the night.  When I get up to pee, or if I'm awake for a while, I'll make a quick iPhone audio note recording.  In the morning, I compare my notes with what Garmin Connect says.  It usually seems reasonable.  SO, those features (all-day HR, and sleep monitoring) are fed into the Body Battery metric, which is fun.  Whether it's ultimately useful, remains to be seen!  LOL  

I'm not a runner, so I haven't been able to use the RUN activity.  I also have not been able to calculate a VO2Max with the watch.  To get most of the FirstBeat features activated you need VO2Max.  I just got a bike trainer which has a built in power meter, so I'll be able to use that to get the VO2Max and FTP estimates (it takes awhile for the watch to figure it out accurately).  Once I have those, I will be able to get the full training metrics, which are what I bought the watch for.

It appears that many of the FirstBeat metrics require heart rate variability.  They're a bit vague about all this.  But, if you use the watch alone, not only is its HR of questionable accuracy, but I gotta believe that the HRV data is pretty inaccurate.  Most optical HR sensors don't provide HRV data because its too hard to measure it optically.  It requires a chest strap.

So, I think the answer for me is that I'm increasingly realizing that I need to use a chest strap for at least my more serious workouts -- all of them.  Otherwise, the old saying Garbage In, Garbage Out may well apply.

The key appeal to me of the watch is the fact that I do lots of different activities.  I find it hard to build a training program when I have such a level of cross-training.  In the winter I do, skate skiing, backcountry skiing, alpine skiing, indoor cycling, and weight lifting.  In summer, it's outdoor cycling, and hiking and weight lifting.  With that variety, I'm hoping that the watch, by looking at all the activities and figuring load and training effect, etc., can help me decide if I need a hard workout, or a day off.  I continually overdo it, so I'm hoping it'll help.  

That's the value I hope to get from it.  It might be useful for you as well, in spite of the OHR sensor limitations.

Hi

You can get vo2max from activity walking

I am having odd readings - when doing weight lifting my HR goes up to 180 bpm which is wrong. I know HR wrist sensor will not be accurate but this spikes in HR are massive, something I have never experienced with F5... 

Mine is still not working.  Constantly reads low while recording any type of activity.  I followed the request and sent 5 - 7 days worth of activities in to Garmin tech.  They acknowledged receipt of the files and said I did not have to send anymore in.  It has been 3 weeks since then however and I have not received a status.  

Mine is still not working.  Constantly reads low while recording any type of activity.  I followed the request and sent 5 - 7 days worth of activities in to Garmin tech.  They acknowledged receipt of the files and said I did not have to send anymore in.  It has been 3 weeks since then however and I have not received a status.  

hi, i have still the same issue. I called also the tech support yesterday and sent the Garmin folder of my watch to them. Including some log files form iPhone app.

Everyone that have the same issue should call the Garmin support and inform the support staff about the problem. There is already a DEV ticket and the can map your complains to the ticket to get more pressure on it.