Fenix 6S Pro heart rate (and other tracking) issues.

I have a new Fenix 6s Pro. The battery, GPS tracking, maps, watch functionality are all very good. The activity tracking, specifically heart rate tracking is abysmal. For instance, during an indoor cycle yesterday, my heart rate was reported from the watch in the region of 50-90 BPM just wearing the watch. During cooldown, I switched the indoor cycle activity on, and heart rate began climbing, up to around 120 before subsiding again, somewhat more as expected. Normally my heart rate peaks at 150+ during indoor cycling, which my 5 year old Fitbit Charge 2 had no trouble tracking (before the screen died, leading to me looking for a replacement). I have every second activity tracking on, not smart tracking - it appears almost as if smart tracking is on whatever I set the watch to, and that smart tracking cannot cope with even a 15 minute indoor cycle session - this seems very poor, and is saying to me that the Garmin watches are no good at day to day activity tracking, but only good specific sport tracking.

I now have a Fitbit Sense which seems to have very good smart watch capabilities, and so far good day to day activity tracking, but falls down on the mapping side (I can live with that and use my phone for mapping as I am used to with Charge 2 + phone). I am leaning towards keeping the Fitbit and sending the Garmin back, which make me a little sad, as I really liked everything the watch had to offer, but really need to track my day to day fitness accurately.

Garmin Express tells me the Fenix is up to date, on software version 15.20. Are there any other ways to improved day to day tracking on the Fenix 6s Pro?

0 Jaromircz1 over 4 years ago

Ano,mám Fenix 6x a momentálně je rozdíl tepu mezi hrudním pásem a ze zápěstí kolem 25-30 procent.Hodně smutný....

0 mcalista over 4 years ago

Smart tracking v 1s has no impact on accuracy, merely on how frequently data is recorded to file. File size was an issue with early fitness trackers, but largely irrelevant given the storage capacity of the F6 series.

The major user controllable factor in HR accuracy is the positioning and tightness of the band. The 6S is larger and heavier than the Charge 2 you were used to, and as such is more sensitive to how it is worn. The band should be snug and positioned on the fleshy part of the wrist, well away from the wrist bone. I find I have to have the band 1-2 notches tighter for running (where arm movement is more vigorous) than for 24/7 monitoring.

Note also that the polling frequency increases when you are recording an activity, versus 24/7 monitoring. (You can see the LED's go from strobing to solid as you start recording). This increases HR accuracy especially as HR increases during exercise, so you should definitely be recording your indoor cycling as an activity.

0 2784343 over 4 years ago in reply to mcalista

Hey thanks for your reply. The strap is tight enough, it leaves marks in my skin where the strap and watch have been in contact with skin. The tracking is fine when recording cycling as I stated, but in day to day tracking is very poor, which makes it useless for all those other things that Garmin offer beyond the defined sports activities, such as resting heart rate, sleep tracking, VO2 tracking etc. I'm interested in accuracy during normal day to day use as well defined exercise.

I note with interest what you say about polling increasing during define activities such as cycling but not 24/7, perhaps that means the Fenix is just not suitable for my needs.

0 Pierrotsc over 4 years ago

a year ago i tried two 6S and i had the same symptoms as you described. going up and down the stairs for example, my hr would not go higher than 90. on the other hand if i started a cycling activity, it would be fine. as soon as i stopped the activity, the hr would go down. i got a 245 after that and everything worked fine. i wanted to control my smart trainer with my watch so a month ago, i got a 6 Pro. it came with 12.20. i did all kind of test and amazingly, the wrist ohr matched my chest strap. i have no idea why this behavior. right now i can jump on the elliptical and do not start any activity. after 30 mn, i glance at the hr and it matches the machine.