What's The Point of the Temperature Sensor?

I think my Suunto 7 had a similar temp sensor. I recall reading an instruction about how to get an accurate temperature reading for a swim: take it off your wrist, hold it by the strap and submerge it in the water for 30 seconds. Then you can look at the reading later.

Seems like this is not a Garmin-specific issue, just a limitation of current state of the art. I'm sure if there's a need, manufacturers can integrate a thermometer module that is insulated from the casing temp.

there was a hole left for a sensor

Then they would have made it inaccessible to the user.

In all modern devices there are temperature sensors, but no one writes statistics in user data.

K2 said:

Seems like this is not a Garmin-specific issue, just a limitation of current state of the art. I'm sure if there's a need, manufacturers can integrate a thermometer module that is insulated from the casing temp.

No - there is no way to pack so much insulation around a temp sensor that's in direct contact with your skin, that it will block your body heat AND still get the outside air temperature. No such insulation material exists, or will ever exist.

People are wanting, wishing, and yelling at Garmin to make, something that physically cannot exist. CANNOT exist.

Get a Tempe sensor, use the internal sensor for off-body or water temp readings, or don't use the temperature datafield. Those are your three choices. Those have always been your only three choices. And those will always be your only three choices. How this thread has reached 10 pages now is absolutely mind boggling, this isn't even complicated science and, yet, it's going over so many people's heads somehow.

C.sco said:

No - there is no way to pack so much insulation around a temp sensor that's in direct contact with your skin, that it will block your body heat AND still get the outside air temperature. No such insulation material exists, or will ever exist.

You just gotta think outside the box (or, inside the turkey )!

1. It's relatively trivial to insulate a temperature probe against even extreme heat. Any oven meat thermometer can measure at the tip and insulate against the rest of the wiring and other parts of the probe exposed to the air.

2. An external temp sensor need not encased/sealed in the chassis. Nobody's asking for magic here. The sensor element can be directly exposed to the outside air, and still waterproofed. Just look at the exposed 4-pin charging connector, that's open to the air, waterproofed and yet maintains a direct electrical connection to the inside of the device--you could similarly have a metal probe protruding/flush/integrated with the casing that is directly exposed to and measuring the outside air. 

Personally, I'm not sure I care for external temp enough for something like this, but it really doesn't seem like some huge engineering challenge. 

And I'm also with FCCID in that it's really curious to have the internal temperature written to a user's activity stats, if it's not a swim. Mine always start at some fraction of body temperature (~80 degrees) and drop to some in-between body/air temp (60-70 degrees) but not directly indicating either. For runs/walks, I feel it would be better just to hide this field :)

K2 said:

I feel it would be better just to hide this field :)

Agreed, but if you say it, await the lynch mob!

I even noticed temperature for indoor rides! And they obviously don't have elevation so no logical reason to even engage the temperature sensor in my book.

Before somebody would question the accuracy of the calibrated wireless home temp sensor, which is in fact an outdoor sensor placed on a console in a white bucket with appr. 100-150 small holes, I do report that placing 3 Tempe next to each other outdoor gave the same result:

2 of them showed almost exactly the same temp, while the 3rd showed a number being lower by 1 degree.

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

Before somebody would question the accuracy of the calibrated

Was a house nearby ? A rule of thumb of meteorology says. Measure the temperature at least at the distance from the building as it is high.

Air temperature is the temperature measured at a height of exactly 2 m in a weather hut protected from radiation.