I've had my Venu for about six months. It's at the current patch level. My issue is, I never know whether the heart-rate function will give me accurate or imaginary information.
I've followed the instructions on cleaning and positioning the device. I've even figured out that the device works better from the start when I wet my wrist before putting the unit back on. But I still get HR results like the ones below. In all three cases, my pace and breathing were consistent for the whole workout, and my carotid pulse also felt consistent:
Today's was particularly egregious (the middle graph). I kept a steady pace on my workout, and I know from my breathing about where my pulse is. The HR monitor seemed to start off correctly, but as my workout went on, the HR indicator actually declined to just above my resting rate. Taking my pulse with my fingers said 136-140; but my Venu said 76. The large jump towards the end of the workout was me taking it off my wrist, rubbing the sensor, swearing at it, then putting it back on my wrist considerably tighter than I like.
That there's an entire FAQ page about HRM accuracy suggests this is an endemic problem in the Garmin ecosystem. Any chance it'll ever get fixed? Is this a software problem or a hardware problem?
FWIW, I have Fitzpatrck Scale Type II skin and normal blood pressure, bog standard for Europe where Garmin engineers live.
