Garmin. Are they always accurate

themekon

Just got back from a 40 mile ride and downloaded it to Garmin connect. It was showing that about 50 minutes into the ride at a place where I would have been rolling along nicely my Heart rate peaked at 195 bpm and showing it to be 105% of my maximum. Now as I am 65 years of age and quite new to this heart rate malarkey is it something I should be worried about or do you think it was a blip on the Garmin. It normally shows that my average for a ride is about 140 bpm. I felt fine all the way round didn't feel that I was trying overly hard and feel fine now.

mattshrops

Unfortunately they do have little glitches mainly hr spikes as you found out. sometimes complete nonsense with the elevation data. Most of the time tho no issues

getprg

FWIW my garmin heart rate monitor is erratic when I switch to summer jersey - rate can peak at 200+ usually on descents if the wind flaps the jersey against a v thin merino wool underlayer.

I've assumed it is something to do with static electricity. Never seems to happen in the winter when my rate on same descents is below 100.

mattshrops

WOW if your hr is below 100 on a descent you definitely need to do something to make it more scary-how about a blindfold- that should send the numbers soaring

getprg

When you get to my age raising the heart rate above 100 is an achievement believe me

bigpikle

static build up seems to really affect Garmin HR straps. A flapping lycra jersey on a descent will sometimes totally screw up the readings - I've seen it record my HR as >250bpm! I find a baselayer or wearing merino tops generally solves the issue though.

Elevation data can be all over the place. I think it also depends on whether you have every second recording set or the longer recording interval, and the biggest variable is the site you use to analyse the data - Garmin Connect, Strava, Golden Cheetah, Daily Mile etc all show wildly differing elevation values from the same ride files IME. That said, the absolute values of my Garmin are always totally wrong - when on the beach at sea level I dont see anything like a 0m elevation, and when comparing to ride partners I can see a >200m height difference, although we tend to record the same numbers in metres climbed/descended.

majormantra

+1 to all comments. Overall the Garmin is good for recording data but you will get odd readings from time to time. Fortunately it's generally fairly obvious.

dabber

I don't think the HR spikes are unique to Garmin. My Holux has been fine in the UK over winter but for the last few weeks I've been in France with 20+ degree (low humidity) riding and started getting spikes.

doyler78

Dabber wrote:

I don't think the HR spikes are unique to Garmin. My Holux has been fine in the UK over winter but for the last few weeks I've been in France with 20+ degree (low humidity) riding and started getting spikes.

My old Polar s710 used to suffer spikes too however I've always found that the Polar Wearlink strap to be much better, well I say much better what I mean is I've never had a single problem with HR spike so I guess that's why people have started using Polar straps with their Garmin premium chest transmitters

dabber

I've just taken delivery of some Spectra 360 Electrode Gel so I'll see if that helps. Up to now I've just used saliver.
I haven't tried the gel yet and I'm back in the UK for a few more weeks so I won't know whether the gel has helped or not for a little longer.

Muffintop

I've ridden in my car with the heart rate monitor on. It went mental. I should have died just sitting there.

t5nel

I am also sure I get spikes in HR when the garmin does the auto pause/resume at traffic lights etc. Like it counts all the beats in its sampling period (10 secs or whatever) but then works out the HR from a smaller number due to pause...

Often get weird readings in wind or on treadmill...

ricey155

no issue's with the soft strap for last 4-5 months - biking, squash cricket anything its spot on

ive seen issue's with Garmin 800 people doing 50mph and avg speeds being well out, but my Fr70 is rock solid

i was told that the 220 minus your age is just a guide its not set in stone

shinyhelmut

Have a read of this;

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html

I used to have problems with my garmin HRM spiking until I read this blog. I now use the garmin sensor with a polar soft chest strap which I think was a recommendation from his site. The spacing of the poppers that connect the garmin sensor/transmitter bit (the hard plastic bit which sits in the centre of your chest) is the same as that on the polar strap. I happened to still have a polar strap from a previous HRM and plugged the garmin sensor into it and now it works flawlessly.

I guess the polar strap is made from a different material and doesn't generate as much static electricity or something.

Hope this helps.

ricey155

bought my Fr70 on the back of rainmaker's site some excellent info and excellent reading

the garmin softstrap has yet to be used in the summer and any sweating problem tested so i best keep stum till ive used it over the summer :shock: