Wind added 60% extra elevation
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I was out hiking yesterday and my vertical got 1100 meters on a 700 meter climb. This was with the watch covered as best as I could with clothing. We are talking really strong winds. But no other watch that I’ve seen has had this issue. So it’s purely a vertical issue. People here recommended to wash the sensor but it didn’t help. Suunto support are confusing because they’ve been saying both that this happens to every watch because of barometer. But also that I could send it in. I’ve seen tons of people with this issue with the vertical. So it’s a clearly a thing. Does this mean it’s a hardware issue that’s been fixed in production? Because I don’t want to be without the watch for over a month just for it to be the exact same.
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@Niclas-Brundell Known issue.
Other manufacturers smooth out the excess barometer readings and have quite reliable data even in strong winds. Suunto has been unable/unwilling to fix this for years. -
@Niclas-Brundell What @maszop is not entirely true as Suunto is aware and working on this but timeline for a fix is unknown.
Vector/T6c/Ambit 3 Peak/S5 Copper/S3/S7 Ti/S9 baro Ti/S9P Ti/S9PP Ti/Vertical Ti/Race Ti/RaceS/Ocean/Wing
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@Brad_Olwin fix for vertical line or new watch?
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@gerasimos This happens more often depending on where the barometric sensor holes are. It is not unique to the Vertical.
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@Brad_Olwin 9 Baro had a barometer in a different place and (in my case) was a bit more resistant to strong winds. But that could just as well be because the 9 Baro had a less precise altimeter and didn’t provide as many measurements.
When the barometer sensor in the 9 Peak Pro changed its location (possibly already in the 9P), the measurements started to be downright absurd.
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@Brad_Olwin said in Wind added 60% extra elevation:
@Niclas-Brundell What @maszop is not entirely true as Suunto is aware and working on this but timeline for a fix is unknown.
I tend to believe that the way ambit 3 peak worked was a bit better . I don’t know if it was because of the setting on altimeter or barometric pressure but I had almost zero issues with that . I believe that some adjustment based on gps data and other sensors of the watch could help . Since the watch can measure cadence or power quite accurately I wonder how can it tell you you are ascending 100m in 10seconds for instance because of gasps of wind …
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@thanasis I have been using the A3P intensively and even if liked it a lot, it was far less reliable than my SV
All my friends using the A3P have encountered barometric sensor failures after few years. Twice sensor replacement for me, uncountered altitude pbs. Wind and cold temperature especially make altimeter measurement totally wrong. Nothing compare to SV issue discussed here (even if I’ve never had the issue with my SV)Example of « wrong » altitude measurement from this week, with A3P of a friend :
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@Tieutieu said in Wind added 60% extra elevation:
@thanasis I have been using the A3P intensively and even if liked it a lot, it was far less reliable than my SV
All my friends using the A3P have encountered barometric sensor failures after few years. Twice sensor replacement for me, uncountered altitude pbs. Wind and cold temperature especially make altimeter measurement totally wrong. Nothing compare to SV issue discussed here (even if I’ve never had the issue with my SV)Example of « wrong » altitude measurement from this week, with A3P of a friend :
Hi thanks
However this seems like a hardware failure right? I am not sure I am referring to the same issueWhat I am referring to is not a failure but a significant change ( in my case a sudden increase by 60-80-150m( of the altitude when there is air or maybe rain
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@thanasis right but I also had altitude problems in windy conditions with the A3p ; for me it was not handling good in cold and windy conditions, way worst than SV does with wind.
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@Brad_Olwin suunto support said I should send it in for repair. It sounds like that would be quite unnecessary then? As in it wouldn’t fix anything
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@Niclas-Brundell I have had this but rare. Check your gains and see. I do t have problems below 20m/s wind speed. The wind has to be in the direction of barometer sensor to cause issues.
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@Brad_Olwin that’s about where I get the major issues. But it happens even if the watch is facing away from the wind. I live in an area where gusts like that are almost guaranteed on some mountains. So I never get accurate recordings of them
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Today we went to a trail running race.
Winds up to 120/140km/h.
All our suunto’s (SV, S9pp and SRs) were consistent : the all counted 300m elevation bonus (3000 instead of 2700mD+ - I had done it before with perfect conditions)
Distance was also around 49,5/50km for all our 4 watches, while garmins of the other friends had the more realistic values (48km/2700)
That was the first time I experimented so much differences -
I hope Suunto will finally get a handle on this.
On Saturday, instead of 1500m, my SV “gathered” 2400m. A friend with a different SV had 2200m.
And that it can be fixed is shown by Garmin Fenix, which managed to calculate correctly in the same gusty wind. -
Hi,
I live in Lanzarote where we get a lot of strong winds. Every time the wind exceeds 10 knots, the elevation data on my Suunto Race becomes inaccurate. For example, yesterday I did a 25 km run with about 1000 m of altitude gain, and with winds over 35 knots, the watch showed 1850 m—way off and quite frustrating.This happens almost every time there’s strong wind, and it’s consistently wrong compared to services like Wikiloc. It’s also not practical to cover the watch for protection, since I need to see my heart rate during the activity.
Accurate altitude tracking was one of the main reasons I chose this watch, and I’m honestly considering returning it because of this issue.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a known fix or workaround?
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@Sven-Grossenbacher said in Wind added 60% extra elevation:
Has anyone else experienced this?
Yes, many of us.
Is there a known fix or workaround?
No.
Most manufacturers have a built-in algorithm or threshold to disregard sudden and dramatic changes in elevation that would be impossible for the given activity. Suunto doesn’t seem to employ this.
There’s a general unwillingness by some to admit that this is an issue, but there are enough examples in this forum and elsewhere demonstrating that it is, in fact, a problem. Both wind and sudden submersions in water will give false elevation readings. I posted a clear example of the latter before that related thread was locked.
(Just guessing here) I’d imagine Suunto is aware of this and working on a solution. Like many of the issues we run into, it seems like it would be an easy fix that other companies have somehow figured out. But who knows.
Until then, the general advice is to go back into your affected activities and edit the elevation data manually.
