Watch unusable in wind

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

Clean the sensor. With water.

[sebchastang]

From my experience, I have also noticed a wrong elevation measurement one or two times only when wind is very strong ( about 80 km/h and more).
Most of the time (99.9%) elevation is perfectly accurate.

[Tieutieu]

SV intensively used since launch also, in all weather conditions including strong wind, cold, rain…
Never had any issue with altitude accuracy.

[Ján Martinkovič]

@Niclas-Brundell
The same with suunto race. Wind 80km/h.

[maszop]

@Niclas-Brundell Suunto watches, at least from 9PP are practically useless in strong wind. Overstated elevation by at least a few hundred, and very often over 1000m.

Of course, you can write here and there on the forum, but for years everyone has been pretending that there is no problem.

[ChrisA]

@maszop said in Watch unusable in wind:

@Niclas-Brundell Suunto watches, at least from 9PP are practically useless in strong wind. Overstated elevation by at least a few hundred, and very often over 1000m.

Of course, you can write here and there on the forum, but for years everyone has been pretending that there is no problem.

Uh… I strongly doubt that people are “pretending” things here. From what I experienced in this forum for years now (vs others and Reddit) is that you’ll get a ton of objective and honest experiences here. It’s inherent to user forums that there is a vast majority of users without any problems, who will never post there (because there’s just no reason for it and nobody is interested in that your watch just works as advertised) and so there will always be the impression, that there must be a lot of problems with a product, since one will only see those posted. And of course that does not mean everything is ok and it’s completely possible your altimeter does not work as expected

[maszop]

@ChrisA Don’t start this nonsense again.
“Problem, it doesn’t exist, or problem with only my altimeter.”
Bullshit. Three different watches, and the problem is repeatable.

In how many threads on the forum is the same pretending that the problem doesn’t exist? Even here you have a perfect example.

[soisan]

@maszop “Nonsense”, “Bullshit”, nice form of communication…

[maszop]

@soisan These answers here are exactly what I called by their name. Only dressed up in nicer words.

For years, the same ridiculous answers to the same problem.

[Brad_Olwin]

@maszop As I have responded to you before, severe wind does affect my altitude but it has to be Strong!! This is not often so I find my useable at high altitudes > 3800 m. I have reported the issue to Suunto and I know they have or are looking into it. The Race and Vertical are far better than the 9PP.

[maszop]

@Brad_Olwin I wrote to you several times that it is not about the altitude measurements themselves (they are quite accurate even in strong winds), but their pulsation, which sometimes causes the totals of ascents and descents to be even several times overstated.

To observe this, quite small mountains are enough.

[cosme.costa]

@maszop said in Watch unusable in wind:

@Brad_Olwin I wrote to you several times that it is not about the altitude measurements themselves (they are quite accurate even in strong winds), but their pulsation, which sometimes causes the totals of ascents and descents to be even several times overstated.

To observe this, quite small mountains are enough.

Yesterday was quite windy in my area (Wind weather alert by authorities). I went on a run with my son, I was using the SV and my son my old S9B, he wears it in the right arm. I got an ascent of 559 m and he got 540 m (data of activity: highest point 386 m, lowest point 127 m SV and highest point 397 m, lowest point 136 m in S9B, the altitude values are more realistic in the SV). I have analysed both altitude profiles and no sudden spikes in both profiles, so I consider that the different ascent is due different hardware/algorithm, in my area there are a lot of small hills that are better detected by the SV. I paid lot of attention in the flat/open areas where the wind guts were even more noticeable and the ascent value was static in the SV, as it should.

I’m not saying you do not have problems, but your circumstances can be more difficult to reproduce to find the issue. Could be that the issue come from your clothes that do a pump effect in the baro holes?

[maszop]

@cosme-costa The difference is fundamental, as I have written here many times. When running, the speed is greater and this pulsation does not affect the total ascents and descents so much.

I write about activities such as mountaineering, hiking, where there are many steep ascents, during which this problem is always in strong winds. I repeat: always.

[cosme.costa]

@maszop Understood.

I do not hike much but this last summer I did a lot in the Alps and Pyrenes, in some of those hikes we had strong winds around the summits and ascent was very stable, I have checked some graphs. Anyway I would pay more attention in the future in case of a hike with strong winds.

But as I said, could be the clothes? In the S9B I had issues when wearing a membrane in windy or rainy days.

[maszop]

@cosme-costa I tried to have the watch completely outside, under a sweatshirt, softshell, between the layers, under gore tex, various variations, the effect was usually just as bad.
While 9 Baro was fundamentally less accurate, the total ascent were less absurd because of this lower accuracy. It was only with 9PP and later Vertical that a much more serious problem began.

It’s more or less the same problem in this article, just swap the GPS with the altimeter and the distance with the sum of the ascents:
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/tutorials/track_filters.html

[ChrisA]

@maszop impressive communication skills - I am too old for that ! I don’t doubt you’re telling the truth, but this does not make other people “pretend” anything. Hope you can find a solution for your problem. plonk

[Brad_Olwin]

@maszop said in Watch unusable in wind:

@cosme-costa The difference is fundamental, as I have written here many times. When running, the speed is greater and this pulsation does not affect the total ascents and descents so much.

I write about activities such as mountaineering, hiking, where there are many steep ascents, during which this problem is always in strong winds. I repeat: always.

Always for you is not always for everyone! On a 5 day fast pack in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming with a storm every evening. I can show the data for Race s and Vertical. No altitude issues.

[Tieutieu]

@maszop I have been using A3p, S9b and now both SV and SR. My wife uses S9pp.
The only two watches I had elevation problem with were :

• the A3P => cold and windy conditions were causing errors, + baro sensor failures (replaced twice)
• the S9b => it couldn’t manage elevation properly under wet conditions when it was under my jacket.
  In both case I had totally wrong values (-4000, +8000m meters…)

I didn’t had any elevations problem with other watches, whatever the conditions (very strong wind, cold, over or under clothes…).

I hope you’ll solve your issues ; It’s very sad that your experience that with all your watches…

[maszop]

@Tieutieu The problem with Suunto is that every discussion ends with Suunto watches being fine and the problem being imagined by the user.

The effects of this approach are visible with every software update.
Next time I make a purchase I will look for offers from other manufacturers.

[taziden]

@maszop said in Watch unusable in wind:

@Tieutieu The problem with Suunto is that every discussion ends with Suunto watches being fine and the problem being imagined by the user.

I don’t think I saw anyone saying or even thinking you’re imagining the problem you encounter.
I see people sharing their own experience and sympathizing with yours, being sorry for you.
Keep in mind that people on this forum can’t do much more than that in the end. We’re not Suunto’s official support.