Suunto vertical ascent/ descent totally incorrect

Archi Mendel

Just had a hike with a 1000-meter ascend, and my Suunto Vertical logged 1950 meters of altitude gain. It was quite windy, so this might be the reason. What I don’t get is: wind is a problem + covered by clothing is a problem.

How does Suunto expect me to solve this problem if both requirements—to hide from the wind and not cover with clothing—are conflicting?

I’m disappointed, to say the least. I would rather use GPS-based altitude gain data than the one Suunto provides. This 2x altitude gain is simply not usable—it messes my records and the track that I publish.

There are quite a few posts with a similar problem in this forum. Is Suunto planning to introduce any firmware update that, maybe, will use GPS and barometer data to somehow detect anomaly data?

Brad_Olwin

@Archi-Mendel I have reported this to Suunto and provided extensive logs and files. Others have contributed as well. I am confident they are working on some sort of solution. Several sites will correct your data and you can manually change the elevation gain/loss in SA.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

I think it’s not a real problem the wind or the jacket if the sensor whole is stress free for the vertical specifically. Stress free = no sweat, water, or debris ie dirt etc inside the sensor.

thanasis

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto vertical ascent/ descent totally incorrect:

I think it’s not a real problem the wind or the jacket if the sensor whole is stress free for the vertical specifically. Stress free = no sweat, water, or debris ie dirt etc inside the sensor.

i once submerged the watch into the river while hiking and changed the ancent by 1500Meters. it was exceptional for strava that i “managed” such a a fast ascent -descent

Eduardo Lacerda

Any updates to this? any ways to mitigate the issue?

v.sacre

I am interested as well on this topic.
Since several weeks, my Vertical is quite inconsistent with elevation data.
There are a lot of mini variations that I can see using the vertical speed field for exemple.

When going uphill, I see that vertical speed fluctuate from positive to negative.

This leads to wrong elevation data. Often 2-3 times what elevation data should be.

Reading this topic, I still not understand if it is a bug or something going wrong with the watch itself.
You often ask if we have cleaned the baro sensor. How can we do this ?

isazi

@v.sacre how old your Vertical is? Could be just a clogged/dirty baro hole, or the sensor that is failing

v.sacre

@isazi I bought it directly so a bit more than 2 years old.
I always wear it so possible to it is not super clean but I cannot see anything special in the two holes underneath “suunto” label.
How can we clean this ?

isazi

@v.sacre try with some warm (not hot) water, but do not put anything inside the holes. My baro sensor failed when the watch was almost two years old, sent it in for repair and had the sensor replaced. Since then it is working fantastic again

v.sacre

Here is an example during this lunch gravel ride. Dual capture comparing Suunto Vertical (worn under arm sleeves) with Garmin Edge 1040 elevation data.
If global d+/d- is roughly the same, there are some big discrepancies between the two. And regarding the terrain, elevation data of Garmin is more representative.

isazi

@v.sacre does not seem terrible. What happens in daily mode, if you set the watch to a certain altitude and do not move for many hours? Does it change?

v.sacre

@isazi I didn’t try to log an activity but the widget alti and baro show me not always the correct elevation value indeed. For example, I live at 260m height. Watch show me currently 192m.

isazi

@v.sacre okay maybe tonight try to set manually 260 and tomorrow morning check what the value is. If it is wildly inaccurate, try cleaning the sensor and repeat the experiment

v.sacre

@isazi For information I did a hard reset of the watch. I log 3 activities until then and it seems to be back to normal, without any elevation overestimating.
Hope it will stay like this until Vertical 2 comes out.