Wrist based heart rate not accurate

Assume you've gone over the standard procedure offered by Garmin to improve heart rate accuracy. The Heart Rate Sensor on My Garmin Watch Is Not Accurate | Forerunner® 945 LTE

I've found that the optical HR on this watch to be better than any other Garmin I've had and almost as good as a chest strap. This makes sense, because the 945 LTE, Venu 2, and Venu 2 Plus all have the latest "Elevate 4" optical sensor. I will usually increase the tightness of the band by one notch (as well as follow the other tips from Garmin) before starting an activity. That seems to improve the accuracy, especially by minimizing the false readings at the beginning of a run.

Wrist based HR seems good for sleep tracking etc but useless for exercise. I took two 945 LTE on a run. one was connected to a chest strap and averaged 133 the wrist based HR on the other watch was 140. Just get yourself a chest strap.

I have a chest strap - my point is Garmin’s top of the line running watch should be able to accurately track heart rate from your wrist as advertised 

I think it is not physically possible while running etc. But agree it is kind of false advertising unless there is some small print that says 'not accurate' 

Im always using a chest strap for exercise,  but i noticed i get HR spikes during idle with the new 4.16 firmware. 

skinnyb said:

should be able to accurately track heart rate from your wrist as advertised 

There is the disclaimer Accuracy | Garmin

While our wrist HR monitor technology is state of the art, there are inherent limitations with the technology that may cause some of the heart rate readings to be inaccurate under certain circumstances.

And is referenced at the bottom of the 945 LTE page - Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE

Ah there you go. It is officially a waste of time :-)

Guess it is a rather small font (6 point or less) . For what it's worth, I've found the 945 LTE with the new Elevate 4 optical HR sensor to be better than other optical HR sensors and some reviewers are saying it as good as the AW7, which seems to be the reference standard these days. I don't have an Apple Watch so can't say if it is or is not.

FWIW ;) , i too have found the Elevate 4 sensor to be a significant improvement over that in my 935 (Elevate 2 or 3?). for non-activities, i have notice no notable extraneous spikes or dips which i would get  fairly walking around with my 935. as for activities, i don't see any weird dips, but i do get some spikes during my runs which take about a minute to settle out. seems like a cadence lock issue which i can usually mitigate if if i keep my watch arm very still. overall, i think the OHR on the 945LTE is good enough for most applications. when i really care, i've resumed using my chest strap for more reliable and steady rates. yet, even that, i will usually get one dip during the run, but its definitely much steadier than the OHR.

I have a FR 935, concidering buying a 945 LTE. The 935 has Elevate 1 or 2. Not 3.