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Heart rate monitor

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hi, purchased my watch 3 weeks ago Mainly for the golf GPS which is excellent.
I also train quite alot but the only time the heart rate monitor seems accurate is when I go a run out doors. I do alot of HIIT training and I know from previous bands I've had my heart rate gets up to zone 4 or 5 160-180 for probably half of the time trained. The VA3 only register's my heart being around 120 and sometimes 150 right on the last exercise with an average of about 100. It sometimes goes down when I'm working out and not resting. Definitely a massive false reading as anyone who does HIIT training understands the bodies strain whilst working. When I feel my pulse it is racing but my watch reads 90.... Very disappointed.
When I go a run it seems to work fine. High 170s -180s when pushing myself.

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ChrisSinfield1963 over 7 years ago +1

I always wear a chest strap for activities that involve rapid change in heart rate. None of the wrist monitors I have owned are any good for anything other than sitting at rest. My VAHR was fine for walking…

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0 ChrisSinfield1963 over 7 years ago

I always wear a chest strap for activities that involve rapid change in heart rate. None of the wrist monitors I have owned are any good for anything other than sitting at rest. My VAHR was fine for walking too but no other activity. Sadly the VA3 spikes all over the place jumping to 160 then down to 90 every few minutes. A strap as you would expect is bang on accurate and shows a completely different trace.
Of course all the other metrics like calories and VO2 are then made meaningless if the HR is so far out.
It's not a consolation that its not just Garmin that can't get this right, I have tried a factory reset as Garmin suggested but no different. Yes, some people just arent built right for them - I have tried every variation of wearing the thing to no avail. Hence the chest strap until either a software update improves things or the technology is improved.
I think this is your only route too.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Same here. It seems to be worse the day after running as I think it latches on to cadence. I can apparently have a heart rate of 42 while doing HIIT. Don't have another monitor but metronome puts me way above 120. I know they're not accurate, but this is very frustrating.