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Forerunner 235 and Garmin in general: Buyer Beware

Former Member
Former Member over 9 years ago
I have been a long time Garmin user but have just gone through a very bad month of Garmin user experience and am now unfortunately returning my Garmin Forerunner 235 and moving on to a different company.

The amount of errors that have happened with this watch, customer support (still can't associate my email correctly) and the online experience are numerous, but most importantly, the watch hasn't recorded a run correctly. By example, the last time I used the watch, no heart rate data was recorded and the time before, the satellite coverage was off by .4 miles on a 6 mile run. I'd be more patient, but its a relatively expensive watch and Garmin support doesn't seem like its a big issue. ("Well its consumer GPS." - one Garmin support response) The general response has been that the software must be out of date... and then the next time, that the software must be out of date again. I think the software was up to date, but even being out of date by one update shouldn't cause one of the watch's primary functions to stop working.

There are a number of other issues encountered with Garmin support and Garmin express as well, that I don't think are necessary to report, but again, it has been a poor experience overall. The most important thing at this point... I just don't have confidence that I'm going to return from a run with accurate data.

*it seems fitting that the first few times I tried to post this message, I received an error message.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Sincere apologies for the support experience you had today. We care about the experience you have had and your satisfaction with our products. We would like to reach out to you and restore your faith in our products and service. We appreciate your feedback and will be in touch.


    Just to give everyone an update, a Garmin supervisor gave me a call yesterday afternoon to resolve my situation. He had reviewed my case and was very apologetic for the way it was handled. We had a nice talk about everything and also shot the breeze about optical HRM's in general. I've stated before that I think the engineers are doing a good job given the hardware limitations with optical HRM's, and I still feel that way.

    Long story short, the engineers extensively reviewed my data and believe the actual sensor in my unit is faulty, so they're shipping me a brand new unit and no cost. I have a race this weekend and will be sending my old unit back on Monday, so hopefully I'll have the new unit not too long after.

    As far as I'm concerned, my issue has been resolved and my faith in Garmin is restored. Thanks to the Garmin supervisor who I chatted with yesterday, as well as the Garmin folks who monitor these forums (thanks SJT70!). It's very much appreciated!
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    I read your HRM wasn't working at all, that was in the literal sense? In that case an actual faulty device is indeed likely.

    However, the other issues... Cadence lock and such, are just a limitation of their sensor imo. Although I hope the new unit works out for me, it would also make me doubt my own wrt faulty device/sensor.

    At least they handled it properly, good luck with the new unit :)
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    I read your HRM wasn't working at all, that was in the literal sense? In that case an actual faulty device is indeed likely.


    In my very honest opinion, the sensor is probably fine and it's a firmware issue. It works for standard 24/7 monitoring. It just has a very hard time with actual activities, and it all started with the latest firmware update. A few runs I haven't been able to get it to lock on at all, even after waiting for several (upwards of 10 minutes), resetting the watch, turning the sensor on/off, etc. But in the end, I'm not a Garmin engineer and I defer to their judgement.

    However, the other issues... Cadence lock and such, are just a limitation of their sensor imo. Although I hope the new unit works out for me, it would also make me doubt my own wrt faulty device/sensor.


    Totally agree. I've been testing and studying optical HRM's for the past year or so to try to find one that works. I have a couple of them and the Rhythm+ is definitely the best I've found, but I've still had the crossover issue with it from time to time. You can also wear it higher up on the forearm or bicep, so you can get a better reading than a wrist-based optical HRM. I still think Garmin's is good enough (minus this latest firmware update).

    At least they handled it properly, good luck with the new unit :)


    Thanks! :)
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Just to give everyone an update, a Garmin supervisor gave me a call yesterday afternoon to resolve my situation. He had reviewed my case and was very apologetic for the way it was handled. We had a nice talk about everything and also shot the breeze about optical HRM's in general. I've stated before that I think the engineers are doing a good job given the hardware limitations with optical HRM's, and I still feel that way.

    Long story short, the engineers extensively reviewed my data and believe the actual sensor in my unit is faulty, so they're shipping me a brand new unit and no cost. I have a race this weekend and will be sending my old unit back on Monday, so hopefully I'll have the new unit not too long after.

    As far as I'm concerned, my issue has been resolved and my faith in Garmin is restored. Thanks to the Garmin supervisor who I chatted with yesterday, as well as the Garmin folks who monitor these forums (thanks SJT70!). It's very much appreciated!


