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Vivoactive 5 Heartrate more accurate than Vivoactive 3?

tripleb67
11 months ago

I've been wearing the Vivoactive 3 for over three years now and I'm thinking of upgrading to newer model Garmin. Several times my pulse ox monitor has read a heart rate up to 30 beats slower per minute than my Vivoactive 3.   Is the heart rate monitor on the Vivoactive 5 more accurate than the one on the Vivoactive 3?  

Recently my mild to moderate mitral regurgitation has started causing symptoms again so my doctor said I should start keeping a closer eye on my heart rate (checking for AFib) until they can get the results back from my heart monitor and my echocardiogram (and even beyond the time when we get the results).  I tried the Venu 3 because it has the ECG feature and I thought that would be great in checking for AFib. But I have bradycardia (lower than normal resting heart rate...usually between 43 and 46 bpm) and the Venu 3 can't check for AFib if your heart rate is under 50.

I've thinking the Vivoactive 5 might be the best upgrade...but only if it's heart rate monitor is more accurate than the Vivoactive 3.

Thank you for any and all help!

TripleB

  • 0 4 months ago

    No. Surprisingly the HR monitoring on the VA5 is much worse. The hardware seems much more capable, but mine is almost always way off, usually by more than 50bpm. Yesterday I finished my 5th set of heavy squats to failure and as I racked the weight - I checked my HR on my VA5. Since I know it's trash, I expecting to see 100bpm (knowing full well I'm between 140-165 in reality) and my watch said 43bpm.

    My VA3 and VA4 never had issues like this. My VA5 - it is usually very off during any physical activity not just strength training (during a run at mile 3-8 of a 8 mile run - my HR can go below 90 on the VA5, my VA3 or 4 would more accurately report it where it feels to be and thats 140-160).