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The Garmin Mess (my opinion) of Optical HR

gxgene1
1 month ago

Three Visuals included.

1.The first is a 10 miles non stop flat run, on software 22.20. Note that about 10 minutes into the run the HR takes a sudden, unexplainable jump

2. 35 minutes on a stair climber. After the exercise ends I kept the watch recording and over the next 10 minutes the HR peaks twice to a level higher than at any time during the exercise and then drifts down in what looks like a repeatable pattern

3. A 5k run with a stepper hill. At about .4 miles in the HR does a straight up vertical jump from 126 bpm to 150 bpm!

The above is indisputable, below are my opinions and represent my experiences with the watch.

I can't say if these problems affect all users or just a subset. I can say for me the FR 265's Elevate Gen 4 Optical HR sensor is a real disappointment (compared to the FR 245 Elevate Gen 3 Optical HR sensor). To the point of; Garmin, I love the user interface and some of the features of the FR265 but fix the optical HR or just give me my money back.

OR - recall the watches with the Elevate 4 sensor, replace with the Elevate 3 sensor and the software to support the Elevate 3. OK, that's pie in the Sky, the user can't replace the battery in the watch, the optical HR sensor isn't going to be replaced.

OR Replace my watch with an equivalent that actually works! A LOT of the metrics I care about are based off of the HR readings. If the HR readings are bunk, then obviously the metrics follow suite. Again, my opinion but if the optical HR doesn't work reasonably (at least as well as it did in the FR245) then the watch does not meet the advertised standards for it's intended use.

I can live with the HR missing rapid peaks or having to install the newly released software twice because after the first install the watch forgot it had an HR sensor or even the random breakage of some features after a software "upgrade" as long as the core functions continue to work (or are fixed); I can't live with the core function of the HR not working reasonably.

  • 0 1 month ago

    I completely agree, I have had several forerunners (935, 945, 735xt) and my current 265 is I believe by far the less accurate. On top of that I normally use a chest strap for my workouts, and while previously the optical sensor would go off while connected to a chest strap, giving the certainty that the readings were actually coming from the reliable strap, for some reason Garmin has decided to be cleverer than us and let a totally unreliable device (265s) decide where to take the data from, not even informing the user whether it's accurate (strap) or rubbish (optical)

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 3628928

    disable source switching (in the HR widget settings) I think only applicable with Garmin straps but not sure

    I think the strap needs to be connected to disable the setting

    You may need to un-pair and re-pair your HRM first as there was a change in some recent FW to the accessory connections

    Thats what I have done with my HRM-PRO and my 965

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to S.M.R.

    I haven't used the chest strap yet (still in Garmin's packaging), so for my use the only source the FR265 would have is the optical sensor. I really don't want to wear the chest strap and I felt the FR245 sensor was good for my needs. Performance at least equal to the FR245 is what I'm looking for in the FR265 and unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to S.M.R.
    S.M.R. said:
    disable source switching (in the HR widget settings) I think only applicable with Garmin straps but not sure

    Well Garmin claims it only works with certain Garmin straps.

    https://support.garmin.com/en-CA/?faq=Nf8r6ApX4d9lX0G0flEsVA

    Switching sources based on the quality of the heart rate signal during an activity requires the use of a Garmin HRM-DualTm, HRM 200, HRM-FitTm, HRM-ProTm, or HRM-Pro PlusTm heart rate monitor along with a watch from the compatible watch list below.

    And besides, by design, it's impossible to turn it off unless you have a supported Garmin strap (which suggests that Garmin thinks there's no need to disable it if you don't have a supported strap, as it's not supposed to do anything in that case *)

    (Ofc I realize it's possible for someone to own both a supported Garmin strap and a non-supported/non-Garmin strap)

    (*) the funny thing is source switching does *something* even when an unsupported strap is connected: it records both external hr and wrist hr to the FIT file [only visible with a 3rd party site/tool], in addition to the normal heart rate [shown in the activity and in Connect]. When source switching is disabled, only the normal heart rate value is recorded.

    What isn't 100% clear to me is whether the actual "source switching" part of the feature will work with a supposedly unsupported strap. i.e. the part where the watch switches from external HR to optical HR, when the watch decides the external HR quality isn't good enough

    If you take Garmin at their word, it won't. I'm guessing a supported strap is required because there's something in the strap that conveys the "quality of the heart rate signal" to the watch in a way that isn't possible for other straps.

    Note: as the support article mentions, "basic" source switching will still work with an unsupported strap - this is just the normal thing that's always existed where the watch will switch to the optical HR if the connection to the external HR is lost.

  • 0 29 days ago

    I have found the FR265 optical HR so completely unreliable, I just assume it's not even there.  I have been wearing the watch for weightlifting sessions in the gym, and occasionally I'll forget to bring my chest strap, so when I do use the optical HR, it's a mess -- jumps up and down by sometimes 10 BPM over a few seconds while I'm standing around between sets.  It's disappointing but I just know that if I want accurate heartrate with this watch, it means wearing a chest strap.

  • 0 20 days ago

    it's been really bad recently. it cant get out of the first zone and then all of a sudden spikes and drops down. i'm working some pretty hard sets where i know my hr should be in the 150s and i'm stuck at 80 for the first 20 mins

  • 0 19 days ago

    Thank you for sharing, and I am sorry for any disappointment from any heart rate discrepancies. I am happy to get some examples and have our team take a look. Please answer the following: 

    1. May we have permission to view examples from your Connect account?
    2. May we have permission to reach you via email?
  • 0 10 days ago

    I am also seeing HR issues after update to 22.24.  My HR dropped from 161 to 125 or so two times now in middle of a race.  HR dropped to 54 while doing pull ups yesterday.  Did you notice any OTA sync issues post update? I have to use a cable to sync now or it will not push all data over, for example sleep history will not sync unless I use a cable.  Device worked well prior to this update.

  • 0 8 days ago

    my main issue with the FR265's optical HR sensor seems is related with "cold hands" (blood flow issue) during cycling or running or commuting. i was able to observe the following typical pattern :  i start an activity (running, or cycling (both sportive or just commuting with HR between 85 and 100). at the beginning the OHR sensor works accurately. then it is getting colder and my hands are getting cold , with this the HR "jumps up".  the HR then is quite high in a steady state; another error behaviour is that the HR "ramps up" to values beyond my max HR.

    imho the OHR sensor works under steadly warm conditions. such as indoor cycling or running/cycling during warm weather.

    as a result of the error behaviour a disabled every training advice / load / recovery related screens from my watch.

    my feature request is to be able to disable die OHR sensor for an activity in the settings (three dots). on a menu level like touch on/off or GPS mode.