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Garmin HRM Problems

Hello – I am having a heck of a time with my HRM straps and have gone through at least five or six over the past 5 years.  My last strap (HRM-Run) only lasted for 25 uses and only worked for 23 of those.  This last strap should be easily replaced under warranty, but it is a pain to go through this so often.  I rinse the strap thoroughly with lukewarm water after each use and hand wash it with a little laundry soap once a week.  I have tried to handle the straps carefully and don’t drop them or fold/bend them sharply.  The only thing that I have been doing is using a small amount of Spectra 360 Electrode Gel on the contact pads.  What kind of life are others seeing from either the HRM-Tri or HRM-Run?   I typically run 5 to 6 times per week for an average of about 40 miles/week.  The straps connect with a FR-920XT watch and the symptoms seem to be an elevated but not erratic HR followed by a failure to connect.  If I change the battery, the strap only seems to last a very short while.  Any advice or help would be appreciated.

  • I've recent been seeing a minor issue with my strap. I don't know if it is related to what you are seeing. Mine seems to be working fine when running and paired with a 645. The issue arises when I take the strap off. The HR my watch reports quickly goes up into the 240s and stays there If I put the strap back on, it goes back down to my actual heart rate. If I manually disconnect the strap from my watch, it goes back down to my actual heart rate. If I either take the strap back off or reconnect, it jumps back up into the 240s. And the strap seems to take a very long time to turn off. It doesn't show an abnormally elevated HR while wearing the strap and doesn't have difficulty connecting.

    I've only been seeing this for a couple weeks. I've tried washing off the sweat and drying the contacts, but that doesn't seem to help.

    Are you seeing anything like this?

  • I have been going through the same issue(s) over the past several years. Admittedly, I'm jealous that your straps last as long as they do. Usually, following high heart rate spikes I simply replace the straps. However, this has been happening too often, whereby straps that use to last months now last only weeks.

    I was considering the purchase of an HRM-Run, to finally replace the F3ARNA00 altogether, but spending almost $100 for 23 runs seems foolish.

    Should Garmin or anyone else offer a solution. Please share.

  • Yes this is a known problem. You can try drying off the HRM contacts to see if that deactivates it, but otherwise you have to manually disconnect.

  • Why is this a relatively new issue? Was there a firmware update for the strap that causes this? I’m now getting hr in the 240s for a few minutes after first putting it on. Seems possible that it has enough signal to turn on but not a good enough connection to record heart rate. So, is this issue that if it is on and can’t sense a pulse, it defaults to maximum possible instead of zero?

  • My thoughts are that the strap itself is failing due to broken or intermittent conductors between the pickup pads and the pod.  This may be caused by flexing the strap, salt buildup, buildup/corrosion caused by electrode gel, or substandard quality by the lowest bidder.

  • I'm using my HRM-run with my 630 for almost 3 years now, and start to see the electrodes pads detaching from the strap. So far the strap is still working, however I sense I need a new one soon. I'm using it typically 5hrs/week while running and some biking. Washing with just water after almost every use, letting dry on air.

    With my previous HR soft straps, the lifespan was somewhere around 1,5 years. It was cheaper to replace just the strap, so I'm glad that the HRM lasted twice as long, as I like the additional data from it.

  • I also had short lifetimes with the HRM soft straps. After going through 3 in 5 years, I gave up and got an old fashioned rigid strap Garmin HRM. Unfortunately, they have been discontinued -- Garmin stopped making it, ended support for it, and deleted it from their website.