VA4 HR sensor - dummie leds ?

I just got mine yesterday, and my first workout with this gadget was a cluster f....k: the HR sensor was at 70 bpm while my actual rate was anywhere between 130 - 140. not once it gave the right values. Moreover, while I was doing chi kung abdominal breathing, goin one respiration per minute max, it was showing 16 - 17 rpm!!! I don't know what's going on, but I'm thinking about returning this gadget. 

I have a new vivoactive 4s, and also have a Gramin Edge 830. One of the main things I wanted to do with the new 4s was broadcast my wrist based HR to my Edge 830 while cycling. While the wrist based HR seems very accurate when I record the activity on the 4S (running, HIIT, etc), it's extremely low when using the broadcast mode and broadcasting to my Edge 830. Here are two cycling activities where the HR is extremely low (I even noticed looking at my watch, and in the toughest parts it was just stuck around 80-85 bpm):

connect.garmin.com/.../4126821502

connect.garmin.com/.../4105199823

You can see in the second one, I had to stop and restart, and it seemed to work for a little while. However, in all scenarios, after a little bit of time, it gets stuck on 80-85bpm.

Here is an example of accurate HR from the watch when I run and just record the activity there:

connect.garmin.com/.../4123829857

I've read similar issues on the forum for Fenix 6 users, so hoping this is a bug and FW will fix it. Otherwise, I will need to replace the watch.

I'm running FW 3.40 on the Vivoactive 4s and 4.10 on my Edge 830. However, as I've stated, I can actually see on the watch when it glitches up and won't go above ~85bpm.

• Instead of putting it in broadcast mode, put it in broadcast in activity mode. When going for a ride, start walk, hike, yoga, or other low intensivity activity on your va. Now you should be seeing more less realistic hr on your edge while cycling.

I have the same problem (forums.garmin.com/.../heart-rate-too-low). My very old Vivoactive HR was working better...

Joining the "heart rate unbelievably low" wagon here. Using a VA4S since some days, and on my morning commute to work there's always a segment where I push hard. Today I most definitely hit the 180bpm range but Garmin tells me max was 114bpm. And it's not due to the wrist movement or vibrations because at the end there's a traffic light where I stopped, so a good 40 - 50 seconds standing still. It should have caught up.

The VA3 was not perfect but much better, giving me accurate-ish results on such cases (stopping on traffic lights / etc after a hard effort).

I sincerely hope this is due to software.

Heart rate is way off compared to a chest strap, 20 to 30 off. I can understand 10 percent but gesh.... Garmin will not confirm a thing. I will keep it if it's a software thing. 

3 threads about this a no official response.... I'll will until this weekend

Status update. Today I had the watch slightly tighter, using long sleeves and always on the tops / hoods on the bike (so not bending the wrists so much), and result was pretty satisfactory. 136 avg, 164 max, so on par with what I was getting on the VA3. My results so far:

• If you do an activity on another device (ie. Edge) without a HR strap and then try to check what was your HR based on the VA4 regular monitoring, it will be way too low - that doesn't work.
• If you do the activity on the VA4S itself, on a sunny day with your wrist exposed to the sun, it will likely be too low but might work depending on the fit.
• I need to use the VA4S with a tighter fit compared to the VA3 to get accurate results.
• Maybe this is due to the fact that the slightly smaller body (40mm vs 43mm) makes it more sensitive to external factors (light, humidity etc...)?