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Wrist heart rate monitor WHR inaccurate

5746996
over 4 years ago

Anyone else experienced issues with the heart rate inaccuracy? My FR945's HR reading is often higher than actual by 10%-30%. Usually when walking or moving around (e.g. cooking or talking & moving hands). It is disappointing because my $200 Fitbit tracks my heart rate accurately. This is a critical feature, because many other calculations depend on it.

Resetting the sensor (with garmin's support) did not fix it.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I think mine is pretty accurate compared to when I wear a strap or have used a Kardia ecg reading when resting. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Mine is much more accurate than before - fenix 5 or vivoactive 3 - also a fitbit is not really accurate imho

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Mine is also fine. Much better than 935

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've been using a Polar OH1 HRM for most of my runs with the 945 but the couple that I've done with the built in oHRM have been pretty good. The all day and sleeping HR readings have been as good as my previous watches.

    The biggest thing I would say is that it's more consistent at the start than my F5+/645/735 were. Those others would sometimes act up at the start of runs while the 945 has been good right from the start.

    Of course this has all been in warm to hot conditions. The real problems with oHRM for me is when it's cold out so I won't know for sure until the fall about that.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I got the 945  hoping that the sensor will be more accurate,  it’s just as bad or worse.  In my case it’s usually lower heart rate reading.  It works sometimes  seems like the watch has a mind of its own.  Sometimes I say start climbing up the heart rate goes down,  sometimes turning the heart rate monitor off and on helps.  Many times I have to do that often. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Sounds it's not just a problem with my watch. Hopefully a new software update comes out soon and fixes it -- otherwise I'm returning my FR945 (thanks to REI's 90-day policy). It's not horribly off, but most of the time 10%-20% higher. I wonder how many people don't even notice this issue.

    For those who want to try resetting the sensor, you need to turn it off in settings and then soft-restart the watch by pressing the light button for >15 secs. It is what Garmin support suggested, but as I said earlier, I don't think it fixed my issue. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I'm finding the 945's OHR is better than the 935 but still not good enough to totally replace a chest strap when 'active'. Close on occasion, but not reliable or consistent enough.

    If you believe you are seeing really bad reading when relatively inactive, then you should reach out again to Garmin Support. I do find the OHR very reliable and accurate when sitting, or walking around, just not quite so good when running.

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    Yes, I'm seeing the same thing!

    When I'm looking at the all day heart rate chart(with no activity recorded) it seems to be closer to the correct  heart rate with some light to moderate action(90-140 bpm) but if I start an activity it jumps almost straight over 150 bpm, which I know is not correct.

    Fenix 5 tended to downplay the optical heart rate readings with same activities. Was really hoping that the 945 would be better in this department but now it's actually worse as it throws the training load/effect metrics way off.