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

Unhappy with my Vivoactive 4 and thinking about returning, am I using it wrong?

2297545
over 4 years ago

I bought the Vivoactive 4 last month because I started working out again after a few difficult years where I got really out of shape. I started doing Insanity because of the COVID lockdown and because I've done it years ago and it was a great 'get back in shape quick' training.

Because I'm planning to run and swim after finishing Insanity the Vivoactive 4 seemed ideal and it looks great. I was really happy with it, but after more then a month of using it I'm pretty disappointed about the features compared to other brands. I have 2 days left to decide if I want to return it, so I wanted to check if I'm using it wrong before I decide.

My biggest problems are that the data I get is very limited and the measurements seem off regularly. Sometimes the VA4 will be off by 20+ points compared to my chest HR monitor (it's an old one that I can't connect to my phone/garmin). I've been doing Insanity for 7 weeks now, and in the 6 weeks I've used the VA4 my VO2max is actually steadily going down (from 49 to 46) which seems weird, as I can guarantee I've been getting a lot fitter.

Lastly the data/insights you get when you don't run seem to be very limited. My Insights tells me 3 things: I get more steps than people, I climb less stairs and I sleep less than the average person. When I look at my sleep data it tells me on average I'm only 5-20 minutes in deep sleep (which doesn't match measurements with other devices I've done) and if I look at my workouts the only data I get is my average HR, max HR, time in HR-zone and est. calories burned. My body battery always ends up under 10 before 9pm as well.

If I compare this to friends who use other watches like Polar, they get sleep analysis, advice and suggestions, they get advice about over/undertraining, if your body needs extra nutrition etc. Basically they get a 100x more and in-depth information.

It feels like I'm paying full-price for a sportswatch that gives me the functionality of a $20 fitness tracker.

The design is great, I like the way it operates and I love that I wont have to bring a phone while running, so I'm hoping I'm just using it wrong. Hopefully I can get some advice, or is this just what it is when you don't use it for running?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    are you opening your detail in https://connect.garmin.com/  ?
    There are no suggestions about how to improve your health, but definitely more stats about you and your exercise routines 

    this is an example of my 30 min round today.

  • +1 over 4 years ago
    2297545 said:
    Sometimes the VA4 will be off by 20+ points compared to my chest HR monitor

    This is a known limitation of the optical hr sensor, which can be inaccurate, especially in high intensity workouts. You can try to wear it tighter against your wrist, but no guarantee that it will do any better.

    2297545 said:
    VO2max is actually steadily going down (from 49 to 46)

    VO2max can be assessed incorrectly for numerous reasons, the most significant being incorrect HR data. Other factors that might have a negative impact on vo2max accuracy is for example high ambient temperature.

    2297545 said:
    Lastly the data/insights you get when you don't run seem to be very limited. My Insights tells me 3 things: I get more steps than people, I climb less stairs and I sleep less than the average person. When I look at my sleep data it tells me on average I'm only 5-20 minutes in deep sleep (which doesn't match measurements with other devices I've done)

    You're not doing anything wrong here. This is how it works.

    2297545 said:
    My body battery always ends up under 10 before 9pm as well.

    Two possibilities here. Either you really are exhausting yourself too much during the day, and then the body battery reading makes sense, or due to inaccurate hr data the body battery is false.

    2297545 said:
    If I compare this to friends who use other watches like Polar, they get sleep analysis,

    Garmin Connect offers you only presentation of various sleep phases, so if you need some more in-depth analysis, then garmin is not for you.

    2297545 said:
    they get advice about over/undertraining,

    This kind of functionality is reserved for garmin's more advanced watches.

    2297545 said:
    so I'm hoping I'm just using it wrong.

    Abandon your hope! You're not doing anything fundamentally wrong. Perhaps you would get some more useful data once you get used to the watch and the garmin connect ecosystem, but I don't see any instant advice that I could give you at the moment.

  • +1 over 4 years ago in reply to tmk2

    One advice could be to obtain a chest heart rate strap that is compatible with Garmin watches. If you are serious about the training and monitor the VO2Max, I think that is the only way forward.

    Other watches have the same limitation with wrist heart rate measurements.

    I would not put too much value in the machine generated training advice from either Polar or Garmin. The watches do not really know how your muscles feel. It does not take much experience to evaluate this better by yourself.

  • +1 over 4 years ago
    2297545 said:
    Because I'm planning to run and swim after finishing Insanity the Vivoactive 4 seemed ideal and it looks great. I was really happy with it, but after more then a month of using it I'm pretty disappointed about the features compared to other brands. I have 2 days left to decide

    Keep in mind that the VA line is an activity tracker, not a sports watch.

    If you are looking for hard core sports tracking, you might want to look at a Forerunner or Fenix.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hi all,

    I want to thank you all for the helpful replies and give a quick update. I decided to return the VA4 and look for another watch.

    My expectations didn't match what the VA4 does, I genuinely thought it was a sportswatch, but it's more an activity tracker. In my situation that means that the VA4 gives very little added value (because I don't use most of the smartwatch functions), so I'll be looking for a different watch in the coming days.

    Thanks again for the help!

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 2297545

    Have you made any decision on what your next watch will be?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 3850282

    I actually ended up going for the Polar Vantage V2, I found a good combi-deal with the Polar H10 HR strap. I did some better research this time and found out that only the Forerunner and Fenix offer more in depth data. I don't like the design of those because of the protruding buttons and the lack of touch screen, and this video was the final decider.

    I'm still a bit sad because I really liked the design of the VA4 (I like that it was 'minimal' so I could wear it with anything). The only thing I'll be missing is the built in Spotify player, so I'm considering buying a Mighty Vibe or something similar for when I start running again.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 2297545

    I bought my VA4 a month ago and have similar impressions. Unfortunately Garmin exaggerated with limitation of sport functionality in VA4.

    I was really surprised during hiking, because I did not found hiking activity, which in my opinion is much more justified than SUP activity (which was placed in the list of available activities). 

    VA4 is not life style activity tracker - it is sport watch thoughtlessly limited.

    BTW Garmin home page does bad job, because VA4 is placed in section for runners !!!

    My next purchase will be also Polar. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 7848162

    Don't ignore the 3rd party apps for Garmin devices.

    Here's one for hiking, for example. 

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/116a5b59-29ae-4397-a70e-907d7e5f8e44

    And the va4 on this forum is under health and wellness, and not running/multi sports

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Hi,

    thanks for the answer and the useful tip.

    But it could solve only one among a few annoying limitations. 

    VA4 is placed under "running" on Garmin website and it is _very confusing if it is just "activity tracker". 

    There are many interesting smartwatches with activity tracking at that price point. The connection of my Garmin account to Runanalyze web page is the only reason why I keep VA4 until now.