Does your Band lock in on Heart Rate while using "Run"?

[bigskytool]

I have had the Band since the day it was released and have for the most part been pleased to this point. However, over the last few weeks I am getting more and more frustrated with its ability to "lock in" on my HR while using "Run". I use this setting to track both running and mtn biking. At first it appeared to do a decent job, not great, of locking in on my HR while exercising and I was satisfied knowing it would not be perfect and reading others users are having the same issues.

I am estimating that during any workout in "Run" mode over the last month it is showing a solid heart icon, which means it is locked and reading, maybe 20% of my exercise time. I am constantly looking down at the screen, every 10 to 20 seconds, during exercise and it very rarely has the solid heart icon. On several occasions the summary in the app shows a complete loss of contact with HR during exercise. I have posted a couple of pictures of the results form the Health app to provide as example. I feel like strapping a GoPro to my head and videoing the substandard performance of HR tracking for Microsoft to see, even though they must already know!

I have used it below the wrist, above the wrist, screen facing towards palm and screen facing out like a watch all with the same results. I have tightened it as much as possible and loosened it a bit with the same results. I clean it after each exercise also.

How can we be confident that the HR reading is even close if it never locks in during exercise? I might as well just use an app like Runtastic or Cyclometer to track distance traveled and pace to get a calorie burn during work out and not have spent $200 to get HR monitoring and GPS.

 

[littlebib]

I did a 6 mile run yesterday and show a consistent heart rate throughout the whole run ranging from 130 to start with 157 beat max. This has been pretty consistent with my runs. When I'm exercising, I wear it between 1 and 2 inches from my wrist, and I tighten the band more than I normally wear it so that it's not flopping around on my arm (mostly because that bugs me to have it moving around).

 

[bigskytool]

I have also settled on wearing it above the wrist and fairly tight to get the best results. As far as showing a consistent heart rate throughout the whole exercise I do get that, when viewing in the app, most of the time as seen below for my last 2 bike rides this week.

What I am questioning is how accurate is this because while exercising the hear rate is very rarely locked in. I see the hear icon usually hollow and during exercise and every now and then it is solid. For instance, yesterday I rode for an hour and nearly every time I looked at the display the hear icon was not solid meaning it was not locked in. I would occasionally look at the heart would be solid for a brief second and then back to hollow. But the majority of the time I looked it was just hollow. I took a break 30 minutes into the ride the heart locked in while sitting still for a couple of minutes which made me wonder if it has something to do with the amount of movement but that does not make sense because it is set for "Run". I had the band positioned above my wrist and tight enough so that it did not move around during riding on the 2 summaries below.

 

[DroidUser42]

Just for giggles, next time you're out running, hold your shirt with the arm that has the band. IOW, immobilize that arm so it doesn't flex at all. If your experience is like mine, you'll see a much better lock rate.