Epic Band HR monitoring failure on treadmill

[jwpear]

Just when I was beginning to think the Band HR tracking was close enough to my strap, it fails miserably. At the gym this morning, I decided to do the treadmill. I had been favoring the spinner most of the fall because of some torn cartilage in my knee.

I did some weights before the treadmill and everything seemed normal. However, once on the treadmill, it said my HR dropped to around 105. Yet the strap indicated it was much higher--in the 130's. I kept ramping up the speed and incline to drive up my heart rate. The Band insisted that I was still at 105. And at times, it had a solid heart icon. The strap kept climbing. I started manually checking my pulse just to verify the strap was accurate. It was. The Band was, at times, 50 bpm off. It was never close. It was so far off that I switched from workout mode to run mode just to see if it would track better. I thought maybe steps would play a role in it. It didn't. My arms were swinging, not stationary. I took the Band off and cleaned the HR and skin sensors with my towel. And finally, I tried adjusting it tighter and loser. Nothing worked.

I'm calling MS today to order a replacement. I've noticed recently that the HR sensor seems to get stuck on at times. I also continue to see corrosion on the sensor under the face. I still love this thing. Really want it to work, but I'm starting to have doubts about its viability for anything other than casual tracking.

Below are some screen shots. In this first shot, you can see my HR as I was doing some initial weights--heavy bench and curls. Then you see it drop off. That's the point where I jumped on the treadmill. I got frustrated and switched to run mode. That's the second shot. I went back to workout mode and finished up my weight training (didn't get screenshots of that).

 

[eyecrispy]

Mine never did that when I had it but I am with you and question if this band is the right thing for serious fitness folk.

 

[willgill]

I'm seeing the same erratic HRM results when compared to other devices like chest strap HRM. I'm going to clean off the sensor with alcohol and try different positioning to see if I can get acceptable results.

Today, I just walked the dog and for the first quarter mile I wore the band display down and the HR was at 180BPM! Realistically, it was probably half of that or less. I can't figure out if display up or down is the most accurate. The MIO watch (that has similar sensor) has the sensor on the top (back) of the wrist. That would mean the Band should be worn display down to put the sensor on the top or back of the wrist.

 

[rambo47]

Heart rate monitoring accuracy is tragically bad. The gym treadmill reported my heart rate in the 150's while my Band said 200. I love the Band's optimism, but if I hit 200 bpm working out my heard would be standing beside me and dialing 911 on it's own.

 

[bobsentell]

I think this may vary from person to person. When I use the Band for HR tracking it works fine. I hate to ask, but what is your ethnicity? That may be a factor.

 

[PhalanxPunx]

I went to the gym this morning for the first time with my band and I repeatedly checked it against the HR monitor on the treadmill and I found that the entire time (45 minutes) the discrepancy between the band the treadmill was between 0 and 5 BPM. I'm not doubting anyone's word on here, just relating my experience thus far. I will continue to watch this and see if anything changes. I will post again if I see it change beyond that.

 

[jwpear]

I got a replacement Band from Microsoft just before Christmas and I'm still seeing the same HR issues on the treadmill. It generally settles in at around 105 regardless of my intensity. If I have zero incline, it runs within 10 bpm of my strap. If I add some incline to increase intensity, it just seems to have no clue. Stays at around 105 despite my strap climbing steadily as I ramp up intensity with incline. I could understand this if it were only relying on steps to estimate heart rate. It doesn't know I've bumped up the incline. But I expect better since it has both the step and the heart sensor data.

I've verified the Band is off while the strap is accurate by manually checking my pulse periodically while on the treadmill. Arms were swinging normally. Used run mode with GPS off. As I noted before, I also tried exercise mode.

I'm baffled that it seems to keep up with heart rate fluctuations during my ride on the spinner and during weight lifting, but can't handle steady treadmill HR. Seems like this would be one of the easiest to track.

Tried to post pics, but the forum is reporting 500 errors after upload of each image (ioError, eventPhase=2, text=Error #2038). Will attempt again later.

 

[RiftPoint]

I can't say that I've really ever seen major issues with my band at the gym. As near as I can tell it reads my weight session fine (the display is often somewhat behind, but the app graph looks normal) which is usually 35-40min, and then I do 15min on the treadmill. I do always switch from strength to running/guided on the band. Distance/Pace has been really off for me on treadmills (GPS off) but the heart rate has been pretty close to what the treadmill sensors read. Recently I switched to the 15min Tabata guided workout which has me running at a 3 degree incline and it still doesn't seem to have any major issues apart from some screen lag during rapid HR changes.

I have noticed that I need to wear my band a notch tighter when I'm working out, if I don't it seems to spend more time than usual in an "acquiring" state. I also wear my band further away from my wrist (and screen facing in) than many pictures I've seen of people wearing them (seriously, how do people bend their wrist with the thing in between their wrist and the palm???). It sits about an inch away from the protrusion on my wrist, and I think someone posted a screenshot in a different thread of another fitness tracker that uses optical HR monitoring that actually had instructions suggesting the proper wearing position being about an inch or so away from your wrist...