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FR235 not handling HR (OHR and External) properly since 6.10 ?

Early FR235 adopter here and after some teething problems I'd found the OHR to work reasonably well (even on longer intervals) until v6.10 came along and messed things up badly. Ok so it's also the time when the weather got colder so maybe the OHR was at "fault" but ever since, regardless of the tactics employed (rebooting before running, rebooting during a run, etc...) HR has been mostly unreliable.

After trying all kinds of combinations of straps (Fabric v1, Polar, new OEM Polar) and pods (HRM3, Viiiiva, Geonaute) I broke down and just got a brand new "Premium Heart Rate Monitor" (the HRM3-SS) with the Fabric v2 strap and guess what...I still got ridiculous numbers after starting my run (should have been around 120, it just went up gradually to 170) until I rebooted my FR235 after about 5'. Then (like with the OHR) it settled and gave me realistic numbers :

At the end of my outing I did 4x short sprints and the HR barely budged :

It's really hard not to think that there is something "off" in the way the FR235 handles HR. Yes I know, the common wisdom is that the strap "does it's thing" and the watch just uses whatever data it gets but there has to be something at play here. I'll dig out my FR610 next week to try to get to the bottom of this. I thought that if the HRM3-SS still didn't cut it I might get the HRM4-RUN (the red one) but it seems like it would be a waste of time and funds...

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I'm having issues as well. Here is my latest run, yesterday. You can see the HR didn't move until about 10 min into the run, even though my pace was relatively constant. I haven't ran for a few months, so there's no possible way my HR was a continuous 135 bpm for 10 min of running at this pace. For some reason, at about 10 min in, it kicked up to about 180, which is where it should've been the whole time. I'm used to it taking about a min to get up to speed on the HR from the start, but not 10 min.

0 webvan over 8 years ago

Is that with the OHR ?

Still it shouldn't happen and I see that after the HR shot up you (and who wouldn't !) slowed down to see if it came down again. I know it's only supposed to be a tool but it's still quite distracting and shouldn't have to be like that.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Yes, this is with the OHR on the watch. It was so bad, I'm considering getting a chest strap now, but I'm not positive that will help the situation any.

0 webvan over 8 years ago

Indeed...it hasn't helped me much I'm afraid.

0 timgrose over 8 years ago

Are you wetting the HR strap before use under the tap?

That's usually the best way to avoid "startup" issues.

0 webvan over 8 years ago

Been using Forerunners since the 305 so yes ;-) I soak it, have also tried electrode gel, this is very perplexing...Which strap are you using with your FR235 (or is it the FR735 you have?) ?

0 webvan over 8 years ago

@ TIMGROSE - ?

Did a track workout yesterday with the HRM3 and after getting the initial "ramp up" even though the strap had been soaked, it seemed to track the intervals ok...except that the HR did not go down during the recovery lap as expected. After reviewing the activity on GC it does look like Garmin have introduced some aggressive "smoothing" to the way the FR235 handles HR since v5.40, probably in an attempt to make the OHR data look "better", unfortunately this seems to have an impact on the HR data coming from an external strap as well.

I'll dig out my FR610 on the next run and connect it to the HRM3 to see if it reports the HR data differently.

0 LoekV over 8 years ago

I seem to have a similar issue: a low oHR at the beginning of the run. After a while it seems to get the correct HR. The watch indicated a HR fix before I started recording. See the two example screenshots below. I'm using v7.10 of the firmware.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I seem to have a similar issue: a low oHR at the beginning of the run. After a while it seems to get the correct HR. The watch indicated a HR fix before I started recording. See the two example screenshots below. I'm using v7.10 of the firmware.

This thread might help you, just be careful and read it all. I ended up having to send mine back for replacement after I fixed my HR monitoring issue. The fix they gave me for this problem caused my OHRM to never turn off.

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?370579-OHR-not-working-7-10

0 Max556 over 8 years ago

You might also want to try this thread, which discusses a similar problem and provides some ... er 'workarounds'. Helps a bit.

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?370660-High-Heart-Rate-at-Beginning-of-run

Max