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Anyone elses heart rate monitor absolute trash?

F

furam90

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 15, 2010
251
230
Bought the Apple Watch because I like gadgets, but also because I wanted help improve my fitness. The problem is the main fitness feature, the heart-rate monitor NEVER WORKS. Whenever I go to the gym it says "Cannot read, try again." I'll keep pressing it and it just won't read it properly. When it does manage to read my heart rate, it will sometimes give me half the real rate. Ex: If my heart rate is 120 it will show up as 60. Extremely frustrating.

The weird thing is it used to work and only be slightly buggy, but as time passes its gotten more and more buggy to the point of it being unusable. Not sure if it has to do with the summer heat, but if that's the case, Apple should've tested it better.

Thinking about selling it if it doesn't improve with a software update.
 
Sounds like it's defective.....mine works fine....why not just take it into apple instead of posting on a forum about it? it's obviously not working as it's supposed to...what is it with all of these posts about the watch being so negative and the FIRST GENERATION OS being buggy....don't like it.....return it....simple as that.
 
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Probably a hardware problem. Mine works fine and I don't think I've heard of this problem happening to someone who was wearing it correctly. Or if you had a tattoo there that would mess it up.
If you can show the problem to someone at the Apple Store they would likely just give you a new one.
 
Expecting it to be flakey, I was stunned how accurate mine is, both while exercising and while at rest. I even compared it to the hand grips sensors on my $4k True elliptical, and they are usually right in sync +/- 1 beat per minute.

Your watch is defective, along with your assumption that your problem is being experienced by everyone else.
 
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furam90 said:
Bought the Apple Watch because I like gadgets, but also because I wanted help improve my fitness. The problem is the main fitness feature, the heart-rate monitor NEVER WORKS. Whenever I go to the gym it says "Cannot read, try again." I'll keep pressing it and it just won't read it properly. When it does manage to read my heart rate, it will sometimes give me half the real rate. Ex: If my heart rate is 120 it will show up as 60. Extremely frustrating.

The weird thing is it used to work and only be slightly buggy, but as time passes its gotten more and more buggy to the point of it being unusable. Not sure if it has to do with the summer heat, but if that's the case, Apple should've tested it better.

Thinking about selling it if it doesn't improve with a software update.
Click to expand...

Put the watch on, slide it up your arm (1" away from your hand) and tell me if the heart rate reading changes. That's exactly where I wear it when I go walk and it's always accurate. If I wear it lower and close to my hand how a normal watch would sit it shows silly numbers.
 
Armen said:
Put the watch on, slide it up your arm (1" away from your hand) and tell me if the heart rate reading changes. That's exactly where I wear it when I go walk and it's always accurate. If I wear it lower and close to my hand how a normal watch would sit it shows silly numbers.
Click to expand...

That's where I wear it as well. Guess mines defective.
 
Mine works great and has never failed and I am impressed at how accurate it is... I wear the watch one notch tighter for workouts and golf and it has always worked without flaw. I have even compared it to my heart strap and the sensor on my treadmill and all three were within 1% of each other throughout the workout and at the end. Very surprised considering the Apple Watch's method for recording your HR.
 
No problem here. Much more reliable than my Moto 360 was - it always prompted "try again". Very rare that the AW can't read my HR. It is as accurate as the pulseoximeter at my doctor's office. Works in hot weather for me as well, sweaty or dry. I imagine there is some variability between people, though. I wear my AW just aft of my wrist bone. I notice some people wear watches over their wrist bone towards the hand... That would be incredibly uncomfortable for me.
 
I just had a annual physical Monday. The Dr.'s office read 69, my watch read the same. No problems here.
 
Agree with the others....take it back. Mine has never failed to show an accurate pulse.
 
Armen said:
Put the watch on, slide it up your arm (1" away from your hand) and tell me if the heart rate reading changes. That's exactly where I wear it when I go walk and it's always accurate. If I wear it lower and close to my hand how a normal watch would sit it shows silly numbers.
Click to expand...

This.

I used to have a horrible time with the HR on my watch but found that simply moving my watch up my wrist and the tightening it up just a "little" more than I would normally wear it will yield very accurate heart rates when compared to my commercial elliptical.

It is possible that the OP's sensor is defective but hopefully they will try this first.
 
Armen said:
Set up a genius appointment and take it in to the store. Something isn't right. Unless you have a dark tattoo on your arm :p
Click to expand...

I'm very tan, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
 
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