Race 2 heart rate issues

[Timo Helfer]

I have a similar problem with my Race and Polar H10, where it gets stuck at 70-80bpm sometimes.

[Fulvio Ferrari]

I had the same issue yesterday and today the heart monitor stopped working. After a hard reset, the HM came back and it is not working

[Daniel Thomas]

I recently got a Vertical 2 and today I did a comparison with a chest strap on the indoor trainer. I am coming from a Garmin Instinct, which always underread my heart rate so much that it was useless. I was very disappointed when I looked at the Vertical 2 during warm-up, where I was already breathing harder and the watch only gave me around 80 bpm, which is what I usually have for an easy walking pace on the flat. I started thinking that there is something wrong with my blood flow because it also doesn’t work! After 10 minutes give or take it was however spot on and matched the strap even up to a heart rate approaching 180 bpm.

[larrybbaker]

@Daniel-Thomas cycling is always hit or miss due to arm tension/grip etc. Frequently discussed here.

[piotras]

Hi everyone.

I got the very same issue as the others. Interestingly enough I bought the watch this week on Monday, did a setup, firmware update, and literally every activity has wrong HR readings.

The watch is struggling during first minutes during activities but that’s not all.

I was thinking ok, there is cold outside or smth and that’s why the HR is not quite catched , but no, even running at home for couple of minutes seems a struggle for the watch.

Btw. when I don’t do any activity and then let’s say I’ll quickly climb some stairs to the point where normally my arm band is showing up 130-140 and I am feeling tired, the watch is showing up 90-100 which is so weird.

I am thinking of returning it, as I still have an opportunity to do so.
I’ll try to reset the watch again, but I don’t expect any fireworks.

[cumbrian-runner]

@piotras I see poor HR too

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/14698/new-race-2-heart-rate-awful-distances-too-short

Can’t comment on earlier firmware as watch updated itself out of the box

[piotras]

@cumbrian-runner hi, yeah, I have the newest firmware as well.

I did a hard reset and did a 5km test run, and compared the activity with my old garmin forerunner 255 + polar verity sense arm band.

Looks much better now, there are some wobbles here and there (like showing up 10bpm higher in around 18minutes), but overall it is pretty good (162 to 163 bpm average).

My 5km run:

Climbing the stairs still not quite good, the HR is updated to proper values only after i stop for a while, and yes I had the watch pretty tight on my wrist and a bit above the bone.

And to indicate what was going on before hard reset, one of my walks:

[the_mr_allen]

@piotras I tried a factory reset as well, and did get better. Still odd that the Vertical 2 is still more consistent for me across the board with same sensors.

[Mathieu Chêne]

Hello,

Have the same problem, HR stuck at 110 BPM during the first 20 minutes of running, then suddenly goes up to 165 bpm which is the correct reading. It was working better before the last firmware.

[heslegend]

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing similar issues on my Suunto Race since a few weeks. The heart rate is often too low (so far only observed while running), sometimes there are sudden jumps after a while. When using an external heart rate sensor, it works.

What you should do if you experience the same: Contact Suunto Support!

Only then they will now about it. I did this and they told me they are currently not aware of such an issue, but will investigate. They also asked me to upload my log files via the mobile app and will check them. The more people report this, the higher chance that this gets fixed soon.

You can find their support chat directly on www.suunto.com by clicking on ‘Support’ at the top and then using the chat on the bottom right.

[radum]

Hi, I have been dealing with the stuck heart rate for a couple of months. Factory reset and firmware updates did not help in my case (currently version 2.53.42). I’ve followed the General guidance from Suunto on this topic, like ensure proper fit and placement, keep firmware updated, no tattoos, etc.

For example, today, during a common nordic walking session, the heart rate persisted around 90bpm although the actual value was higher. Only when I stopped (and triggered a decrease) the watch caught up with the reality. On the picture you can see the HR spike when the speed becomes 0.

This is not a singular case. In fact, whenever, I climb a hill or increase the velocity, causing a significant HR increase, the watch misses this and keeps staying at the lower level for minutes.

I therefore confirm @piotras comment that one has to stop for a while so that the watch provides accurate HR measurements.

The question is: when will Suunto finally acknowledge this problem and provide a timeline for a fix?

It’s nice and good that we get new features with every update, but everything seems just a card castle if the device fails to fulfill its primary purpose (measuring the HR), most of the other functionalities rely on.

