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HR accuracy

KennyV1983
over 9 years ago
Hello,

I've got my FR235 now for 7 days and I'm not sattisfied with the heart rate monitoring in activity mode.. Sometimes it's just not accurate!
I did 5 runs: 3 with the old firmware, 2 with the newest firmware (and also an update which would have to give a better accuracy).

Conclusions:
* on the 3 runs with old firmware, the bad one of the tree just gave a rubbish HR: I was a tempo run and the displayed HR was stable between 100-110. I just know this isn't correct, it should be between 170-180.

* on the 2 runs with the new firmware: one was an interval training and that was perfect (ups and downs were 100% in line with values I got with my previous watch); yesterday I did a 10k run at the same pace. HR was at about 160-165 and that's quiet normal. I thought the problem was fixed with the new firmware BUT in the last kilometer, there was a hill and I ran up the hill at much faster pace (2min/km faster), the HR didn't move :( It must be 180-190 for sure! The HR wasn't delayed or so, I just didn't see higher values at all :(
Here's the graph (pace vs HR):


Btw: my previous watch was a tomtom multisports cardio, it was also with a buildin HRM (but with mio sensor) and that worked great..
Is it possible the FR235 will work fine with software updates? I'm thinking of returning it to the shop.. The watch is much better than my previous one (lot's of extra's) but without accurate HRM, everything isn't worth it :(
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    nevermind, I returned it..
    The HR wasnt' accurate, I can't live with that... My previous watch (tomtom multisports) didn't had as much options as the FR235 but the mio HRM sensor on it did his job much much better
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    you can always check back here in a few months, to see how things will have developed, maybe it will be better then and you could still get a new one then.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Why does my All Day Heart Rate from Garmin Connect not even look close to my Last 4 Hours on my watch? My watch says it has a high of 139 and my Connect app says 91, and they are synced. Not liking the new update. I was very happy with how everything worked before the update, except for the battery life. That's the only thing the update fixed.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Well since you've returned it there's no way to know if it was simply a bad unit (it happens) or if there's some issue with the 235 working for your specifics.

    So far mine's been spot on, within a reasonable expectation of precision.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Mine has been surprisingly accurate. I have been using a hr strap with a 305 on all my runs so far. They match up quite well.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    I'm going to use my old tomtom multisports (with mio sensor for HR) for a few months.
    I will still look at the garmin forum in the meanwhile, as soon as I see fixes, I'll buy it back (it has a lot more options than my current watch, too bad I didn't receive an accurate HR on 2 of the 6 testruns)
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Can't see any obvious problems with that HR trace up the hill. Personally I would have wanted to use a strap to compare HRs before dismissing it as wrong. Some days I find my HR is not always predictable. The other day I looked at my 235 and said 100 (on just optical) and thought must be wrong until looked at my other device paired to a strap and also said 100. I was just rather tired and could not raise my pulse very high.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Funny. I had the exact same issue... with my TomTom Multisport Cardio! HR was just rubbish and I returned that one and switched to a Garmin watch with HR strap (FR 620 and now since a couple of days the FR 630). Proves to me that the performance of integrated HR monitors vary per person and per supplier ;-)
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Can't see any obvious problems with that HR trace up the hill. Personally I would have wanted to use a strap to compare HRs before dismissing it as wrong. Some days I find my HR is not always predictable. The other day I looked at my 235 and said 100 (on just optical) and thought must be wrong until looked at my other device paired to a strap and also said 100. I was just rather tired and could not raise my pulse very high.

    If I wanted to use a strap, I could have bought the FR230 too..

    The HR wasn't good, I'm not in that good shape that I can run an average pace of 4:30min/km with an HR constantly between 90 and 110 :) Values of 180+ were expected
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Can't see any obvious problems with that HR trace up the hill. Personally I would have wanted to use a strap to compare HRs before dismissing it as wrong. Some days I find my HR is not always predictable. The other day I looked at my 235 and said 100 (on just optical) and thought must be wrong until looked at my other device paired to a strap and also said 100. I was just rather tired and could not raise my pulse very high.

    If I wanted to run with a strap, I could have bought the (cheaper) FR230.
    The HR wasn't good and not a possible difference with 'shape of the day': HR between 90 and 110 at average pace of 4:30min/km isn't possible for me, that's more my HR when walking :p