I've had recurring problems with my HR being recorded incorrectly during activities, such as Treadmill and Elliptical.
- Unrelated to HR, the Treadmill activity, apparently, doesn't record distances run on a treadmill, unless you are swinging your arms. My first treadmill session, I was recorded as having covered .03 miles in 22 minutes (or 7 feet per minute).
- My HR recorded seems unrealistically low (30 bpm too low) for the Treadmill activity for the first 3-4 minutes, if I am not swinging my arms, but holding on to the treadmill.
- My HR recorded using the Elliptical activity is too high by 30 to 40 bpm for periods between 3 to 7 minutes. Also, the HR during Elliptical can jump very high for 3-4 minutes early in my workout, as well as, later in my workout.
My HR recorded by the Treadmill activity is too low by 20-30 bpm during the early part of my run. And I've already warmed up for 3-4 minutes, before starting to record my Treadmill run. So, my HR rate is too low for 6-7 minutes into my treadmill run (4 minutes of warmup and 3 minutes of recorded activity).
My recorded HR during the day (non-activity time) seems pretty spot-on.
All of my activity above is also recorded by a 3 lead heart rate monitor that is watched and recorded real-time. I've had workout sessions where my heart rate has no gone over 101 bpm. Yet, my watch will say that during my elliptical activity my HR is 141 bpm. WRONG!
Garmin has been making wrist-based heart monitors for over 15 years. At a minimum, we should be able to count on our steps and HR being recorded correctly! If Garmin can't do this correctly, everthing else dosn't count for much. What I see here, is that Garmin doesn't seem to take this problem seriously. Perhaps, they think that battery life is more important that getting the HR recorded correctly.
For the record, I am light skinned, no suntan under my watch, my BP falls in the normal range, both resting and during exercise (120 - 130/ 80), I clean my skin and the watch before workouts, I warmup before recording my activity.
It seems that Garmin feels that we need to make troubleshooting their watches a hobby. They should get this resolved.
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