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Instinct Solar is not reading heart rate accurately

garmintrick
over 2 years ago

I'm a fairly lean guy...I'm 6'2" 152lb.  My wrists are skinny and bony but in proportion to the rest of my body... they are 6.75" in circumference.  Sometimes, my watch does not pick up my correct heart rate.  Sometimes it reads exactly half of what it should and in other cases it is between half and the actual HR like it is trying to catch up.  I try to get it to read accurately by pressing it down on my wrist but I can't do that for an extended period due to the fact that I'm working out.  Sometimes pressing it down will help but not always.  As this is the core of what I need  the watch for, I'm considering getting rid of it and just going to a chest strap which always reads correctly.

Anyone else have this issue and have any solutions?  Thanks in advance!

  • +1 over 2 years ago

    I am sorry there is an issue.

    This Support Center article may help:

    - The Heart Rate Sensor on My Garmin Watch Is Not Accurate

    If your issue continues, a HRM is your best alternative for accuracy.

  • 0 over 2 years ago
    garmintrick said:
    due to the fact that I'm working out. 

    What kind of workout is this, and what activity profile did you start for it ?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to bluefish

    I've experienced this on 3 separate workout types.  Stair master and treadmill most recently and I did not start a profile on those. Would just click over to see the HR ever so often. I notice it happens less when I swing my arms instead of holding on to the rails. The third workout is towing a skid up and down a field and I would do the cardio profile on that one. I would swing my arms for sure on this one but would still get the 1/2 HR read here sometimes. Maybe this was due to temp... 45 to 50 deg. Not sure. Yesterday, I did the stair master and did not rest my hands on the rails and got a good read. So it's all over the place. I watched the video on how to make sure the watch is worn properly and found that I did not have to change anything.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    Thanks Chris. The article was helpful. Gave me some things to try next time, and I'll keep the HRM in my pocket as another alternative

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to garmintrick
    garmintrick said:
    and I did not start a profile

    You can activate the "Move-IQ" function. This function recognizes certain recurring movement patterns and shows them in the timeline. However, this is not a start of an activity profile.


    In general, the HR sensor is able to detect daily HR frequencies up to about 110 without starting an activity profile.

    However, if you do a workout, you need to start the corresponding activity profile so that the HR sensor is set to high power mode and is able to detect higher heart rates well.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Good suggestions! I will try this.

    Thanks!

  • 0 2 months ago

    I am having a similar problem with the heart rate monitor when I am in an activity (in my case "Hiking").  The heart monitor works fine when there are no activities running, but when I run the Hiking activity, the heart rate monitor consistently shows 1/2 or 1/3 what the actual heart rate is.   Seems like a software issue or a setting that I am unaware of.