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The ups and downs of stair climbing

After almost one week after getting my first Garmin (Forerunner 955), I get a new insight: the ups and downs of stair climbing garmin. I average less floors climbed than floors descended. When I see my stats for the week everyday there are more floors descended than climbed. The thing is that I only do stairs at home and when I take the stairs up I definitely take them down again, so the amount should be equal as well. I climb stairs pretty fast, taking 2 steps at a time. It's quite frustrating that almost half the stairs climbed is not registered. It seems to me that this feature is quite broken. I already callibrated the altimeter (with the gps), so I don't really know what else I can do to make this feature work. (I'm not going to start climbing stairs step by step.) Any tips to make this feature work?

0 Paulb over 2 years ago

From what I understand it works by barometer pressure. If the pressure goes up it registers less steps assending than descending and when it drops (like before a storm) it will show less dessent than assent.

0 Geroelltrampel over 2 years ago in reply to Paulb

That would be awful. Why should pressure raise if you climb stairs upwards? :-)

0 Spiderpig over 2 years ago

I looked at this a few months ago when I had inconsistent stair tracking on my old 945.

The Garmin article on this states that the requirements are:

A floor climbed is equal to 10 feet (3 meters) in elevation gain.
Consistent arm movement tied to walking as you climb.

Note the second one. If you habitually hold a bannister on the way up (or do some other arm movement that isn't considered "walking"), the the upward stairs might not be counted fully.

The Floors Climbed Feature Is Not Accurate on My Watch | Garmin Customer Support

Also note that skipping stairs can also lead to not being creditied:

I Am Not Getting Enough Credit

Are the flights of stairs that you are taking equal to 10 feet or more in height? If not, the only way you can earn credit is by going up and down the stairs repeatedly and without stopping. For example:
- A home features a flight of stairs that are 6ft in height. Going up, back down, then up again without stopping would equal 12 feet of elevation climb and should result in a credit of 1 floor.
For the most accurate measurement do not hold onto the hand rail when climbing stairs.
Do not skip stairs (walking up every other stair).
When walking outdoors, the grade of the hill needs to be at least 10% which is an angle of about 6 degrees.
Remember that to earn credit towards your goal you must be moving forward and up.
- Elevators: You move up but not forward.
- Exercise equipment: With most equipment you do not move up or forward.

0 Paulb over 2 years ago in reply to Geroelltrampel

Spiderpig has beaten me to it with the article I was going to link. This is common across all makes of fitness watches and is often brought up on many of them. The higher you go the more air pressure but as it changes daily due to the weather and weather changing this affects how the Barometer works. If you watch the weather late at night they often tell you what the current barometric pressure is.

0 Geroelltrampel over 2 years ago in reply to Paulb

What I tried to tell you is this: "The higher you go the more air pressure" is wrong. The opposite is true.