Heart rate not accurate (SUUNTO RACE)
-
I’ve been buying watches since the Spartan, and I always said to myself the heart rates will get more accurate, but again and again I get proven wrong. Today I had a running test where they used another brand while I was wearing my watch (RACE), and my Suunto’s heart rate was always off, sometimes even by 30 beats.
On most other occasions I have a feeling that the watch always needs to warm up. Like, it will go crazy for the first 10 min and then give more reliable heart rates.
I’m at a point that I just start doubting that it will ever be on point. What can I do besides rebooting, which I already did several times? Should I skip OHR and only use the belt, which actually defeats the purpose of having an OHR watch? Should I upgrade to RACE 2, as it has a new heart rate monitor? But you understand that I’m not eager to upgrade again, as I kept having the same issues.
-
@claudio_101 Sorry but think of the Suunto Race as one of the only sportswatches without heart rate measurement, at least I do. I love everything about this watch, the screen, battery life, buttons, also the app but OHR is so unreliable to be of no use.
Do what I do and pair it with a chest strap or the Polar Verity Sense, it is also OHR but located on the upper arm and less of a hassle. Problem solved and a lot cheaper than upgrading to another watch.
-
Which brands of optical heart rate monitors are actually quite accurate?
-
@Speed-Man said in Heart rate not accurate (SUUNTO RACE):
Which brands of optical heart rate monitors are actually quite accurate?
I see it very simple. If the optical heart rate sensor in your current watch doesn’t work, it probably wont work in any other watch. Never buy a new watch in the hope that that one might work for you. It’s probably more person dependent than technology dependent.
-
@elbee That´s my case. I use chest strap, but switch from Race to V2 and the OHR is same tragical for me. But i think, that the Garmin Fenix 7Pro was a little bit better, but when I tried few times the T-Rex 3, I was amazed how it was quickly responding to HR changes.
-
I’ve had 4 watches with optical sensor so far and all are equally bad, as in none is good enough to ditch my external sensor.
Those watches included ones that where claimed to be the best at the time or ones that well know sport gadget bloggers claim to have “no problem at all”. And yes, I tried every advice/trick there is to make them work.
But I’m fine with that. I don’t care if I do a long run and my watch locks in on my cadence. I know my body and know that I can trust my feeling. I don’t need to overquantify my life with recovery scores or body batteries. If I do intervals, it’s nice to keep an eye on how fast my heart rate drops during rest. An external sensor does a better job there, but even then, it really don’t make any diference if that sensor is of by a couple of beats. I do believe some people focus to much on super accuracy. Also for gps. (And somehow trust sleep score and other marketing metrics blindly)
So far my rant for today
-
@elbee The truth is, there’s no watch in the world that can measure heart rate perfectly accurately while you’re moving. Of course, when you’re sitting still, optical heart rate sensors work quite well. But during movement, I think it ultimately becomes a limitation of physics.
