Garmin HRM

I've been having some problems with the HRM strap on my 405 lately, it seems to regularly stop picking up my heart rate and just displays my HR as 144 the zone info turns to " - - " and % goes to " - " (hopfully you don't need to read morse code for that to make sense). I thought that it might be the battery going and have replaced that but there has been no improvement. I've had it for about 2 years but would really prefer not to have to buy a new one. Any one got any ideas what may have caused this. As quite frankly when i'm running and glance to see that my Hr is at - % i'm in zone - - its slightly worrying, after all...it never turns out well being the undead does it? besides, i'm trying to train by heart rate at the moment so it is quite inconvienent to loose that info for minutes at a time. Sometimes, bashing it works, other times it doesn't - and that's as far as my techneaderthal mind will go to fixing a technology problem, although i must look a reall nutter, beating my chest whilst staring at my watch and running.

I actually have the same problem with my 305, but only when I'm cycling. Pretty annoying actually! My last HRM was binned when it kept telling me my heart rate was 185.... all the time.

I was running flat out at the gym once and the HRM told me my heart rate was about 70

They're great when working but annoying at all other times. Try and get used to how you feel at certain heart rates is my advice. I've got used to my approx heart rate at any given time when I'm running and I can usually gauge where it'll be depending on how I'm feeling.

I still use the strap but it's more for recording purposes.

Cheers, I think i will contact garmin and see what they say. It is really cr*p as i can't really rely on the recording as it stays blank for miles at a time - on the weekend i found i ran 6 miles and the av hr of 2 miles in the middle was 144, the miles on either side were 159 and 160(ish) but the pace hadn't changed by more than 2s per mile...frustrating beyond believe and on my run to work this morning i found that it was again always 144. So i took it off as it had annoyed me too much .

shantel- my problem started when i was on the bike, and at first that was the only time it would happen, then it 'spread' to running too. fingers crossed that the same doesn't happen to you

MD6 wrote (see)

shantel- my problem started when i was on the bike, and at first that was the only time it would happen, then it 'spread' to running too. fingers crossed that the same doesn't happen to you

Wonder why it loses the heart rate whilst cycling? I wondered if it had something to do with the angle, but then I can sit down with it on and it's fine.

It is a strange thing. I've emailed garmin to ask them about it and see what they say, if its anything useful I'll post it - mine tends to work when i'm sat down too

Mine did this and I fixed it.  Open the battery cover, take out the battery and very carefully bend out the little contact that touches the side of the battery, so that it puts firmer pressure on the battery case.

My Garmin reported heart rates varying from 30 to 270 and stuck on a fixed rate for a long time.  Actually thumping the strap while I was running along brought it briefly back to life which indicated it might be caused by battery contact.  Since doing this, the chest strap has worked fine.

They are also susceptible to static from certain man-made fabrics.  If the battery contact thing doesn't fix it, try a short run in a cotton T-shirt to see if it does the same thing.

Cheers,

Ian

Cheers Ian, I'll give that a go tonight

IanEx, it worked, thanks for the tip - i just used a tip from a biro to bend out the contact and the HR worked fine on my long run this weekend!