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Heartrate so inaccurate that my watch is basically useless for training

I got my Forerunner 265 about a year ago and I have loved almost everything about it.  I love the touch interface, the AMOLED screen, sleep analysis, training readiness, etc.  But I have been trying to use it to track my training and the heartrate is so inaccurate that it is basically useless.  Today was a good example, I just wanted to go for a 40 minute run on my lunch break.  I took the watch off, cleaned the sensor, strapped it snuggly on my wrist in the suggested spot and headed out on a run.  My goal was to get some good Zone 2 progress.  Instead one minute into my run, I glance down and I'm in zone 5.  I check my heart rate manually and I'm actually in zone 1.  I let the watch calm down and try again.  Same thing.  I do this for two miles.  I eventually discard the run because it's so crazy.  But now I've run 2 miles that won't be recorded.  Not the end of the world.  But my lunch break is almost over so I try again.  Basically the same deal.  I keep stopping to let my watch try to get in sync with reality, but by the time I'm done my watch now thinks I was doing an interval workout.  Having gone through this frustrating process a few times, my mileage, my load focus, my max heart rate, my training load, basically everything are now all out of whack.  Can't get good heart rate data running, biking, rowing, or stair climbing Disappointed

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  • Just to chime in to say that I have zero issues with the forerunner 255 music. Not sure why some watches are affected, but I am tempted to think that it is not a firmware issue, or else everyone would be  equally affected.

  • Hi to everyone

    The chart below is from my new Forerunner 265 purchased less than a week ago.

    Running latest firmware 19.18

    Grey color is my running pace doing up hills around 33-36 seconds duration each, with  approximately 1':30'' (walking break) returning back again. 

    Red color is the (optical) heart rate recorded from my Forerunner.

    It seems that there is some kind of delay in each of my uphill running session and the heartbeat recorded.    

    I have also upvoted your post Sierra please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Hope I can help with this.

  • This is the exact session but recorded with my Fenix 6s optical HR two weeks ago.

    Last one a month ago recorded again with my Fenix 6s but with HRM-Run 

    Regards.

  • Just got my chest strap.  I'd love to compare it to my wrist monitor.  Just did a 30 min indoor ride.  Now, when I download the .fit file from the workout, I don't see two sets of heart rate data.  Is this possible?

  • Export activity as fit file and upload it in fitfileviewer.com, you will  have option to show both chest and OHR on graph

  • The same. When I have my chest, I can see only chest graph, without OHR.

  • Cool!  I see the graph and the option to plot both "heart rate" and "wrist heart rate."  They are exactly identical.  Like 100% overlap.  Which makes me think there's an error.  I'll try again with another workout today.

  • Choose External heart rate and Wrist heart rate for both to show. Not Heart rate, because the watch somehow decides which data to use for that field (which does not seem reliable to me and you cannot know which source was used without in-depth analysis)

  • This makes total sense that the WHR and CHR would be the same, indoor rides are one the easiest things for WHR sensors. I'm noticing it's highly accurate for me so far for Walks and Indoor rides, I have yet to try intervals...I think it's the run activity that I've seen most people having issues with, though I saw a few with odd data on walks and hikes. Again, I have a 165 with Sensor Hub firmware 30.24, and I'm not a runner. Many also said it was working fine before a certain software update, so I don't think it's hardware...17 I think, which is when they updated the Sensor Hub firmware.

  • I am a long time Garmin user and I hate to say it but Garmin watches are totally useless for Heart Rate measurement during 'everyday' use and for 'activities'. It is a unimaginable that Garmin would put such inaccurate and unusable products on the market. They would be much better off eliminating the optical HR and requiring users to use a chest strap or other HR input device like their old watches.

    I wanted to try to use the built in optical just for everyday use (as I do not want to wear a chest strap all day long) and gave my FR 965 every chance. I have Afib so I keep a close eye on my HR during the day. If my HR is abnormally high it means I am in Afib. I was cutting the grass yesterday and had my Garmin FR 965 on along with my Apple Watch. I set my Garmin for a custom workout using the built in optical HR sensor. I happened to look at the Garmin while I was walking behind the self drive mower. It read 287 BPM! I panicked and quickly got a reading from my Apple Watch. It was reading a steady 85 BPM. I quickly went in the house and put on my chest strap connected to my old Garmin 920XT and it was reading mid 80s like my Apple watch but the FR 965 was still in the mid 200s and 'on' and 'off' would not read HR at all. I tried adjusting the watch on my arm and it still waffled between no HR and mid 200s. I then scanned through the HR readings my Garmin FR 965 took throughout the day and there were several random 190s and 200s mixed in. Checked my Apple Watch and all readings were normal. How in the world can anyone use such an unreliable HR device for any purpose. I love the FR 965 for everything else (except sleep tracking as it is also inaccurate) However, since a lot of the other data it calculates is based on HR how can anyone trust any of the data.

    Garmin - if you are listening... Either you have to fix this problem immediately or take these watches off the market. If the FR 965 was my only HR device when cutting the grass yesterday I would have falsely gone to the hospital thinking I was in Afib. I tried a Fenix 7 Pro first before buying the 965 thinking since it was Garmin's top of the line watch it would have the best optical HR sensor and it was no better so I returned it to try the 965.  I fully understand the issues with optical HR measurement but my Apple Watch has always provided accurate HR when compared with my 920XT w/chest strap (except for the expected lag) but I wanted more metrics than it provided so I purchased the new Garmin watches. What a mistake!