Sudden spikes in 24/7 HR reading at rest and during the night

Giacomo Laffranchini

Rughly a week ago the watch started recording sudden spikes in HR reading at rest ( i am referring to the 24/7 HR recording not while recording activities). This happens even during the night , i have reading of 150 BPM followed by reading of 40 BPM (the latter appears to be correct).

I checked with other devices as well as a chest HR monitor. Additionally I tendentially have very low HR at rest so I don’t have 110 BPM while seating at my desk. I also noted that when I do spot reading using the widget on the watch reading are initially very high and they adjust to the true value after few seconds.

Since this pattern started roughly a week ago and seemed not to be present before,
I was wondering if there is anything software wise that could explain spikes in 24/7 HR reading at rest. Or if there is a way to reset the HR senso.

Obviously I did read the guidelines on how to wear the watch and about maintaining the HR sensor. What puzzles me is the fact that until recently i did not have any issues. Just wondering if anyone has some suggestions or recommendations. Thank you

Mff73

@giacomo-laffranchini
did you try a soft reset and check ? sudden behaviours are strange, maybe it could fix it.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@mff73 Thanks. I did try a soft reset, but did not change the situation. I was wondering if I should try to reset the watch entirely and re-pair it with the phone.

I also cannot explain the issue. I don’t think I changed the way in which I wear the watch and the watch is tendentially clean; I tend to rinse it after workout.

isazi

@giacomo-laffranchini can I ask you which firmware are you using? This used to happen with very old firmware versions but should not happen in production. Also every now and then I clean the bottom of the watch with a soft wet cloth.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

can we see the chart ?

Djordje S

@giacomo-laffranchini Yesterday during exercise HR went crazy

Check speed and Intensity zone

I did soft reset and today its better but still high values.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@djordje-s lets please keep the scope to daily HR here. Activity HR can be checked in a different thread

Djordje S

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Np,thx.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos

I hope the figures will show properly.
Figure 1 is the night between 9/11 - figure on top and 9/12 figure at the bottom (I did a typo in the picture, sorry). you can see some spikes during the night. It was a restful night with no interruption and the reading are in disagreement with another device which was on my other wrist. All the reading between 38 and 50 bpm are tendentially correct.

Figure 2 shows the spike at night. Again, I did not wake up during the night and during the day I was at my desk all day. Spot reading on a finger-tip device and 1 sec reading on another device suggested values around 60 bpm during daytime - certainly lower then the 90-100 values suggested. Again I did not record any activity in either one of the two examples here

As you can see in Figure 2 the reading are generally higher except when I perform them manually using the widget on the watch and , when doing so, I wait for the reading to stabilize. Somehow, When I scroll down to the HR widget has immediately a value available - which tend to be fairly high - but tends to get to the true value after a few seconds.

@isazi I do rinse my watch after each workout; I have sensitive skin and I try to be careful.
As for the SW, the S9P is updated to 2.16.26, 0HR2 0.2.131 I am assuming is the firmware version of the optical HR. The application on my phone is 4.45.3. I am obsessed with updates and I tend to check regularly

Thanks much

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@giacomo-laffranchini

How do you wear your watch during sleep? I see also a gap at one chart.

About the sleep spikes, as I have not seen them again, it could be hw and I could help there. But let’s not reach that point if your want , yet.

Let’s try to see if it’s a fit at arm issue. But maybe I sound like : I have tried that didn’t help.

Just keep me posted and I hope we can short this out.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Thank you for your help, your input are certainly appreciated. Obviously any relevant suggestion form the community is certainly helpful.

As for the fit:

I tend to have the watch roughly 1 inch above my wrist bone at all time
The band generally have a snug fit such that the watch does not move. To give you a sense: the watch doesn’t leave deep marks on my skin, but at the same time it tight enough to prevent light from escaping (I can’t see the green light blinking). If I move gently the watch the skin underneath moves with it.
I tried to use a nylon band for better “custom” fit but I see no differences
I sleep on my back and with my arms along my body or on the chest. I tend not to move much during the night. I have a lot of neck issues so I need to keep a consistent position over night.

Since I posted, I red through several posts and tried the following:
*log out from the app on my phone
*remove and re-install the app
*factory reset the watch
*re-pair and re-configure it with the app
After doing so I was hopeful during the night I got these results (which are consistent with other devices)

However, as you see during the day things went again out of control and the subsequent night I got the following

Which is strange as I really did my best to wear the watch with the exact same fit and in the same position as the prior night. In addition during workout I tend to have results that are reasonably close to the one recorded with my chest strap.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@giacomo-laffranchini to be honest this is wierd.

We have a software update coming asap so my suggestion is :

Try the software update , if not resolved then let’s replace the unit ?

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos thanks for the tip!

Tech support suggested to factory reset the watch one more time and if it doesn’t work to send the watch in to be serviced (I guess Suunto doesn’t do replacement in the US market).

I tough maybe tech support had some way to run diagnostic and check if the HR sensor was malfunctioning. Don’t really want to be without watch for several weeks so hopefully FW update will take care of the issue.

Yesterday I let the HR widget running for a while and that is what I record ( 50 BPM actual vs 85 recorded by the watch). Then i tried recording a Stretching session and during the exercise HR reading were mostly correct. Hence, yes - weird indeed

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@giacomo-laffranchini yeah that should not work like that.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos sorry for perpetuating this discussion.

I just tried turning off the daily (24/7) HR reading so the sensor is not recording. If I do so, then each time I enter the HR widget for a one-shot reading of my HR the watch takes a few seconds to boot the sensor and then give me very accurate measurements. Hence the HR sensor in itself appears to be working. Something weird happens when the watch needs to auto measure and record readings.

Having said that, as suggested I will wait for FW update and -worst case scenario - send the watch for repair. Tech support told me that Suunto will determine if the unit needs replacement or repair. Although honestly, I had the watch for only 1 month hence - if need be - I would appreciate a replacement from them.

Thank you!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@giacomo-laffranchini we will short out the replacement. If (hopefully not) reach that point, I’ll help.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Thank you, your help is much appreciated!! I will let you know how things are going.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Just installed and trying the new 2.18.18 I am hopeful I am assuming I should expect an improvement of daily 24/7 HR reading, correct?
I could not find any mention of it in the description (unless is part of the the “general improvement and bug fixes”)

Either way I will report back after I recorded readings for few days.
Thank you !

jmoneygrip

I may have seen this. I flipped to the heart rate screen it read 110, then settled back down to the upper 50s as expected. Only noticed it once so far, not enough data to say for certain.

Giacomo Laffranchini

@jmoneygrip Thanks for your reply.

The issue I am experiencing is actually more widespread (as I was describing in an earlier post here), beyond the spot reading. I have 100 and plus bpm recorded at night while sleeping or when I am seating at my desk.

If the issue was only with the spot reading, I could live with it. My main problem is that the 24/7 HR (as recorded in the app) are often incorrect and I think this affects other metrics. I hope the last update will address my issue.