Never buy a new model (experimental) product in its first year he keeps repeating in his head..... The attached image is taken after running 10 times up n down the house staircase. You can see a comparison between the Forerunner 405 with chest strap and the Forerunner 235. My old trusted companion which i have had for 6 years forrunner 405 shows 143 bpm and the forerrunner 235 showing at the same time 112bpm. A whoping 30 bpm difference. Really feeling like i was sold an unfinished product Garmin
The HRM of the 235 is just unreliable and works only partially, hence useless
I really have a lot of faith in this company, but I am not impressed, nor am I convinced in the HRM on the 235. I've been messing with it for a month, and am certain it is very immature in its development. The HR tracking is erratic, and inconsistent. I am to the point to where I wear my ANT+ strap again to get true results. I am stuck with the watch now, and sure hope they develop the software properly, as opposed to dropping us like a hot rock when the next great immature product that they decide to launch goes on sale. There is a reason for the many negative vibes you are getting on this forum.
So have you ever had an wrist-based optical HR device that wasn't "totally useless" or "hopeless"?
Can we assume you have tried different ways of wearing them? Generally I find you need to wear them tight and up the wrist a bit.
To be fair the latest Garmin HR straps generally work very well now.
Yep - tried it all. 4 different watches - FR225 x3 and 1 x FR235 - all patchy.
HR straps - never had any issues with them until they stop working and need replaced (they all, except the oldest plastic one don't last at all - been replaced by Garmin on every watch I have ever owned as they just stop accurately tracking).
I really have a lot of faith in this company, but I am not impressed, nor am I convinced in the HRM on the 235. I've been messing with it for a month, and am certain it is very immature in its development. The HR tracking is erratic, and inconsistent. I am to the point to where I wear my ANT+ strap again to get true results. I am stuck with the watch now, and sure hope they develop the software properly, as opposed to dropping us like a hot rock when the next great immature product that they decide to launch goes on sale. There is a reason for the many negative vibes you are getting on this forum.
Well the "good thing" is that optical HR firmware (the WDR component) is not part of the watch firmware itself. Now with the announcement that the Fenix 3 is going to also get the same optical technology and presume so will other watches in the future then it is fairly clear to me that is still very much a work in progress. And yes I agree with you - if you want the best possible HR accuracy then wearing a strap on those runs where it is really important to you is probably the best choice.
Yep - tried it all. 4 different watches - FR225 x3 and 1 x FR235 - all patchy.
HR straps - never had any issues with them until they stop working and need replaced (they all, except the oldest plastic one don't last at all - been replaced by Garmin on every watch I have ever owned as they just stop accurately tracking).
Polar HR strap with my Garmins - no issues.
I tend to view the "soft" straps like clothing. If I wear something every day for a year, it will wear out. My running shoes do so far far quicker than that. This is what typically has happened with my HR straps.
Disappointing of course that you can't get half decent results with optical HR.
Here's a long run today. This was the most frustrating run in regards to the HRM that I've had. The cadence lock/crossover issue is ridiculous for me. I tried swapping wrists, wearing it tight, not flexing my hand. I just can't get this thing to NOT lock on my cadence.
My heart rate is generally in the low 160's for this type of effort.
I've been defending Garmin on various discussions (runners world, dcrainmaker, etc), but I'm just about at my wits end with this thing in regards to the HRM tracking.
My short run today. Very smooth start with about 6min/km, later accelerating, no rapid changes of pace. For the first km cadence lock/crossover, HR should have been in the 130's. Disappointing.
my short run today. Very smooth start with about 6min/km, later accelerating, no rapid changes of pace. For the first km cadence lock/crossover, hr should have been in the 130's. Disappointing.
Next was a cross country race - while it looks like it might be cadence lock, I would have expected HR and cadence to be in the same range for a lot of the race, although I can't be 100% sure - maybe it was for some of it and then it settled down.
I haven't updated to 2.41 yet because I didn't want to risk something going wrong before the race.
I'm worried that I won't be able to successfully monitor HR during longer races - backing off during a race because cadence lock indicates my HR is higher than it actually is not good.
I opened a ticket with Garmin support this morning for the cadence lock / crossover issue. I'm sure they're already aware of it, but if enough people do the same and we keep at them, they have to acknowledge it at some point. At least I hope they would..
