Spartan Sport WHR Baro always reading HR too high at first few km while running

Alberto Yoldi

This issue happened to me for the last years on every watch I used. Even with external HR sensors, I always have an extreme peak at the beginning. I even thought it is my heart

SlaSh

@sartoric wrist HR for weight training is awful cause of the wrist movement and hr readings are with huge delays, hr raising after you have already done the set chest strap or forearm based ohrm are much faster to respond to fast hr beats changes.

vietpq

@sartoric I always turn on exercise mode, wait for HR & GPS stay at stable condition and do some warming up (about 5 minutes) before hit start button but problem still remain. Next time I will try to wait longer

vietpq

@Alberto-Yoldi do you think that is a normal situation or a problem?

sartoric

@SlaSh said in Spartan Sport WHR Baro always reading HR too high at first few km while running:

@sartoric wrist HR for weight training is awful cause of the wrist movement and hr readings are with huge delays, hr raising after you have already done the set chest strap or forearm based ohrm are much faster to respond to fast hr beats changes.

I know, and I’ve seen it
But in those case I don’t need very precise data and that’s why, for now, I’m not buying a chest strap.

Maybe I could arrange a very long wrist band

jthomi

Sometimes, before starting a ride the start screen shows a HR value of maybe 75 or 80, but when I start the exercise the watch shows twice as much.

I stop the exercises, delete it because of the wrong HR and start the exercise again.

This time when start screen show a certainly value the watch shows the same when starting the exercise. This happens from time to time, but not regular.

Spartan Sport with chest belt.

SlaSh

@sartoric or scosche rythm in my case, very comfortable and accurate device.

SlaSh

@jthomi even with the belt? WOW thats bad…

@vietpq I wonder how well Baro sits on your wrist, i.e. whether you have large wrists or not? Spartan units (not Trainers) are fairly big, and I’d imagine would have more of a “roll” on smaller or medium wrists as your arms move, resulting in some erroneous HR. At least, until blood circulation picks up and your limbs start to swell a bit due to all the increased blood flow.

Also, when you begin to run, do you shoot like a bat from hell or pick up your speed slowly in a I’m-a-weightlifter-not-runner-piss-off type of fashion? Optical HR is known to lock on cadence sometimes, especially when there’s light leaking.

I have Spartan Baro too and have been relatively impressed with its accuracy, enough that I no longer carry a strap or band most of the time. But then my wrists are on a larger side, I always start uber-slow, and I’m a perfect pick for optical HR from a skin complexion point of view…

jthomi

@SlaSh Only sometimes, maybe once, twice in two weeks…

sartoric

@jthomi
But that looks like an issue in “transposing” what is measured into numbers … or heart at full throttle

@vietpq Yep, looked at your moves data… Cadence 91 (182 for both legs), heart rate 183-185… See above. I’d definitely suggest wearing the Baro higher on your wrist and making sure it sits real snug.

vietpq

@NickK I alway wear the watch 2 fingers above wrist bone during exercise as Suunto’s guide for WHR, I also wear tight enough so can’t be able to see the light shining from the sensor.
I’m experienced runner so I usually do warm up carefully and start at easy pace for first few km before speed up

@vietpq I did check your moves: the watch is clearly locking on your running cadence as Valencell sensor, and many others, are known to do sometimes. Not sure there’s much you can do about it. I had a very similar issue with a few Garmin devices and their Elevate sensor a couple of years back: they’d lock on my walking cadence, “hike” heart rate to 110-115, then “chase” it all the way up to 140-150 trying to lock on something real.

If you are absolutely positively sure the watch is tight to avoid any light leakage, my only suggestion would be to either try a different arm, or arm position, or really low cadence initially – like 80-110 typical for walking, or use a separate sensor like Scosche Rhythm or Polar OH1.

Unfortunately, to this day wrist mounted sensors can be a hit or miss, and for you it’s clearly more of a miss.

Brad_Olwin

@vietpq I have issues that are worse than yours for OHR and at this time it works for some and not for others. I believe that Suunto is working with Valencel to make this work better. We just have to wait for future updates. I use the Smart Sensor when I need accurate HR.

SlaSh

@Brad_Olwin people reporting abnormalities even with suunto smart sensor… sometimes I feel like it is not an hr sensor itself, but something with algorithms.

@SlaSh Talking of issues…

Strangely enough, took my shiny new Suunto 9 for an inaugural run yesterday. Picture perfect HR from the built-in sensor on the first attempt, but GPS… Oh, GPS! Oh, gods! Suunto, no! Absolute worst I’ve seen even from much older devices. I’m fairly certain power saving wasn’t on, GPS quality was set to Best, and power profile was 24 hour… Running latest 2.1.64 firmware.

I was kind of surprised when it locked on GPS signal almost instantly – most watches, even “accustomed” to this location, take 15-20 seconds. Hopefully, tomorrow’s run is better.

cosme.costa

@SlaSh @Brad_Olwin , I had a lots of problems with the smart band, HR spikes over 230 BPM, sudden variations, … Eventually I bought a new belt and everything is fine again (around 200 km with it). I got an A3 Vertical for more than a year and I never had issues with heart rate. I have a Sigma Rox with heart band that is made by the same people that makes the one for suunto (everything looks identical and have the same dimensions except for the different distance between the brackets for the sensor) and I still use the original belt with zero issues.

So, I’m inclined to belive that the original belt of my SSU was faulty.

Brad_Olwin

@SlaSh said in Spartan Sport WHR Baro always reading HR too high at first few km while running:

@Brad_Olwin people reporting abnormalities even with suunto smart sensor… sometimes I feel like it is not an hr sensor itself, but something with algorithms.

I know this but if it was algorithms, it would occur for everyone. My Smartsensor is rock solid and I have not had any issue for a very long time. So it has to be a bit more complicated. It may depend on the sport profile or other odd combination of settings. As soon as I am done with my race next week I will start biking more and soon skiing. I did not have issues skiing last year but some reports are from folks biking so I will test that.

Brad_Olwin

@NickK Can you post a link to this? My S9 is doing rather well for GPS.