Garmin Heart Rate strap not working until well into cycle

thekooman

hi all,
the last few spins out and my heart rate monitor is acting the mick. its always worked fine with saliva until this week. i wet it as usual but it does not start working until maybe 5 or 6km into a spin. this is probably related to sweat.

in that time if i try to wet it some more a HR of 74 might show for 5 seconds and disappears off the Edge 500 screen.
is it a battery issue? i have it since Sept last year and its done many hours since.
or could it be that it isn't tight enough? it never falls down off me.
i have never used any gel on the strap.

any ideas would be great.

Ryath

Battery I'd say my own has started doing this recently and I know there is not much life left in it. Must pop a new one in only ever think of it when I'm out on the road.

thekooman

cheers Ryath. will give that a go. no harm having a spare for it anyways if its not that.

G1032

I don't have one for long but have had no issues.
I used this guide to position it correctly
Could be a battery issue also........

Unknown Soldier

Had the same issue a month ago. Changed the battery and it still acted up. Now after every cycle I remove the monitor from the strap and wipe it down but what fixed the problem I think) was moving the monitor so that it is now over my heart or under my left "breast"

No issues since I did that.

07Lapierre

Maybe your heart is faulty?

Brian?

It could be that it's working better when you start to sweat.

aFlabbyPanda

I was always advised to either wet the sensor part (just a small bit using your finger) or use some conductive gel to ensure the HRM works properly. Once I keep it wet I've no problems.

andy69

The garmin straps can be a bit weird. I never had issues and my unit was 1.5yrs before I got the new 510. No issues there either but the wife got a new 500 this year and it gave trouble from day one.
I tried her strap and it worked fine for me. She still had issues so we bought a polar strap and clipped on the garmin transmitter....problem solved immediately and never had an issue with it since. Didn't wanna go thru all the crap of sending the unit back for testing etc and be without a device for whatever amount of weeks that takes. Polar strap was less than 20eur I think....got from Amazon.

Spit works ok on the straps but we would alwàys use the ecg contact gel you can buy in boots chemists. Small amount applied, about the size of a pea on each contact point thing.
Cheap enough and lasts a good long while. Not subject to 'drying out' effect. Stays on the strap unlike water.

changepartners

Wet the strap.

xxyyzz

thekooman wrote: »

hi all,
the last few spins out and my heart rate monitor is acting the mick. its always worked fine with saliva until this week. i wet it as usual but it does not start working until maybe 5 or 6km into a spin. this is probably related to sweat.

in that time if i try to wet it some more a HR of 74 might show for 5 seconds and disappears off the Edge 500 screen.
is it a battery issue? i have it since Sept last year and its done many hours since.
or could it be that it isn't tight enough? it never falls down off me.
i have never used any gel on the strap.

any ideas would be great.

Is this you?

bazzamac

Had similar problems with mine.try and re sync your heart strap.worked for me.

thekooman

xxyyzz wrote: »

Is this you?

some say im heartless alright... until i get up a sweat!! :-)

changed the battery and still no joy. i tightened it a small bit and still nothing. must get some gel and try it out.

Thekeencyclist

thekooman wrote: »

some say im heartless alright... until i get up a sweat!! :-)

changed the battery and still no joy. i tightened it a small bit and still nothing. must get some gel and try it out.

Hi, just wondering if you got the issue resolved and what you done to overcome the issue? I am having the same issue the past 2 weeks....

Brewski78

I did the same as Andy69 above and bought a Polar strap which seems to work fine, dcrainmaker recommended as much in: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/solution-to-heart-rate-dropoutsspikes.html

thekooman

nope. tried loads of saliva, even bought scanning gel from ebay. its fecked. had it at the ww200 and it never worked all day. showing 70bpm a few times.
ordered a polar strap from amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007XCLU66/ref=pe_385721_37038051_TE_dp_2 so hope that does the trick and place the ANT+ unit on it.

Thekeencyclist

Ok thanks for the response, might just chance a new battery (battery won't go to waste anyway) and tighten the strap another bit, if that doesn't work I will order the polar strap. Very disappointing quality in the strap considering the overall price of the bundle, wud have expected something better.

thekooman

Thekeencyclist wrote: »

Ok thanks for the response, might just chance a new battery (battery won't go to waste anyway) and tighten the strap another bit, if that doesn't work I will order the polar strap. Very disappointing quality in the strap considering the overall price of the bundle, wud have expected something better.

no harm in trying a battery. it was so reliable for the 7/8 months i had it and it had worked without any electrode gel or saliva. oh well. my wifes has started doing the same so i ordered her one as well.

skerry

I always give my nipples a good old wetting before applying my HRM. Not only is it highly enjoyable, it seems to help conductivity too. The few times I've neglected to do this I've found that the HRM takes a while to get a reading (perhaps due to sweat eventually building up as one poster suggested), also I'm less aroused.

thekooman

skerry wrote: »

I always give my nipples a good old wetting

its really the only reason we have HRM! :-)

skerry

thekooman wrote: »

its really the only reason we have HRM! :-)

Any sport that allows me to stand in my room wearing tights while smearing water on my nipples is worth being a part of. God I love cycling.

Ryath

Ryath wrote: »

Battery I'd say my own has started doing this recently and I know there is not much life left in it. Must pop a new one in only ever think of it when I'm out on the road.

Replaced the battery about two weeks ago and it's fine since. 3.5 year old classic strap. I'll probably pick up the new premium one soon though. Usually don't need to wet the sensors.

Those of you wetting your nipple's you're doing it wrong that's not where the HRM should be positioned. (Unless you're gettng a member of which ever sex you prefer to do it to check that the HRM is picking up changes in heart rate.

skerry

Ryath wrote: »

Those of you wetting your nipple's you're doing it wrong that's not where the HRM should be positioned. (Unless you're gettng a member of which ever sex you prefer to do it to check that the HRM is picking up changes in heart rate.

It's the general nipple area, or zone, that gets the wetting for me. HRM is then positioned underneath me breast area.

thekooman

polar strap is also on wiggle
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/polar-spare-elastic-soft-strap/

ashleey

Beware that the hrm3 garmin sensors are supposed to be waterproof but mine wasn't. I ended up buying a new garmin strap and sensor from handtec but I'm waiting for the Mio Link to drop in price

http://www.mioglobal.com/Default.aspx

thekooman

got the polar straps on friday and all are working perfect again. the wifes one is also working after replacing it. garmin straps = crap.