Heart Rate Spikes

If the heart rate signal from the optical sensors is weak, the watch can sometimes pick up your step rate instead of heart rate. In general, chest straps are more accurate and reliable than wrist measurements, but it can happen there too.

Hi, I’m getting the same thing.  I’ve just been sitting comfortably, decided to sync my Vivosmart 4 and saw it was showing a heart rate of 204.  A quick finger on pulse check showed my true rate to be 57, above my normal normal resting rate of 50 but that was probably due to my alarm at the high figure.  Strangely, it slowly went down over 5 minutes and is now reading 49.  If it was a system error I would have expected it to cut in and then cut out again, not a gradual return to normal.  I’ve owned the device for 2 weeks and have experienced this problem 5 times with abnormal rates between 165 and 204. I’ve felt fine at the time, no palpitations etc and each time my manual pulse check was ok.  I’m undecided whether to live with the problem or return the tracker and look for an alternative - but would another manufacturer be any different? 

Wrist sensors are not very reliable, and the hardware in other product is similar. As science develops, it will gradually be better and better over the next few years.

On my girlfriend VA 4s: she did a walk for 30min and at the end of it she had like 170-185 bpm spike ?!!

Me (VA 4 only) staying in my sofa, watching TV I do have the opposite: 40-45 bpm spike instead of 60-70 bpm ?!

Never had such issues before with Fenix 6. Only think I notice Fenix 6 has a big OHR sensor

Maybe a hardware issue? 

I have recently had the same issue.  Today the heart rate was at the correct amount and then zoomed into the 180's for 15 minutes and then crashing down to the correct HR again.  This is the third time in two weeks that the Heart rate has erroneously spiked this way.  Very disappointing.  I'm returning it and going to try a different Garmin watch and hopefully it doesn't have the same issue.

That's certainly what I'm hoping. I find I get a few spikes most days when I'm walking a lot; my HR will soar from 70-90 to over 100 and just keep climbing if I stop. It's clearly a fault with the sensor or the software or both. The watch is fine for a fairly regular heartbeat, such as when asleep. But if it changes suddenly then the not reliable sensor data seems to get interpreted wrongly by the software. I always run with a chest strap now (this has its own problems with static from thermal garments) as when the wrist HR goes wrong, it stays wrong.

I find that if you catch a spike happening, and turn the watch off and on, it disappears. I think what goes into the graph is a sort of average of data by minute which discards odd reads. 

Please post and let us know how that goes. I sometimes feel I should return mine (now 6 months old), but it has good points, like sleep tracking and body battery and of course exercise, and this is an annoyance on a feature that doesn't really matter.

Try to wear the watch a little further up the wrist and a little tighter.

This happens when the watch can't find your pulse. It then Hunts for a pulse up up up.

It's happening on a lot of models according to posts on these forums.

Thanks. I'll try the further up bit. I wear it about as tight as I can already, and I think I've stretched the (non Garmin) strap so I go for a lower hole than I used to.

Thanks! That's a lot better. Not quite perfect; I still get the odd spike, but they're less frequent, and not so high, and it's quite possible that my HR does go above 100 when walking uphill or something. Anyway, my HR seems much more consistent day to day, so the watch is working as well as it can, and I no longer regret not sending it back.