What accessories do you use?

When I bought my Fenix 6x 5 months ago, I never really planned to buy any accessories for it, but I've ended up adding a few over the months and learned that it often drastically changes my experience for the better when I do. What accessories have you added, or are thinking about adding, and why?

I first added a Tempe sensor. For $28, this is something I should have done at day one. It lets you measure accurate temperatures from anywhere you put the sensor, and assuming you put the sensor somewhere that isn't affected by body heat or direct sunlight, the temperature is completely accurate, unlike the internal sensor. If everyone should buy only one accessory, this should be it, in my opinion. Sometimes I'll even put the sensor on my patio so I can see the actual outdoor temp from my watch while I watch TV. Mostly it lives on the bottom of my backpack when I'm hiking or skiing.

Then I added an RD Pod. The sensor works great, but I've learned that I sorta don't care about the information it gives me. For the money it cost, I don't feel like I'm getting a great return. My vertical ratio, and ground contact balance, and all that, is neat info I suppose, but I really have no idea what to do with it. Unless you're a pro runner, this one is probably something most people can do without.

Chest Strap was next - I picked the HRM Dual, which is only a HRM, with no fluff. In hindsight, the HRM-Run would have been a better choice, since it incorporates most of the aformentioned RD Pod features, allowing you to only strap on one device instead of two, and the cost is about the same either way. Regardless of the strap you pick, it's a very valuable addition, and there are gazillions of threads about that. The OHR is hit or miss, it works well for me but not so great for others, and this takes it out of the equation completely and will always give you an accurate HR reading regardless of how well the OHR is or isn't working. At the very least, you'll have much smoother HR charts recorded with your activities.

Finally, I added an InReach Mini. As an avid backpacker, I can't believe I didn't add this sooner - and the Fenix integration is excellent. I can literally be standing on the south pole of the earth, and send and receive texts with a girl I met on ... from my wrist watch. Let me say that again - from my freaking wrist watch, I can talk to a girl from , while standing on the south pole of the earth Smiley As soon as you pair an InReach with your Fenix, you get a new datascreen on your activities, from which you can control your communications with your InReach. And the monthly plans are dirt cheap compared to a typical phone bill. It's an expensive device, but now that I have it, I wonder why I didn't get it from day one.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    Quick question - Does the InReach integrate with incident detection on the F6 or do you still need to carry a mobile phone?

  • It does not seem to integrate with incident detection, from what I can tell. I believe those are independent features. Considering all the false alarms I've heard people complain about with Incident detection, this is probably a good thing, since I believe Incident Detection is only meant to alert family and friends, while the SOS function on the InReach will literally send a rescue helicopter to you... which might be embarrassing (and extremely expensive) if all you really needed was a band-aid and an Uber.

    InReach SOS is really only meant to be used when mobile phone service isn't available. Your first line of defense should always be a mobile phone, if you're in an area that has coverage. However, like I said, it appears that the only way to activate an InReach SOS is by manually pressing the button on the unit (or, if paired with a Fenix, by manually selecting the SOS option from the InReach datascreen), so if you're unconscious then that might be a problem.

  • Got the stryd footpod, and the scosche rhytm 24, also have the tempe but do not use it. When garmin allow reading with decimals in GC i will start use it, right now as it stands it’s uninteressting for me. Also use wahoo cadence sensor and a wahoo kickr smart trainer for indoor cycling.

    • HRM-Run. I use this for all runs except easy runs. The built in OHR is excellent, but for intervals it does not work reliably for me.
    • Foot pod. Gives excellent speed feedback when I run intervals/repititions.
    • Speed & cadence sensors for biking
    • Tempe. I have one somewhere. Rarely used.
    • Aftershokz Titanium. Gives me music while being able to fully hear my surroundings.
  • Stryd, HRM-Tri, Tempe, speed and cadence sensors.  The Tempe I use just to know the ambient temperature.  The Stryd, speed and cadence sensors are used because of limitations to GPS and the Tri because of oHRM limitations. Better data, better metrics, better training. 

  • I have the HRM-Tri for the running dynamics, heart rate, and onboard memory. The HRM swim for the pool but I don't swim much in a pool so it sorta lives in my drawer. 

    Garmin Footpod to help keep treadmill distances closer to reality. It lives on my shoe so I use in and out

    Garmin Tempe... It only reports temp every 2 minutes I think so I do not believe it really does much of anything when running outside. Like the foot pod, it just lives on my shoe

    AirPods Pro. I am an Apple fanboy but I LOVE them to pieces! I hate running with a phone especially with my iPhone 11Pro Max. It is almost the size of a VHS tape. They maintain a steady connection to the watch

    I have the typical speed/sensors on the bike

    I also use my Edge 1030 as a remote screen whenever I do any sort of tri or multisport

  • Thought I replied earlier, but don’t see it.  Tempe, Stryd, Scosche Rhythm 24, Plantronics BackBeat Fit.  All work great and do their job without any problems.

  • Thought I replied earlier, but don’t see it.

    Strange. I recall seeing more post in this thread also.