my tuppence fyi.

I have a Bryton 50 with Heart Rate monitor, which was a little flaky, and eventually one of the press-studs ripped off... so I binned it.

I searched around and eventually plumped for this.. based on perceived quality and price.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/ant-coded-digital-belt-id_8189560.html.

The studs are moulded in and solid. Its been very reliable and comfy to wear. Pairs up no problem.

Common problem as acknowlwdged by Garmin
I've had three replacement straps over the last 2 years (supllied FOC by Garmin). They now have a new re-designed strap (that they sent to me again FOC at the start of the year). This had been working well for the last 6 months. Worth an email to Garmin if you ate experiencing issyes such as this. Typically, your measured heartrate will increase by a significant margin , or drop by half (as mine did).

Good call ady, just emailed them, will see how I get on

I'm glad I've seen that it's not just me suffering from this problem, I recently recorded 198bpm average on a training run the other day, I knew I was going hard but I was no way near that sort of effort! Ady shall I send garmin an email directly and do I just explain the problem????

I'll post an edited transcript on this forum of my last email with the email address that I used, so anyone can have a go! Yes, explain the problem in detail. Don't know how far they are honouring the strap replacement for the the latest version strap though. Worth a try.

Hi Ady,
did you post your email elsewhere.....would appreciate a copy to have a go myself.
Cheers,
Andrew.

Hi Ady,
did you post your email elsewhere.....would appreciate a copy to have a go myself.
Cheers,
Andrew.

I had no luck as it was out of 12 months warranty!

Sorry Andy, had forgotten about this.

My Garmin was also out of warranty, but persistence was the key, and I had three of the old type straps, and now, one of the new type, which does seem a lot better (although I have had a couple of blips after multiple uses inbetween washing the strap properly in the washing machine - usually a daily rinse and drip dry is fine, but Garmin recommend washing it properly after every 5-7 uses).

Anyhow, here is the letter that got me my latest strap at the end of last year.

>> Following three previous instances of failure, I require some further
>> technical help to determine precisely why the HRM system is still
>> sporadically failing to accurately measure my heart rate,
>>
>>
>> Since the last replacement monitor was sent to me, following previous
>> failures (that you had diagnosed as strap failure), I have spent many
>> months trying to gain some consistency with readings, until this summer,
>> I stopped using the Heart rate strap altogether.
>>
>>
>> My main issue is that of the sporadic nature of errors that I get.
>>
>>
>> My Garmin Edge 800 has proved to have been very reliable and extremely
>> useful to me as I have been racing, and I use speed/cadence sensors on
>> three of my bikes, which again (bar batteries running out after a couple
>> of years) have given me no problems at all - ever.
>>
>>
>> My heart rate measurements just do not work reliably. As mentioned last
>> time, I use the monitor several times a week, and after each use wash
>> the strap in cold water and leave to dry. Each week I use a mild soap to
>> wash the strap, rinse well and leave to dry again. Still, on indoor turbo
>> sessions and outdoor rides with the club - as well as competition, the
>> unit sometimes records the correct heartbeat, sometimes not, which, as you
>> can imagine, is very frustrating.
>>
>>
>> I am now at the beginning of my winter training, and as the most
>> effective way of training and improving fitness is to use my heart rate as a
>> measure, I decided to try and give the HRM another try. My training programme is
>> one of 3 1 hour interval turbo sessions, backed up by longer weekend rides.
>>
>>
>> Last week I cleaned the HRM strap, attached it And carried out 2
>> sessions indoor. The first was to establish my current level of heart rate at a
>> given cadence/speed/resistance etc, and the second was a ramp test to estabish
>> my heart rate max, and calculate my zones.
>>
>>
>> Both sessions went well, and (knowing my own physiology well), I gained
>> a max hr of 192 bpm.
>>
>>
>> Based on this, I cleaned the strap and left it for the first road
>> session.
>> I gained wildly varying results during the day, from a fairly normal
>> 146-156 bpm as an example, down to 74bpm for the same effort.
>>
>>
>> On a subsequent indoor turbo session - much easier to determine whether
>> readings are roughly correct or not, again, readings varied, and stepped
>> up very slowly on the third session, and dropped and raised again to either
>> very low or approximately 15bpm slower than I would expect for the same
>> session. So, either i've suddenly got a lot fitter, or the readings are
>> wrong. Given my physiology, the former is highly unlikely.
>>
>>
>> Sticking with it, I made sure that my sessions remained the same, with
>> same gearing/resistance and effort, and, gradually over the last week, the
>> readings have worsened again (variable readings), until last night, when
>> I had sporadic readings again, and the signal completely dropped before 40
>> minutes of the 1 hour.
>>
>>
>> So, the reason for this email. I need:
>>
>>
>> a) to be able to accurately and consistently record my heart rate on
>> at least 5 occasions per week.
>> b) I need to know if this is actually possible with the Garmin system
>> (as i've had problems for far too long) without having to have a constant
>> supply of New straps and sensors.
>> c) to gain some idea as to how I can measure whether the HRM strap and
>> HRM sensor are operating within their design parameters, myself, and
>> diagnose any faults (is there an onboard diagnostic on the Edge 800 that can be
>> used or can I test the components of the system some other way?). As I have
>> some considerable electronics and computing skills (in my professional
>> capacity), I am happy to do this If it leads to an answer. If you have
>> any desktop based software solutions that you can point me to. That would be
>> good also.
>> d) if there are alternatives to the strap/sensor (Garmin or non Garmin)
>> that you can suggest, this may also be a solution. A different ANT+
>> strap/sensor?
>>
>>
>> I keep all of my training logs, so have lots of TCX files that I can
>> send to show where the issues occur, should this help.
>>
>>
>> Apologies for the length If this email, but i'm at the point where I am
>> considering ditching the Garmin solution altogether if I cannot gain a
>> solution to this, and using the Polar system instead. I don't want to do
>> this, as otherwise the Garmin solution is the best out there, but I
>> need the HRM to work!

Obviously, if you use this, only use it a basis for your email, not verbatim!!

I gained a favourable response (as I always have done from Garmin), here:

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.
I'm sorry to hear about problems you experienced with your Heart Rate Monitor. These problems has been haunting us for a long time, but they all has been addressed in new design of heart rate monitor. If you could provide me with your current shipping address I will be happy to order one of those for you free of charge.
Unfortunately we do not have any software to diagnose problems with heart rate monitors and it is also not possible on device.
In regards to third party straps, we are aware of number of customer who are successfully using Polar, but we cannot guarantee anything in this case. There is forum thread about these:
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?30920-polar-strap
If there is anything else I can help you with then please let me know. Alternatively you can search for a solution here: http://www.garmin.co.uk/support

Thanks Ady. 🙂