Related
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

Treadmill Walking Wildly inaccurate

thecofffeeguy
over 4 years ago

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. I have contacted customer support, asked questions on reddit, and I'm taking my final shot here.

When I run on the treadmill, the distance measured is dead on, keeps right exact with the treadmill. Today I ran 2.3 miles and both the watch and treadmill agreed. No footpod needed.

However, WALKING on the treadmill is another story. I have tried the activities "Treadmill, Walk indoor, Indoor Track" as well as "Walk" with the GPS turned off. Every time though the watch will record a wildly inaccurate distance. Tonight I walked a half mile (0.50 mile) on the treadmill to meet my step goal for the day and the watch only measured 163.3ft. That is 0.03 miles and I took 1,200 steps. People always say, "Well, treadmills aren't accurate". LISTEN UP BUDDY, THAT AINT THE PROBLEM.

I have followed every direction I was given by customer support;

  • "Dont hold onto the hand rails" I never do.
  • "Walk upright" Silly me, I was backbending during my walks.
  • "Dont use your phone" I watch tv while on the treadmill I don't hold my phone.
  • "Dont put your hands in your pockets" I dont.
  • Factory reset the watch
  • Calibrated to the treadmill multiple times
  • Recorded over 175 outdoor walks with the GPS
  • Measured out and added a custom stride length.

I made sure the battery was fully charged, rebooted the watch before a walk. I have tried walking like a robot, like a chad, Frankenstein, an ice skater, John Cleese, a jester. When I say I have tired it all, I mean it ALL to just get the thing to work.

The thing that boils my blood though is that, on the watch face the "Distance walked today" field will add the treadmill distance to the total just fine. But the activity is still wrong.

I would prefer not to buy a footpod, If I have to fuss with an extra sensor, I will just go back to my 4 year old watch I had before that tracked everything flawlessly.

I have seen it is a fairly common problem over the various forums. This is more a case to get the frustration out and make the issue known, critiques/tips are welcome though.

This is the data from the walk. It only shows a tiny spike where it records a speed of roughly 2mph.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to ovekvam

    Here is ...1... option for the engineers, many threadmill are now transmitting it's live data to an app over bluetooth, detect that AUTOMATICALY and that will solve for many now and in the future. The threadmill companies will also be happy to sell more thteadmills to replace the old ones Slight smile

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to alex1668

    Actually, I decided to give a try and turn off automatic calibration and set my manual step length and I've got 30 meters doing 177 steps with length of 0.80 m something doesn't add up to me. I feel that watch with GPS is just ignoring stride length or something, please see yourself. do you know if there is a filed bug for this issue? It seems to be present on other watches too, I guess that's because they share similar codebase.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to sensovision

    please see the FAQ below about how custom stride length does not affect timed activities.

    The Step Distance Recorded on My Garmin Watch Is Wrong

    For better accuracy on indoor activities, please see the FAQ below:

    How to Improve Distance Tracking on Indoor Activities

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

    Thanks, , I familiar with these articles. And aware of limitations described there, I did GPS calibration too. Probably if I didn't own older device which don't suffer from such issues I would think that it's normal and can't be fixed.

    Anyway, I hope that one day it will be improved. I'll do another test with a footpod and manual stride length.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to sensovision

    UPDATE: out of curiousity I decided to perform the same test with a footpod and here are the results so at least with footpod + custom stride length the distance and pace seems to be accurate, I wish it could work the same without footpod as I wear it on my running shoes and not the ones I'm using for walking

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

    All of us who have reported this issue have seen these links over and over and over again.

    They don't do a single thing to help with the issue we're having.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to sensovision

    We shouldn't have to pay for a footpod +. Then worry about switching what shoe the pod is on.

    This is the most "walled garden" approach to solving an issue I can imagine! Garmin needs to figure this crap out!

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 8339317

    But why does it not apply to everybody? What is the common denominator for those who have this issue? 

    I notice when I have a treadmill activity, the stride length is not constant. The relationship between the cadence and and the pace is not fixed, but varies with my intensity. That means it matters not only how frequent you move your watch arm, but also how aggressive the movement is. The watch can differentiate between 6 min/km and 4 min/km when I am running at 180 steps per minute on both. The same applies to walking.

    A step and a step are not the same.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to ovekvam

    I have been led to believe the watch learns our movement patterns as time goes on and as we record more and more activities.

    I have hundreds of hours of running, and walking outdoors. I don't walk much different on the treadmill than I do on the pavement. I would just imagine it could apply that outdoor data to the very similar movements I have made outside. Shrug

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 8339317

    This exactly. After I read your reply, I tried turning off my location services and suddenly instead of the distance/speed being way less than accurate (by 30-40%), it actually slightly overestimated how fast and far I walked (by maybe 5% or less) compared to what the treadmill indicated. 

    So turning off your location services seems to be the easiest work around.