This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

HR accuracy WAY off (during Floor Climb)

Former Member over 5 years ago

I just got a VA4 a couple weeks ago. I'm currently out of shape (trying to get back to it), but I'm a former triathlete and ultrarunner. I know my body very well. I've used fitness tracking devices for MANY years, and in fact have designed them as an engineer for another company.

During Run activities, my VA4 appears to track HR fairly well (relative to what I'd expect from my perceived exertion). However, the past couple mornings I've recorded a Floor Climb activity, and HR was not even close.

This morning I walked about 0.7 miles to my office building, then took the stairs from the 1st to the 18th floor. Below is a screen shot of the HR data my VA4 recorded during the floor climb. That's just not even remotely close. Knowing it was way off, at one point about half way I did a rough manual check and counted about 160 bpm (~40 beats in 15 sec), which is much closer to what I would have expected. This HR graph should show a quick rise through the 150s, well into the 160s, and probably into the 170s.

By point of comparison, I did a moderate intensity 4.6 mile run last night, and it recorded an avg HR of 159, and max of 178 (while running uphill). This seems about right to me.

Garmin, why such a disparity in HR performance between these different activities? Can I expect a fix for this soon in an upcoming FW update? Or should I return the device, because this is an obvious failure of performance for a fundamental feature?

-Steve

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

So, as an experiment I just did the same stair climb again, from 1st to 18th floor of my building. But this time I recorded it as a "Cardio" activity instead of a "Floor Climb". And lookie here. This is much more accurate.

So, Garmin, the feedback is that your HR algorithm for Floor Climb is totally broken. What other activity types just don't work for HR?

0 peterlip8_ over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Hmmm, that's interesting. I've been using the VA4 for stand up paddling, and it seems to be ok for the first part of the activity, but then drops to levels way too low. It was a bit disappointing, but not a total surprise as I previously used a fit bit which also was terrible when doing more intense exercises. My theory is that once it gets too sweaty, a wrist based HR monitor simply can't get a good reading. I see similar behaviour when cycling. I've since been using a chest strap for HR, and that (of course) seems to be spot on.

I'll be interest to know if a cardio workout continues to give you good results, as that would point to a software issue, rather than my theory that it's a limitation of wrist based HR monitoring.

FYI - Someone from Garmin may see this post, but you can't rely on it. If you want some Garmin feedback, you will need to go via the support channels.