Elevation is really bad

Anybody else facing the same issue?

Or have I got (another) defective VA3?

My previous VA3 had the high battery drain after charging. Support advised this wasn't a software issue but faulty hardware.

My current VA3 is starting to exhibit the same issue. It is only 6 months old.

I'm begining to think the VA3 is a lemon.

I had none of these issues on my VA.

I've got a 3 week old VA3 and have not seen this problem. I live in Colorado and do many rides in the mountains that go up and back down to my house. Or hikes that climb then descend back to the same trailhead. My elevation profiles all look correct. I've done a number of tests where I run my VA3 and my Edge 520 on the bike to compare the results. The VA3 elevation is softened a lot vs what the Edge 520 shows and even what Garmin gives if you enable their altitude correction in GC. No surprise as I consider this device not a bike computer, so I expect they are likely filtering the altitude info to smooth it figuring you are more likely walking or running thus altitude won't be changing all that fast.

They use the barometric altimeter on the device for recording altitude during activity. You may have a defective barometric altimeter in your VA3 or it could have a plugged port hole. Check out this article on Garmin support website. https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=FmE1UxYdn56rYdmThGbO06 See if giving it 30 seconds to calibrate helps and look at the port hole to see if it is visibly plugged.

If the watch face you choose has Altimeter as one of the displayable parameters (mine does) you can also look at the altitude when not in activities to see if it looks correct.

I'm aware. of the need to clean the barometer port holes and to wait the 30 seconds.
What I have observed is that the elevation was better when the VA3 was new. This could have been the different firmware. Also it was better when calibration was enabled in the firmware.
My VA3 could have a defective altimeter, but for the same run I've done 10 times in the last two months the elevation profiles whilst completely wrong are nearly all identical. Is that a broken barometer or firmware related? The runs have been done at different times of the day and different weather conditions. I think the barometer is working but the lack of calibration and poor firmware are the root causes of the bad elevation.
The elevation at the start of the run is usually about right. However, it is always consistently lower at the end of the run which is the same location as the start.
The 735xt produces much better elevation without a barometer. Porting the elevation algorithm from the 735xt to the VA3 could be a sensible way forward.

That's wild. The fact that it worked a while ago but not now clearly points out an issue with the device. Whether firmware or hardware is tough to tell unless the problems began when a firmware update occurred. I'm running 5.60.0.0 in my new VA3 as a frame of reference for you. Is that what yours is running as well? The only datapoint I can offer then is that at least on one watch in a location with notable altitude variation in my activities, my setup works well (albeit only a few weeks old). Sounds like another call to Garmin may be in order :(

This is a hardware/firmware bug, in that the barometer is adversely affected by rising temperature - see further discussion in https://forums.garmin.com/forum/into-sports/health-fitness/vivoactive-3-aa/1319992-altitude-is-very-incorrect

I have issues with elevation and distance recorded on my VA3. I regularly run parkrun, a measured 3.1 mile course, and am totally fed up with my VA3 showing a distance of normally around 2.9ish miles and inaccurate elevation for a 3 lap repeat course. When i’ve run it with my old VA, or Strava app, distance and elevation are fine.

When I cycle in a group my elevation is generally way out from everyone else’s. 

I’m on my 2nd VA3, thinking that the first was faulty, but both of them are inaccurate.