deacon mark

I have a Garmin Dual HR monitor strap. It was working fine but now will not give consistent readings. It finds my Garmin 935 but just does not pick up heart rate keeps dropping it. I tried new battery and check that and I keep it wet the whole works but I think it is not working right. It worked great first 7 months I had it now erratic. Anyone else have issues with HR monitors from Garmin? I have had 3 different ones over the years and the best was the old plastic straps ones. They seem to be best but they can go bad after a few years. I wonder if a Polar would be better. I like the dual because of bluetooth technology.

WhyFi

And it's doing this in both BT and ANT?

deacon mark

Well it does not pick up on my phone app for heart rate either. Just like on the Garmin watch it finds the monitor but not consistent in heart rate reading. It just drops off.

WhyFi

Presumably any phone app is BT only, unless you have one of the rare phones with ANT+ (Sony had a few, IIRC). Have you tried connecting to the 935 via ANT+ (or does it default to ANT+)?

Iride01 

I've never had an issue with the Garmin Soft straps. I've had 2 in the last 12 years. Though mine are the ant+ only versions. If you have a the new version that is BT also, then I'd use ant+ to connect it to your 935 if you have a choice.

Ever since Garmin's had the soft strap, there are some that can't seem to get them to work for them. Polar and Wahoo's straps seem to work for them. Have no idea why. I use to know someone that couldn't even wear a wrist watch for more than a couple days with out it quitting. Maybe you are special too. <grin>

GhostRider62

The special soft Garmin straps last a couple months for me.....I gave up after three

The plastic ones last forever.

Seattle Forrest

Fenix defaults to connecting to an HR strap over BT when both are available. Forerunners probably do the same.

You can force it to connect over ANT+ instead and see if that resolves it.

biker128pedal

When mine gets spotty it helps to launder it. Hand wash cycle with Woolite. Also I remove the transmitter when not used. I have a Polar and had the same issues with it. Cleaning periodically and removing the transmitter when not used also helps. Nora he Garmin is over a year old and the Polar about 9 months. I got the later when I was having issues with the Garmin. This is when I replaced the battery and found out removing the transmitter helped.

jaxgtr

I had garmin straps for a long time and of all the garmin products, that was the one thing I never had issues with... I use this stuff and I never had any drop out.

I moved to a Wahoo system as I could not deal with the Garmin Connect crap any longer and my garmin strap still worked without any issues. After 15 years, I just decided to move to a Wahoo strap.

Badger6

In fact Garmin prescribes this after every 7 uses. For me this means every Saturday evening...due to commuting daily, and long rides on the weekends.

Litespud

I use a Garmin Dual HRM - used it with my Garmin 530 head unit until it stopped connecting, and I haven’t been able to pair them again, so I’ve given up using it on the bike. The HRM pairs fine with my Concept2 rower, so I’m pretty the issue is in the head unit. I think there’s a firmware upgrade available, so I’ll update the head unit and try the HRM again 🙄

deacon mark

Update: I contacted Garmin and they are going to send me a new one. I have always used Garmin stuff and twice before had some issues that were actually out of warranty but they took care of me. I like there customer service and the rest of the garmin package is fine. I may try washing in the washer though I did wash it by hand.

Iride01 

I've never had to wash my Garmin Soft Straps. But certainly that doesn't mean you may not need to. What works for me is just rinsing it every time I come back from a ride. On the current strap that is 6+ yo, I have only taken the pod off when the battery needs to be changed. And unless I've forgotten a battery change, then the pod has only been off the strap once. About a month ago.

I've wondered if people that sweat tons of salt are bad for Garmin straps. Maybe the salt corrodes the contacts or connections somewhere. I sweat a lot. But not enough salt to ever crust anything up like some do.

ericcox

Very cool that Garmin is replacing it. My Garmin HR strap (same model) stopped transmitting at all to any devices a few months back. After some internet searching, I washed the strap and cleaned the contacts and it started working again. I have now started cleaning the contacts periodically and haven't had any additional problems. I do sweat a lot and live in TX, so during the late spring, summer and fall, I will be taking more care to keep the contacts clean.

I did have an Amazon strap before (moofit maybe?) that lasted about 3 months... My favorite straps were the old Polar ones. I never had issues on those until the battery gave out. A lot of those were not user replaceable.

prj71

I have the Garmin Instict watch. It broadcasts my HR to my Garmin Edge. Another option to think about instead of the straps.

Bruizer

I’ve had 2 Garmin HRM’s. One worked fine for 9 months and then started to give me spikes and drop outs. I tried another one and the same thing happened in 4 months. Both were well taken care of as per Garmin Instructions on product care. I suppose I should have tried customer service, but calling was so convoluted that I didn’t bother. I moved on to a Polar HRM and have had no problems for the past 18 months.

Fox Farm

Exactly. This was going to be my suggestion as this worked for me.