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Inaccurate HR

Kevin676
over 2 years ago

Anyone have major issues with wrist HR accuracy? I can never get accuracy readings unless I use a chest strap. Like now I manually measured my HR at 168 and the watch said 94. If I walk with hands on the treadmill railing then the hr comes close. I can't get my watch to go over 140 bpm. Looking to upgrade to the instinct but not sure I want to stay with garmin. Lately their products are not very reliable. Watches, GPS, cameras. Basically switch everywhere to garmain and now all the garmins are having issues. Back to the watch. Kinda useless if it only measures HR if your arms don't move. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    My first experience with a wrist-based HRM was with a Scoche. At first, measurements were way off until I could find the sweet spot on my wrist. For me, the sweet spot was the more fleshy area just above the wrist. I also tighten the band one notch during exercise to keep light away from the HR sensors.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Wrist based heart rate is a challenge, although the vivoactive 3 series is really bad at at as well. I tested some arm bands and even at the wrist they are much much better at it. They lag a bit though because your veins need to expand a bit before higher rates are measured accurately. The positioning is indeed crucial and higher up the arm it gets slightly better. Still prefer the chest strap though since the Vivoactive 3 series is unreliable. My VA3M takes up to 5 minutes sometimes to get anywhere near the heart rate, horrible. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to hhasert

    Thanks

    Any idea how the instinct is? Dont want to "upgrade" and have the same issues...

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Kevin676

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFik67SnAFY 

    Seems like it has the normal issues of a wrist based heart rate monitor, but this guy indicates it is not as bad as the VA3 series. I think the heartrate sensor improved in the Venu series and is even more improved in the Venu2 series. From comparing pictures, I think the Instinct 2 has the same sensor as the Venu SQ 2 and I saw similar good results on youtube for that sensor. Remember though, they always use running for comparison, where I use a crosstrainer which is much more of a challenge for my VA3.

    Again on image comparison, the Fenix 7 seems to use the same sensor as well, must be best of the range then ;-). 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to hhasert

    Awesome, thanks for the info! I agree, if i run or walk its not to bad. If i use my treadclimber, crossfit, kettlebell etc its way off. That info help with deciding which model to go with.