Incorrect KMs Hike - Garmin Instinct

I was a user of Samsung Gear and moved to Garmin for more accurate data.  To my surprise it gives an incorrect KMs on a Hike.

Have done 3 marked trails in Oman.  And Garmin Instinct shows double the KMs which are officially given by the trails. 

Did a 4 KMs trail and GI shown 7.9 KMs.

Did a 10 KMs trails and GI show 24 KMs. This was just yesterday.

Extremely disappointed with this product.

  • Normal settings I understand.

    Metronome Off

    Auto Lap Manual

    Auto Pause Off

    Auto Climb On 300m/h

    3D Speed On

    3D Distance On

    Lap Key Off

    Auto Scroll Off

    GPS Ultra trac

  • Have you tried GPS settings other than Ultra Trac?  I'd bet that is the issue, as many Garmin products appear to have an issue with accurate readings in Ultra Trac mode,  I have never tired the UT setting on my Instinct and have not seen much discussion of it on this forum (for Instinct).  

    I also would assume that your tracks look very inaccurate.  Perhaps you can find some suggestions on how to make UT more reliable.

  • thanks. will check on normal gps mode this weekend and update.

  • If you don't need the extended battery life offered by Ultra Trac (more than 12-14 hours of GPS without a recharge), you should definitely use one of the standard GPS settings (GPS or GPS + GLOSNAS or Galileo). 

    Running or hiking under heavy tree cover, I find that the Instinct under-measures distance by 5-10%.  It seems to do better on road bike rides or hikes above tree line.

  • Usually, if you find the total distance suspicous, having a look at the recorded track can give clues to understand the reason you get bad results.

    In your case I suspect also ultratrac, because in my experience it is really useless, since it greatly overestimates distances and forbids to use navigation correctly.

    Below you can see part of a hike I did last summer. At the start I was coming from NE and going W. You can see that my track can't stick to the real path making jumps around it... After a while I decided to get back to normal GPS setting and on the way back (coming back from S to NE) results are obviously much better.

    Concerning underestimation of the distance, my experiences are that in normal GPS mode the Instinct tend to "stabilize" the track to avoid small jumps due to GPS drift. The good point is that in complex areas (buildings, trees, cliffs...) or when not moving, the GPS drift is much less than other watches, but the bad point is that some turns are cut.

    Enabling 3D distance partly corrects the bad side (since there are more turns when going up/down). Even though I still get slightly shorter distances than other people but I don't consider my results are not good.

    To illustrate these points, you can see below a part of a race I did and I compare (from Strava fly-by) with other Garmin watches when going through a forest and a cliff. In black is my track (with Instinct), purple is Fenix 3, orange is Fenix 5, and pink is 935.

    By respect for Garmin on this forum I do not compare here with non-Garmin watches :-)

  • Switch off Ultratrac. This a power-saving setting that provides basic navigation assistance. If you want to record an accurate path, distance, climb, etc. standard GPS is required.

  • Thanks everyone for the response and assistance.  I did a small hike and GPS normal and results seem to be correct.  Hopefully same in the future as well.

    Ultra trac is a marketing gimic by Garmin and is useless.

    Also I noticed that the Garmin Instinct does not sync if there is no internet connection.  which is again a minus for me.  Samsung syncs with Bluetooth without any internet connection.

  • Ultra track is very good! For other activity...You should read the instructions before use.

  • I use the default GPS mode and it is very accurate.  I walk/hike some areas that are literally steps away from water.  When I look at the mapping afterwards it never shows me going into the water but bending around it.  Even when I detour slightly I can see it.  On longer hikes I can see where I took breaks because I see my steps going in circles and such rather than along the path.