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Loving the venu, but some concerns with heart rate accuracy?

Hey All,

I just got my Venu on Sunday. I love the watch so far. It is my first smart watch. I love the screen and I love the features. I never realized how convenient a smart watch could be. I am a plant manager and my phone is ringing, emailing, messaging all day long. Often times my hands are tied and my phone is deep in my pocket. It is really nice to quickly see a message (or email). Or to see who is calling and either answer, or choose to ignore without ever digging my phone out.

However, I am a little concerned with the accuracy in regards to the heart rate sensor and step counter.

I am almost 30 years old, and in pretty good physical shape. 6ft, 170lbs. But I have some undiagnosed heart arrhythmia issues. I have been managing my issues with help from doctors etc. But I had multiple doctors ask me why I dont use a watch or band that shows me my heart rate in the event of an arrhythmia. I know that the Venu does NOT offer ECG, and that it is NOT intended for medical diagnosis of abnormal heart rhythms etc. And that's not what I intend to use it for. I feel everything. I know instantly when my heart is in a weird rhythm. I dont need to know this, I just want to be able to check my heart rate during these periods for reference.

My Job is unique, because I often go from extremes. Like sitting down at a desk, or running around like crazy doing some really good cardio. (Not for the out-of-shape). I was working pretty hard for about 30-45 minutes straight the other day. Pretty good cardio, moving really quick, and pushing some heavy objects around. My heart rate was elevated (but in totally normal rhythm), and it felt to be around 140-150bpm. My watch stayed around 100bpm the entire time. Ranging from 98 to 106bpm the entire time. Meanwhile I can count my heartbeats and tell that it was way higher. I checked my heart rate with my phone (after resting for a quick minute) and it said 137bpm.

Since then, I have been keeping a closer eye on it. I have noticed on at least two other occasions where the watch stays right near 100bpm, when I know my heart rate was higher, and my phone also confirmed it.

Is it possible that it has anything to do with how tight or loose that I wear the watch? I really wanted the heart rate to be more accurate than this, especially from a Garmin device.

I also noticed that the watch generally shows around 2,000+ more steps than my phone on a daily basis. Not really that big of a deal, because I dont care about steps much. But I find that odd....

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0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I had the same. For me it worked to loosen up the watch. The sensor seems to get problems when the watch sits to tight. Seems to be way more sensitive then in other devices.

+1 marco bologni over 5 years ago

Hi, I have the same problem too.
I had some Polar and a Huawei Watch Gt and I can say that (for now) Garmin Venu is not reliable, it only has software problems ... I hope.
If it stays around 100 during an intense workout, you must turn the Venu off and on again.
But if you start an activity, it increases the values by 20/30 points without reason and decreases when you exit.
Then there is the problem Analysis of sleep, absurd values, it measures sleep even without the wristwatch and does not recognize the "naps"

We hope for some updates

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to marco bologni

In activities, you MUST use a chest strap. Otherwise, ALL the metrics they give you will be wrong. Also yes, the sleep tracking is a joke.

0 marco bologni over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Forgive the translation, English is not my language. ^_^

is obvious that during a workout it is better to use the chest strap but, the Garmin Venu bug consists in increasing the values as soon as you launch an activity in an anomalous way. Try sitting and monitoring your cardio will be 60/70, start an activity eg. Cardio and immediately jumps to 100/110 without reason.

Let me know if yours does too

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to marco bologni

Hm no. Never saw this on mine so far.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to marco bologni

I have seen that on other Garmin devices. On my fenix 6 pro, which I returned, as soon as I hit strength training, while still standing still, my HR shot up 50 points. On the Venu, I don't know because I have learned with Garmin to ALWAYS use the strap when training. At rest, and when not training the HR on the Venu seems O.K.

0 6324308 over 5 years ago in reply to marco bologni

I haven't tried an activity on the watch yet. So I cannot confirm this. I will try the restart next time.

My sleep tracking on mine actually seems very accurate. I have slept twice now with the watch sitting on the nightstand charging and it DIDN'T record sleep. I actually woke up in the middle and put the watch on and it started recording. The sleep tracker shows a blank space on the graph during the times that the watch was off of my wrist. It also seems to line up perfect with times that I woke up and had to use the restroom, glass of water etc

0 mitchl over 5 years ago

I can only speak from my own experience, but I've found the Venu's heart rate sensor to be very reliable. It's probably more reliable than the Fitbit Ionic which I had previously, and I also found that to be pretty good. DC Rainmaker's tests also showed pretty good results for the Venu IIRC. I don't think it's true at all that you "must" use a chest strap to get accurate results in activity tracking, although it will definitely give you better accuracy.

This is just speculation, but maybe the optical heart rate sensor gets confused in the event of an arrhythmia? Although if you're having accuracy problems with normal heart rhythms as well, it might be more related to how you're wearing the watch or the specific kind of activity you're doing. That can definitely make a huge difference.

Sleep tracking is another story... it can fairly reliable determine when you go to sleep and wake up, yes, but it's nowhere near as good at detecting different sleep states and restlessness as Fitbit is.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Omg Garmin. I can now tell a funny thing too.

I started strength training today without starting the activity.

Deadlift puls not over 90 and zero Active calories. 3 sets the same.

Then startes the activity and puls rushed to 115-120. Are u kidding me garmin?! This is a 350 euro device. Im so angry right now and close to sending it back to Amazon.

Also i have the feeling i have to take off after a reasonable time cause the puls seems messing around and im getting no more active calories like the problem the OP has.

There something pretty weired going on with the sensor.

The Vivosmart 4 i had for 2 days was way more reliable and stable. Apart from that i had double the active calories after a hard working day.

0 marco bologni over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Same problem.

If I start a business and remain still, from 70 it goes to 110 in a few seconds and obviously the calorie count is false. this is a serious bug we hope that Garmin will solve soon