HRM-RUN stopped working suddenly

I've had the problem that the battery was dead and therefore the HRM was not connected to the watch. Then I changed the battery and unfortunately tightened the screws too much, so the case broke, as you can see here in the picture.

forums.garmin.com/.../1157063

And because of that, water and sweat got in.

Please remove the red rubber ring and take a close look from the side to see if the case is broken and water got in.

Yes.  You'll probably have to remove the strap from the watch and pair it again.  You may have to turn Bluetooth off. I paired mine long ago to ANT+ and I don't recall if I was given an option at the beginning or if I paired it while Bluetooth was off. 

HRM-RUN's are crap. Had 3 of them and they all became unreliable and died shortly after changing the batteries. I doubt I will ever buy a Garmin HRM again, certainly not until they change the design. Even the 'new' HRM-PRO is the same years old design with slightly different insides. My Wahoo Tickr X works great with multiple connections at the same time (which only the HRM-PRO can match anyway), the battery takes seconds to change and has worked perfectly since being changed.

Isn't the RUN ant+ only? It's the Dual and Pro that are BT/ANT+

Yes, I believe so, but just the one connection. The PRO is Ant+ as well as multiple BT connections, the same as the Wahoo Tickr X. I use multiple connections for Zwift on my laptop and indoor ride on my watch at the same time, so I get the training load, cycling VO2max, FTP, etc, because Garmin haven't allowed Zwift to integrate their rides into the training load algorithm. The PRO also has onboard (offline) running dynamics storage (it'll record your run, but not the GPS side of things). The Wahoo Tickr X does all of that for about half the price and won't die after a battery change. No brainer really. I believe the only thing the Wahoo Tickr X won't display is your foot strike balance % (L & R), but otherwise all other data is the same.

Garmin have already given me a return number and will issue a new strap.

So, just before I packaged it up I thought I'd have one last try at getting it working. Of course it worked! Not keeping it though as it isn't reliable.

Just hoping that the new one works reliably and that my fears that it is related to 16.60 get put to bed.

martin_s_15371 said:

Of course it worked! Not keeping it though as it isn't reliable.

That was my experience as well. Very flakey.

No guarantees that the new one will be any better. I had the same issue after a year of use with the replaced unit. I ended up not using it for 2 months then trying it again and it has now been working for the past several months. This is why I feel that moisture is invading the electronics on the device and need to take extra precautions, as mentioned earlier...

I believe the electronics on this device are not sealed properly. After rinsing I also remove the red cover to make sure any moisture has a chance to evaporate before the next activity. Regardless of your efforts, water might find a way in, especially if your activities are in a hot climate and you're sweating a lot. If you replace the battery, make sure the O-ring is properly aligned and the screws are snug without over-tightening.

Would you recommend the TickrX then? I'm considering it as a early Xmas press to myself

Update: Sent the strap back to Garmin. They said they'd send a replacement as soon as they got mine back. Today, two and half weeks later they fionally tell me that they have no stock of HRM-Run and I need to ring them to discuss an alternative. Basically looks like I'll have to pay the difference for the Pro. Might cheekily ask them to send me a Tickr X instead!