    Please make sure to post back and let us know how it goes! I'm glad they took care of you, but if the second watch has issues too, hopefully they will use you as a test case to figure out what it is about your physiology that causes the OHM to fail.

    Mine has been close to perfect, as I posted earlier, but the Fitbit Charge HR and Apple Watch both had OHMs that had results that were very close to what I get using a chest strap as well. So even though I'm a male that sweats a lot with semi-hairy arms, I seem to have been in mind when they designed them. :D

    One thing I do, and not sure if it makes a difference or not, but before I run or do yoga (I use the 'other' workout setting for that), I move the watch up my arm just a bit and cinch it a couple notches, or if it's already in a good spot past my wrist, I just cinch it a couple notches. I think the more these things move around on your wrist, the more inaccurate the reading is going to be. I have a friend in my run group who was getting inaccurate readings from her Garmin (ironically, also a 235), and when I looked at her wrist the thing was loose and just flopping around. It wasn't even close to snug. Cinched it up, and good to go.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Previous to the current firmware update, I was mostly pleased with the HRM. My only issue was the cadence lock issue. My average heart rate for an normal effort activity runs around 160's. My average cadence is usually 180-185. I think my high cadence might be a factor.

    Do you ever get cadence lock? What's your average heart rate vs. average cadence?
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    With the latest firmware I have only had a couple of rare few second blips of cadence lock, mostly at the tail end of intervals when I slow down but my HR is still up... and that could just be my HR & cadence coincidentally actually being the same at around 175 to 180 as I slowed.

    For easy runs I have HR between 135 - 150 and cadence usually 170 - 185.
    Tempo runs HR between 155 - 165, cadence between 180 - 190
    Intervals, HR from 135 up to 180 max, cadence from 180 up to 200+ on sprints
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    My watch is amazing. I was using a Bryton watch (WHO?!) and this 235 has not left my wrist since the day I bought it.

    I will say the HR is not reliable. You have to be fully warmed up and have the watch tightened more than normal to get an accurate reading but I don't care about the occasional inacuracy, it does everything else so well it doesn't matter!!
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    I received my (new) replacement yesterday. It took about 8 days from the time I dropped my old one in the mail until the time I received the new one, so I'm pretty happy with the turnaround.

    I charged it up and updated it. I was a little nervous about all the issues people are having with the new firmware, but mine seems to be working surprisingly well at the moment. I went for a run last night, and while the HRM did struggle to obtain a lock at first (had to reboot and turn off/on the sensor before it finally locked), the HR data seems legit. I had no cadence locks or dropouts. I'll continue to test it, but I'm happy right now. Perhaps my old FR235 really did have a faulty sensor. The resting HRM is a little out of sorts with this new firmware, but that's on the low end of my interest for now.

    The only complaint I have at the moment is that I'm getting some pretty severe backlight bleeding. It was the first thing I noticed when I turned the watch on for the first time. I can see the actual light at the bottom of the screen. I compared it to my girlfriends 235, and it's definitely a little worse. I must have been lucky with my first 235 to not have the bleeding. At this point, I'm just happy to have a functional watch and I'll deal with it.

    Thanks again to the Garmin folks who helped me out.
  • 0 over 9 years ago
    The resting HRM is a little out of sorts with this new firmware, but that's on the low end of my interest for now.

    The only complaint I have at the moment is that I'm getting some pretty severe backlight bleeding. It was the first thing I noticed when I turned the watch on for the first time. I can see the actual light at the bottom of the screen. I compared it to my girlfriends 235, and it's definitely a little worse. I must have been lucky with my first 235 to not have the bleeding. At this point, I'm just happy to have a functional watch and I'll deal with it.

    Thanks again to the Garmin folks who helped me out.


    Yeah, it seems like every time the firmware gets updated, there's a period of 2-3 days where my RHR has to "settle" back to where it's supposed to be. So hopefully, it's back to normal by the weekend for you.

    I have a tiny bit of backlight "bleed" myself; it shows up as a little dull white dot at the bottom of the watch. I assumed that was normal; it's not really THAT distracting IMO, but if the actual little dot is blindingly bright, that's probably a defect. See below for what mine looks like.

  • 0 over 9 years ago
    Yup, that backlight is about the same as mine. Seems to be normal, so I'm not going to worry about it. Thanks for the picture.

    Edit: Uploaded a picture for reference.