sI'm not aware whether this is an issue for all Garmin devices (I expect it to be so) but the VA4 fails miserably in detecting the correct strokes and number of lengths. Atop of that, the "rest lap" screen doesn't contain heart rate and during a rest lap, there's no possibility to go to the main screen to see the heart rate.
Wrong stroke/length detection
I do know that it is impossible to detect how far you've swam indoor, but I'd expect the device wouldn't be that sensitive for disturbances. Last week, I noticed there were interruptions in the lengths (the watch detected two lengths when I really swam only one) and while searching, I came across the Tips to improve swim distance accuracy. So I decided to be very careful today. Not a lot of people were in the pool so I had the chance to carefully swim breaststroke, long stretched armes in the glide, wide pull, ... During my first lap, there was no disturbance. Yet, the device decided to detect several backstrokes in stead
I accidentally stopped the activity tracking (while trying to figure out how to read your heart rate during rest laps - spoiler: you can't), so I started a new activity. In this entire activity, all strokes were detected correctly as backstroke. I noticed the same behaviour last week, where I deliberately stopped an activity in the water and started it again. Second recording had all strokes correctly.
As I use this device mainly for swimming, this disappoints me quite a lot. I replaced my broken Samsung Gear Fit 2 which never failed a stroke or length detection (but the battery was always a disaster)
It seems however that there are not a lot of swimmers in the Garmin community, but does someone experience the same behaviour?
Limited screen options in rest
This is a bizarre design decision. While swimming, there's no way that you can take a look at your data fields because your arms are moving. You'd be able to take a look at them during a rest lap. However, the screen that is shown during a rest lap only contains the distance and the time that you swam, and the timer to see how long you're resting. There's no possibility to switch back to the main screen or to adjust the rest screen. In some way, it would make more sense to have a limited screen during your swim activity, then have a more detailed screen during your rest lap.
Are there Garmin employees monitoring this forum? Or where can I file a bug report / change request?
What are your experiences?
