Forums >Gears and Wears>Garmin FF 235
I was planning on getting this newest Garmin, but hearing really bad things about the HR monitor, which is disappointing to hear. Any other garmins out there that have an optical HR built-in that actually works?
I think the reviews are actually pretty good. DCRainmaker did a full review and there is another good one (very detailed) on Amazon. it does take some tweaking on how tight and where you have it on your wrist to get the HR sensor right, but that is true with the Mio devices, too.
I'm getting a 235.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
I was reading amazon reviews, but you can't always go with them. I'm still going to get it as well.
I just picked this watch up today and went for a 5 mile run. I'm coming from an Apple watch and have never owned a garmin device before. I can tell there's going to be a learning curve to get used to the UI, but it was really nice to just hit the "run" button and go. the GPS locked on immediately. I absolutely loved setting up the pace alerts. I have a problem with starting out too fast and tiring out toward the end. I set up the pace alert and it reigned me in for the first couple miles. I ended up finishing the run feeling great. I also found that my usual mapmyrun app was considerably off from the Garmin. By the beginning of the 4th mile, mapmyrun was ahead by nearly a quarter mile. I'll provide more feedback as I learn the watch. I will say the 235 is rather hard to find online and in stores. I ended up calling around and found the marsala version at a small local shop. They only had the one in stock. If anyone else has this watch, please provide your feedback and any tips or trick you may know.
I've got the vivosmart HR (which has the same optical HR hardware as the 235) on my Christmas list (planning to send the output from it to my 310xt). I'm much more concerned with averages and trends and such and not things like whether the optical HR is as quick and accurate as a chest strap. It sounds like these things are perfect for what I want...
Hi,
I've had the 235 for over a week now and love it. Got my ass running again, too, because of the step counter. Nowhere near goal in the afternoon so I go for a run to meet the goal. HRM is fine. Not sure how accurate but it seems to be right. Love the 4 different screens you can pull up while you are running so you can check all your metrics. Calculates VOMax? and predicts race times as well as telling you how long you should rest before next run. I believe it takes time for this last thing to be accurate because, so far, it has told me 72 hours every time and I have run 5 out of 6 days. Facebook and text notifications as well as up to the minute weather and song control of your smartphone as well. It's got everything. Best watch I have ever owned. Seems to be about 3 or 4 days without charging and that's with running pretty much every day. Hope that helps. Ask a question and I will try to answer.
"may you be halfway up the hill before you realize you are running one"
SMART Approach
I am having issues with the heart rate on the 235. Either it's spikes early in the run, or like last Saturday, it actually worked fine for the first 4 miles and then the last 2 miles I went from being in the 130s to the 160s without me increasing intensity. This is frustrating. Not sure how to correct it but no consistency over past few weeks. I love the watch part.
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Your hair, skin tone, etc can impact the optical sensors. I have been turning mine so that the sensors are on the underside of my wrist (where there's no hair) and tightening up the strap a bit. I've got really pasty skin on that side too.
In reviews for different devices optical hr sensors dcrainmaker has commented on things you can try to improve their accuracy.
I have been running with this watch now for two weeks or so and have had no real issues. The battery life leaves a bit to be desired (as DC Rainmaker notes) and I've had to charge it once every 4 days or so (Smart notifications on, 1 run of 30-60 minutes a day, HRM with 24/7 mode on). This doesn't really bother me since I seem to have to charge my cell phone every day whether I use it much or not.Since this is my first GPS/smart watch I can agree that there is a learning curve, but aside from getting lost in the menus a few times looking for a particular setting, I don't think the curve will be that steep.
As far as the HRM, I did note the same jump in the HR at the start of my first run before it settled down to a reasonably steady reading (easy, consistent pace run). I wore it a little tighter since then but only 1 or 2 notches and it seems to have solved the problem. I have noticed the same spiking at times with the 24/7 HRM readings where it keeps jumping back to 70 BPM when I first look at the Heart Rate screen when I've clearly been siting down for a while (resting HR of 38 BPM). Then it basically "wakes up" and adjusts to what it should be. I think this just has to do with the recording interval though, since it will essentially put the HRM to sleep if you aren't moving for a while and only sample your HR periodically as opposed to a 1-sec interval when recording an activity. I haven't tried any interval workouts yet to see how it handles the rest between intervals, (DC Rainmaker notes that it struggles to monitor the decline in HR after an interval), but since it is optical as opposed to a chest strap I think that is really pushing it to its limit.
GPS works great (which i would expect since Garmin has been doing this for while). I have not used the GLONASS yet since I have had good GPS signal where I've been running and been able to get a lock very quickly. No buggy GPS fumbles yet aside from an anomalous elevation spike once, but that is bound to happen sometimes.
Overall I'm not disappointed. I hear Garmin is supposed to try to fix the battery life with a firmware update (eventually). Since I hate (read: too lazy to wear) heart rate straps, but am interested in the data, this fits my needs very well so far.