Discussion: Garmin HR monitor

I have been having a problem with the reading being way too high when I start out. It immediately jumps up in the 150-180 range, it seems to do it when I start out from home and goes back to normal when I turn the corner and head up the hill. Is it possible that there is interference from something? I ran at Durand earlier in the week and my HR only went to 135 going up hill. Anybody have any ideas?

I often had that happen with my Polar HR monitor. It would read over 200, which is impossible. I thought my heart rate might be less regular during the first part of my warm-up which may have fooled the monitor.

This has just recently started happening to me w/ a garmin hrm. I have never had to moisten the strap before running to get a good reading, but i'm wondering if, with age, the strap needs a bit more prep. I will try to do some controlled experiments and report back.

You're not that old, Cristina.
;-)

I've had this happen only when the strap isn't moist at all. (I've had it read both unusually high and unusually low.) In that case it generally starts to read correctly as soon as I start to sweat.

I have that problem all the time. It goes haywire the first 1-3km, and then goes normal. It seems to do it as well when the strap comes lose. It would go something ridiculus like >190, well above my max. heart rate.

What you could do is, is start the watch a few minutes before your run, then reset it, and start again. This could solve some of the issues.

put some water on it or lick it ;) that solved it for me :)

yeah, this is usually a transmitter-skin contact problem. for me it gets much worse in the winter when it's less humid or I'm colder, since it takes longer to get sweaty. I have no problems in DC summer! you can actually buy special HRM gel, though I've heard that the green Aloe gel works too, but haven't tried either, I usually use a little spit. if it doesn't get better after around 10 minutes, it might be time to change the battery in the transmitter.

having said all that, it is sometimes also possible to get outside interference. I've seen it along subway tracks and power lines. bad transmitter contact might make this worse.

Also if your Garmin firmware is old it may be a cause of it. When I updated mine, my HR was much more reasonable.

help me out here...what's "firmware"??? I just got my Garmin in Apr. '10...would updating be needed?

Just spit on the strap.

firmware is the programing for the watch itself. Firmware can be found on the software tab for the watch here. You most likely have the latest firmware so that is not the issue, probably just moisture.

Ken hit the nail on the head - moisture required. If you're only having a problem now that it's winter, it's because your skin's taking a lot longer to get warm enough to generate the moisture. Lick that strap! Just clean out the green bits first ;-)

If water doesn't do the trick, you might get some electrode paste, like the doctor uses when you get an EKG.