General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Optical Heart Rate Monitors Rss Feed  
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2016-04-29 9:42 AM

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DC
Subject: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
Read that some of Garmin's OHRMs are pretty accurate during running but not great during, e.g., biking. (DC Rainmaker).

Would love to hear your opinions (pros/cons) as I debate replacing my "Vivoactive" w/the "Vivoactive HR."

P.S. I'm not getting any younger so HR-training's a must.


2016-04-29 11:33 AM
in reply to: Porfirio

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The Woodlands, TX
Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

I have a tomtom and it works great, except after long exposure in the cold, as my veins get small/frozen on my wrist and hard to read I guess. . That's the only time I've seen it not accurate.

2016-04-29 11:36 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

I have been using a Scosche Rhythm for about 4 months now and have not had any issues, been quite accurate riding and running, but it's not a watch based mount, it's an arm band.



Edited by ChrisM 2016-04-29 11:37 AM
2016-04-29 11:55 AM
in reply to: tjfry

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DC
Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
Originally posted by tjfry

I have a tomtom and it works great, except after long exposure in the cold, as my veins get small/frozen on my wrist and hard to read I guess. . That's the only time I've seen it not accurate.




How do you know it's accurate?
2016-04-29 1:11 PM
in reply to: Porfirio

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812
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Katy, Texas
Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
I've got the vivoactive HR. It's not great but serves it's purpose for what I bought it for, which was to not have to wear the chest strap all the time.

My issues with it are it will just randomly decide my HR is 80 or 170 or 150 for a couple of minutes when I know it's not. I try fiddling around with it's position on my wrist and sometimes that fixes it and sometimes it doesn't. Usually it's back to reading correctly a couple of minutes later. This happens more on the bike than the run, not sure why. Maybe has to do with gripping something with your hand, not sure.

I still wear the chest strap for racing and key interval workouts, but that's about it.


Here's a workout on a spin bike of the Strava tour of California Intervals. 10 min w/u, 4x3 min, 8 min over/under, 5x1 min, 8 min c/d. You can see that the HR automatically goes up to 150 when I'm warming up when it should have slowly gone up to about 120 or 130 over that 10 minutes. Then you can see it drop out during the 3 minute intervals.




Here's my 5 and 20 minute tests a couple of days ago on the bike with power wearing the chest strap. You can see that HR tracks power perfectly (except where my 520 randomly turned off in the middle of my 20 minute test, argh).

2016-04-29 3:04 PM
in reply to: ChrisM

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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

Originally posted by ChrisM

I have been using a Scosche Rhythm for about 4 months now and have not had any issues, been quite accurate riding and running, but it's not a watch based mount, it's an arm band.

With the shorter strap, it can be used as a wrist mount (which is what I do).  Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes to differentiate your heartbeat vs. other noise, but once it locks in it's great.  And I got to get rid of that %#^%@!  chest strap.



2016-04-29 3:10 PM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

The problem with putting it on the wrist (for me) is that is the arm I wear the garmin quick release strap (920 on bike, then moved to arm), so rather than having two things there i just put it up on the arm.   No connectivity/reading problems with me



Edited by ChrisM 2016-04-29 3:10 PM
2016-04-29 5:15 PM
in reply to: ChrisM

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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

I've had good results with my Garmin 235 while running.  I've only tried biking with it once and it was fine -- although there wasn't much variation because I was doing a 2x20 min set.

2016-04-29 7:27 PM
in reply to: spudone

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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
I have the Mio Link optical HR wrist strap. Garmin used the Mio optical HRM in the Forerunner 235 before switching to their own version for other models.

I find it works very well. I use it while running and cycling. You do need to make sure it makes a seal against your skin-- if any outside light is leaking in, it won't read your HR properly. I find it gives me much more reliable readings than a chest strap, which reads the electrical signal from your heart. I would often get spikey or weird readings with the chest strap because it didn't receive a strong electrical connection.

So overall I'm really happy with the Mio Link. I would, however love to switch to a watch that has the optical HRM built in, if I can be assured that these work as well.

I was listening to DC Rainmaker yesterday and a caller complained of his HR sometimes reading 180-ish when first starting a run or bike-- after 10 minutes or so it would settle down into a more reasonable HR. Ray said that if the device can't find a HR right away, it may lock into some other strong biometric like a cadence (not sure how it does this, unless it's moving/bouncing a bit on your wrist and getting weird optical signals). I would think that making sure the strap is tight against your skin would keep this from happening.
2016-05-01 10:13 AM
in reply to: Porfirio

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Across the river from Memphis, Tennessee
Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
I've had good luck with my Scosche Rhythm as well. Used it one day at a trampoline park with my kids. For over 2 hours it kept up with everything (had my phone in my pocket). Even playing dodgeball and wiping out more than a few times when coming off a wall bounce, flips, etc I never had a point where it didn't read
2016-05-02 1:04 PM
in reply to: Porfirio

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The Woodlands, TX
Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors

Unless you wear both at the same time I guess you couldn't know for sure, but I ride with a Garmin & strap and run with tomtom, and they match up how they did when I also ran with a Garmin.



2016-05-02 4:43 PM
in reply to: tjfry


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Subject: RE: Optical Heart Rate Monitors
I' be had my Vivoactive HR for about a week now. Have used it on runs but not yet on the bike. For giggles, I've worn my chest strap and Polar HRM on the other arm. The two devices track equal or within a couple of beats most of the time. The Garmin will inexplicably overshoot or undershoot for short periods of time. I am trying to figure out specifically what causes this and how I can perhaps keep it from happening.

Deal breaker? Probably no. Annoyance? Yes.
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