This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

What is going on with the HR readings since 14.13?

Former Member
Former Member

I am getting very weird HR readings both from normal Run activities as well as Swim activities.

So what I'm experiencing is that the HR is much lower than it should be compared to all activities I've done since I got this watch (955 Solar) in the summer of 2022, and compared to how I feel.

It started with 14.13 where I was going out for a normal 5km run but the HR suddenly started to go down after about 1:30, instead of go up, and then after roughly 4:30 it dropped like a rock to 60. When this happened I watched it closely while running and it just sat there, in the low 70-80 and after about 7:30 I stopped the run because I thought the watch was bad.

Here's what it looked like:

Then I checked the forums and at the time some people was experiencing similar HR reading problems. After 7:30 my HR should be somewhere around 160 for me, so I understood that something fish was going on.

Here's an example of a swim activity with Firmware 13.22 back in November, 612 meters in a 12m pool at around 28 C temperature, and 148 HR average and 83% in Swim HR Zone 4:


Here's the same activity today with Firmware 14.15, same pool and same length, same temperature. Even with a slightly faster pace than the one above, now it says the HR average is 113 and 86% in Swim HR Zone 2. What??

Top Replies

All Replies

  • I'm still having these same issues as well. I always get a low reading for the first few minutes of the run then it seems to fix itself.

  • This not being a hotfix and put into place immediately is more than poor of Garmin. The MAIN feature of this watch is not working since at least nine months properly and it's not considered an important fix. The 955 is my second and last Forerunner watch. I might switch to the Fenix line or get off the Garmin train completely if it's the same software problems there.

  • The error is persistent over time, it has happened to me in forerunner 245, forerunner 645, forerunner 955 and in fenix 6. In the end I ended up changing to a coros apex without problems at the moment

  •  Is this getting a fix soon? Q2 is over and I’m done with an expensive *** 955. Thank you 

  •  I waited until the next quarter and got the new update. Optical heart rate monitor is still completely cooked with its readings. Now what?

  • Any updates on this topic? There is no mention of a fix in any of the release notes and I still have super spiky HR.

    What about the rest - is it fixed for anyone or did you all resign? :(

  • no updates. HR monitor is still terrible quality and consistency

    Garmin still doesn't seem to care..

  • I'm still having the same issue, HR spikes of around 15bpm when stopping at red lights. I asked support for a refund but they didn't allow it because I bought it from Amazon, and Amazon says I'm past my return window. I'm SOL.

  • This is a few of my last runs, all on the latest 16.XX updates. It's genuinely embarrassing to upload stuff publicly on Strava from a top tier watch to produce the below so anything from the OHR sensor I have to keep hidden. Garmin support have basically been panning me off for over 4 months now & I don't have the heart to sell the watch on to someone else because of how broken it is. I might as well keep moaning about it but don't have high hopes Garmin are ever going to do anything about it.



  • Have a similar issue. 

    FR 955 + Polar H9 chest strap.

    The most frequent problem is, for instance, I run with a steady pace at 140 bmp, then HR drops to 100-120 for no reason and stays there for some period of time, then it gets back to the normal values and then it repeats

    This is from 10k race, obviously, I didn't stop to chill out: