235 and swimming

I recently did a swim in my pool with my 235, using the "other" activity profile. My pool is about 43 feet long, and I did 50 lengths in about 17 minutes. This works out to about 4 tenths of a mile. The 235 recorded the swim as a little over a mile at a speed of almost 4 miles per hour. Why do you think the watch recorded a distance of over twice the actual distance? I'll try to link the activity. Apparently the watch though I swam out of my pool and across route 99.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1213358002

Same here. I always end up with nearly double the actual distance. Reason is the GPS was recorded extra meters, beyond the pool :(
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1189393903

I am thinking about turn on GLONASS or use IQ App.

Hope some experts can help us :)

Good idea. I just noticed that I didn't have glonass on, only gps. I'm doing another swim later on in the afternoon and will see if this makes a difference.

Sorry, but swimming seems not to be supported by this model.
Check this article and the comparison chart:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/garmin-fr230-fr235-review.html

I recently did a swim in my pool with my 235, using the "other" activity profile. My pool is about 43 feet long, and I did 50 lengths in about 17 minutes. This works out to about 4 tenths of a mile. The 235 recorded the swim as a little over a mile at a speed of almost 4 miles per hour. Why do you think the watch recorded a distance of over twice the actual distance? I'll try to link the activity. Apparently the watch though I swam out of my pool and across route 99.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1213358002

I think that you are expecting too much of the GPS in this scenario. It will lose signal when the watch is underwater, which is why the track is scrambled. I've seen some threads on the 920XT forum where Open water swimmers put the watch under the swim cap, so that the GPS is clear of the water, and can get a stable signal - however, you'll lose the HR because the watch is not on the wrist.

As pointed out above, the watch is not designed for swimming, but hope you can get a better result.

Thanks

Chris

I understand that swimming isn't supported, and don't expect the optical hrm to track correctly. But I thought that I'd at least be able to get time and distance. I thought if the gps lost signal my reported distance would be less than the actual distance, not more. In the final analysis though, I don't swim competitively and use my watch for running and cycling. Since I know the length of my pool and can count my lengths it's not really important that the 235 function well while swimming. Just thought I'd give it a try. How different can the gps receivers be on the garmin watches that do support swimming? I wouldn't think they would be very different, if at all.

The 235 does support swimming, but not optimally. But you have to use the crawl, not the breaststroke, because there's not gps signal under water.
I did several open water swims and it records, as far as I can guess, the distance and speed pretty correct.
Even if you do some breaststroke swimming in between, the 235 picks up the signal again. The only thing you see is a gap in your speed.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1194702865
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1200840670

I understand that swimming isn't supported, and don't expect the optical hrm to track correctly. How different can the gps receivers be on the garmin watches that do support swimming? I wouldn't think they would be very different, if at all.

The GPS receivers will not differ much, but watches that support open water swimming will have algorithms to deal with signal loss due to watch immersion. Also depends on the type of stroke you are doing - for instance, with breast stroke the watch is underwater most of the time.

Garmin has been able to make their GPS watches work in an open-water swim mode since 2010, when they provided ">an update to the 310XT">an update to the 310XT. It isn't the GPS receiver on the watch but the algorithms used to interpret the data, as chrisdr2 noted. Don't expect them to add this functionality to the 235, however, since they want you to buy the 735XT or some other new model.

Hi,

i have just uploaded v1.0 of my pool swim app for the 230 and 235.
beta versions have been working quite fine with my 230. i dont have a 235 though. but i do not see why it shouldnt work either.

hopefully it will be approved soon.

discussion here

Your link doesn't work.

Max