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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 8 days ago in reply to ulliH

    Is it possible or has anyone been able to use an older version of software on the device? Watch worked fine prior to updates

  • 0 2 days ago in reply to 2341326

    The short answer is no. Garmin in their infinite wisdom has never provided users with a means to revert back to older software, with the exception that if you are a Beta Tester, you can revert back to the last released version. That has stepped on the toes of many users including myself when a software update to my FR245 bricked the optical HR sensor, which after the update started reading about 20 BPM low.

    In my (limited) view point is should be fairly easy to let a user revert. I was happy with the FR245 prior to the software update which violated my watch by means of an automatic update. Since that point in time, I have turned automatic updates off. From Garmin's viewpoint I would guess it's a little more complicated, there are various components to a complete update, i.e. GPS detection, Sensors, so to successfully revert a person would need to need that the bits and pieces are all compatible. I've down loaded and archived a few of the main software versions but I've never actually tried to revert back. The FR245 was only a few days old when the Automatic software update detonated it so I just took it back and got a different one (and turned off updates). I did allow one update before the warranty ran out and the user feedback on the update looked OK. 

    Even with updates turned off you still have to be careful Garmin software on the PC will still try to update the watch if you connect via the PC, in which case the fix is to delay the update and remove the update file from the watch before it has a chance to install. Working from memory here but I think the file is GUPDATE.GSP in the Garmin folder of the watch. Connected via USB, with no Garmin PC software running the watch just becomes another thumb drive, so the file can be moved from the watch to the PC and archived. It's also how I back up my *.fit files in the watch activity folder for my exercises.

    The optical HR on the 265 I've never been happy and from what I've read from user comments the latest version is worse, not better.

    Again the following is my opinion; Garmin might have rocket science in the newest Optical HR Sensor but in practical use Garmin has now spent two generations of watches the FR255 and FR265 trying to come up with software to fix just how fussy the new sensor is; and they have to this point have failed. For me personally, I love not having to wear a chest strap and I don't care if the optical HR misses some peak instantaneous values, I do care a LOT that it is generally accurate and that the overall average is correct which gives me insight into my overall fitness.

    If Garmin married the ascetics of the FR265 with the HR sensor of the 245 I'd be a happy camper (assuming I had the version of optical sensor software I still have in my FR245)

    I really like the display and the user interface, but the FR265 is failing in the core function of providing a reliable HR reading. Garmin's answer is to wear a chest strap, Sure, so other than I don't want to wear a chest strap that would mean the wiz bang HR sensor that was put into the watch is just a marketing toy. I don't believe that was the intent and I want Garmin to succeed to the point I've sent them my own thoughts on maybe how they might be able to obtain a more reliable average reading with no idea if anyone cared or if they had already gone there. What I can say is I have a lot of Garmins; but in the future I'm not buying another Garmin unless this gets fixed to the point of having a believable HR reading (at least as reliable as my FR245.