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HR Inaccurate during walking/running

7394607
over 3 years ago

In the past few months I have noticed that I no longer am getting any minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise, when in a regular week I get well over 150 minutes. I then started to look at the heart rate levels and it barely is measuring any heart rate over 120-130 bmp. I have manually measured my heart rate and used another tracker to compare and the Garmin stays in the 120-130 bpm range or gets lower when it should be in the 180 range! 

I am so frustrated with how inaccurate my Garmin has been. In the past I have had issues with step counts but that has resolved with updates, but for only having this watch for less than a year, it has barely been reliable. Any advice or help? I have reset multiple times with no help. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    For accurate heart rate readings during exercise, I recommend using a chest strap.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Having to use a chest strap is not a solution, that defeats the point of having a HR smartwatch. I walk to commute and don’t want to have to wear a chest strap all the time just to calculate weekly moderate-to-vigorous activity minutes. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to ovekvam

    Having to use a chest strap is not a solution, that defeats the point of having a HR smartwatch. I walk to commute and don’t want to have to wear a chest strap all the time just to calculate weekly moderate-to-vigorous activity minutes. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 7394607

    If you walk regularly, you will usually get in a good enough shape that walking does not give any intensity minutes. I never get any that way, since my heart rate is typically under 100 during walking. Which activity type are you using for tracking?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to ovekvam

    That's probably correct for walking.

    BUT, as pointed out in other posts after 6.80, the HR seems to be low by 25-40 points.

    I did a test biking, VA4 on one wrist and VS4 on the other, and even did a fingers over pulse after I started sweating. The VA4 HR has changed and is pretty much useless as it is now.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to ovekvam

    I don’t do low intensity walking for a commute. Regardless, it should be accurately taking my HR at higher bmp and it’s not

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4411990

    It is crazy to me that Garmin cannot get their activity tracking correct, beyond frustrating! Do you think there will be a fix for this? 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4411990

    I used my VA4S for spinning ("indoor bicycling") on Monday with software 6.80, and I did not use a chest strap. The heart rate was not noticeably different from before. I was well over 90 percent of my maximum heart rate at my peak intensity.

    I have however noticed that the heart rate readings are lower than before for the "cardio" activity, but it seems more correct now. It was way too high before.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    About a year ago, I ran comparisons between my 4S and both a chest strap and an arm optical sensor while bicycling with an edge 830.  The chest strap and arm band were always close to each other however the 4S was all over the map with the average over a 2 hour bike ride very low by 20 or 30 BPM.  Reading about wrist based HR in general, it seems the accuracy can very a lot from person to person.  I have concluded in my case that it is not accurate at all.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to SteveRodkey

    Yes, we agree that the wrist based vs a chest strap are not the same.
    BUT left wrist vs right wrist at the same time should be damn close to each other.
    And they used to be before the last update.