Suunto Race S optical heart rate sensor accuracy
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@Tobias-Petrini regarding VO2Max, try the Cooper Test on Suunto App, after completing, you should get the value.
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I’ve had similar chronic issues with the heart rate on my Race S. Not registering an accurate heart rate until a mile or two into a ride or run, dropping heart rate during an activity, reading overly high during a ride or run. On some activities like cross training, I’ll never get a reasonable heart rate reading. I tried posting a review on Suunto’s website describing this and other issues I’ve had with the Race S and Suunto refused to publish the review saying my feedback “is not a common issue.” I contacted customer support hoping for some resolution since they apparently regard my experience as abnormal. Instead of a resolution, I got a bunch of excuses as to why I can’t really expect the watch to perform any better. All in all, my experience with this watch has been a disaster. I’ll never buy another Suunto product. Going back to Garmin.
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I want to share some data for my HR sensor is not good for even a simple walk. This week I did a couple of similar walks with my wife. Some with an Epix Pro and one with the Race S. Two of them are similar enough that I can easily compare them in intervals.icu. It’s always the same. A walk along the street, crossing a traffic light, walk a large round in the local park, cross the street again, back to the house where we rent a flat and walk up the stairs to the flat. So, it should be a fairly even HR recording apart from the climb of the stairs, where the HR should rise…
First graph is HR, second is elevation, below pace and then average HR. Educated guess on what the Suunto is and what the Garmin?
Combining it with the others that have been some minutes longer it looks like this:
Race S HR detection is not even reflecting the climb of stairs that all the other recordings do…
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I wonder if it’s gotten worse with updates. When I first got the watch I was impressed—the OHR was way better than my old Garmin 745. But the last few weeks/months it’s gotten really bad. 80bpm while sitting down tying my shoelaces (should be ~40bpm). Today on a short 20‑min easy run it spiked to 163bpm (my max HR is in the 150s).
At first it would shoot high for the first 10 minutes then settle, but now even long runs have random spikes mid‑run. I tried tightening the strap, but after a few runs I now have a rash on my arm from the watch!!!
Usually taking the watch off for 30 seconds helps, but lately even that doesn’t work—I have to repeat it multiple times. Today’s run it just kept spiking again. -
On my side I noticed it is worst when the outside temperature is low and that very regulary the HR is locked on the step frequency -> Please suunto implement a sw Countermeasure to reject it
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Same here, to me it feels as if the refresh rate of the OHR module is too low. It seems to double the actual value quite often also in posts above this is true… it is 60 but shows 120 ish… a bit sad. Hopefully newer watches get a better module. I dont think this can be fixed by software.
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Buenos días, desde la última actualización el sensor óptico de frecuencia cardíaca de mi sunnto race s no funciona correctamente.
Al iniciar la actividad no me lee la frecuencia y aunque lo reinicio y comienza a funcionar enseguida me doy cuenta que las lecturas de frecuencia cardiaca que realiza no coinciden con el esfuerzo que estoy realizando.
Sabéis su sunnto va a solucionarlo, o directamente tengo que comprarme un sensor externo o directamente cambiar de reloj, aunque tiene poco más de un año. -
After the last Update 2.50.26 the OHR is definitly getting worse.
120bpm - working on the computer
140/160bpm with pikes and peaks around 180-190bpm for a slow walk with my child.
Any ideas ?? -
@Set_218 it has gotten better at some points, but worse on others. For me the reading is more plausible, although too high. The more or less random ups and downs are gone…
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Tested today for another run after the update
I would say that random spikes are mostly gone, but now it’s slower then before to adapt to changes. Today I still got a random initial spike that solved by itself after the first km.
In general it seems to be something like 5bpm higher that the previous one, at low intensity, but I don’t have an HR belt so I cannot say which one is more precise.
I’ll say a general improvement overall, but way from perfect