[isazi]

@radum is this using an external monitor or the OHR on the watch? Seems a case of cadence locking, typical with nordic walking and poles

[DropQb]

@radum I experience the same with walking.
HR is around 90 BPM on straight road, then I start climb uphill and even I feel that the HR goes up, the watch still shows values around 90 BPM. Usually it is enough to stop for a while until watch recognizes increased HR and after that it seems as the OHR works ok.
It may be some kind of cadence lock but even I tried to tighten the strap, move watch on the hand, it behaves the same. Mostly just the pause for a while helps the watch to recognize increased HR.

[dreamer_]

My HR with the Race 2 and the latest firmware is not working either for me. This is a very new device. It worked 35 minutes but then, there’s a moment that the sensor is stuck in very high bpm readings (completely off).

I didn’t expect this at all. In fact, I remember I had a similar issue with the Race 1, and despite having a diferent sensor.

[radum]

Hi @isazi, this is indeed using the OHR.
In the meantime, I’ve purchased a heart rate belt which I sometimes use during peak & valley power walks. The described behavior cannot be reproduced when using the belt, which operates accurately.

So, it seems to be rather a problem of the OHR

[martian]

I have the same issue. I sent watch data to Suntoo. I want to ask, does factory reset remove my own intervals?

[_Luki]

Hi all,

I want to share my recent experiences regarding the Optical Heart Rate (OHR) sensor on the Suunto Race 2, as it has become a major dealbreaker for my daily training.

The Core Problem: Initial Lock Failure
During the first 10–15 minutes of dynamic or high-intensity workouts, the OHR sensor repeatedly fails to track my actual heart rate:

Example (36-Minute HIIT Circuit): For the first 17-minute attempt, the watch froze at ~100 bpm (Zone 1), completely missing the intense physical load. I had to stop, save, and restart the activity. Immediately after the restart—without any change in positioning or effort—the sensor picked up perfectly, averaging 138 bpm with accurate peaks in Zone 4.

Why This Ruin The Entire Ecosystem
An accurate heart rate reading is the absolute foundation of a sports watch. When the initial 30% of a workout is logged as Zone 1 instead of Zone 4/5:

TSS and Training Load (CTL/ATL) are completely corrupted.

Recovery calculations become useless.

User trust in the data is entirely destroyed.

Conclusion
I love the build quality, the UI, and the Suunto app philosophy. However, having to trick the sensor by restarting workouts or doing complex “pre-heating” routines is unacceptable for a €700 flagship device. Other manufacturers prove that reliable wrist-based HR and accurate stress tracking are very possible today.

If a sports watch cannot reliably track heart rate out of the box without requiring a chest strap for basic workouts, it fails its core purpose. I genuinely hope the upcoming Q4 firmware update ports the improved OHR algorithms from the Run series—otherwise, many of us will have no choice but to look elsewhere.

[elbee]

@_Luki

I haven’t come across a watch with a optical sensor that works for me. My race s sometimes gives excepted values and sometimes it doesn’t Just like any other watch with an optical sensor I ever had.

Some people claim to have perfect results. Some sport gadget bloggers claim to have no problems at all.

I guess it’s more person related than sensor related. (Although I’m white, no tattoos, no hairy arms. Very visible veins on my arms. My hands are always a bit cold).

Just accept it and use a chessstrap. I recently bought a polar oh1+ optical sensor that you wear on your upper arm, which gives values within the expected range.

(And don’t try to quantify your life/running to the max. But that’s my personal view)

[_Luki]

@elbee I don’t fully agree that it’s only person related.

I’ve used several watches with optical heart rate sensors, including the Pixel Watch 3 and 4, the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and the Garmin Fenix 7X Pro. All of them provide reliable heart rate readings on my wrist without any noticeable issues.

With the Suunto Race S, and now with the Race, I still experience occasional cadence lock and workouts where heart rate is clearly underreported or not captured correctly. What’s confusing is that some activities are recorded perfectly, while others are not.

Since other brands work well for me under the same conditions, I don’t think the issue can be explained purely by individual physiology. There seems to be something specific about Suunto’s optical HR implementation or algorithms that makes it more sensitive in certain situations.

That’s what I struggle to understand. If optical heart rate measurement generally didn’t work for me, I would simply accept it and use an external sensor. But based on my experience with several other watches, optical HR clearly does work for me. That’s why I find these inconsistent results on the Race and Race S difficult to explain.