A day or two ago, someone posted to Slowtwitch with an issue where they were getting chaffing issues with the Garmin soft strap, to the point of the skin being red and raw. This was primarily in the area of the front transmitter pod (near the little plastic piece).
With the Garmin soft straps there are actually two editions of soft HR straps depending on what year you bought them. In 2010 they started producing a slightly different variant that reduced issues with spiking/dropouts and made it such that the plastic no longer touched your chest – but rather was on top of the fabric. You can see all the Garmin straps below:
And while you may think this is a Garmin strap issue, it actually isn’t. In fact, it doesn’t just affect one-Slowtwitcher (there were others on the thread with the same issue) – it also affects two rather important folks. Me, and The Girl.
In my case, I’m not always wearing a Garmin strap – for example, the last few weeks I’ve been wearing a Polar Wearlink strap – but it’s still been happening to me. Now the oddity here is I can’t actually figure out why it happens and doesn’t happen. Sometimes I’ll go months without an issue, and then other times it’ll take all of two runs to be rubbed the wrong way. As you know, I’ve got literally dozens of HR straps to choose from – and no amount of swapping straps seems to fix it. But yet, one day – it’ll simply stop.
The Girl meanwhile has less tolerance for being rubbed the wrong way, and simply devised a brilliant solution that works for both of us. And, since that puts our success percentage at 100% – I figured I’d share it with you.
But the best part? It only costs a few cents and seconds to implement.
See, she simply applies a small Band-Aid. Though not to her – but rather, to the strap.
She places it longwise along the bottom – wrapping both over the top, and over the edge of the fabric. After all, it’s the fabric part that does the scratching/rubbing/chaffing – not the plastic piece. You can see below how the plastic pod just ever so slightly pushes the fabric edge outwards – against your skin.
This Band-Aid will last a rather surprisingly long time. Like really long – weeks, sometimes months. Assuming you apply it while dry and let it sit for a short bit before first use. After that, you can make all the sweaty mess you’d like and it seems to stay there just fine.
Note that you don’t need to put Band-Aids around the entire strap – just the part with the transmitter pod. I suspect it’s because the pod slightly pushes down on the strap and into your chest. And again, this applies to other ones as well. In fact, The Girl actually uses a CycleOps strap/pod most of the time. And over the past few weeks I’ve been using a Polar strap.
As for the exact type of Band-Aid used, they just came from one of those random travel packs of them. We have one that says ‘40 items’ in it. However, upon super-close examination it looks like these are the specific Band-Aids we’re using for this purpose. They’re a water-resistant one, and clear as you can see above. I’m sure other brands of water-resistant ones work well too. These are just the ones that happen to be in our cupboard. I’m sure your local drug store has them cheaper and in smaller quantities than the 30 pack for $3.
Now there are other solutions as folks have suggested – including some various forms of lubricants, Body Glide, or even just washing the strap to get rid of the salts. I’ve tried the Body Glide (which helps some), and washing (sorta helps).
But perhaps others have suggestions as well – feel free to drop them below, I’d love to hear them!
And of course, as a general public service announcement, if you’ve got heart rate strap spiking/dropping issues – check out these three past posts (especially the comments in the third one):
- Troubleshooting your HR strap issues Part I
- Troubleshooting your HR strap issues Part II
- An interim solution using the Polar strap with the Garmin transmitter
Thanks for reading all!
Leave it to a woman! She is SO smart! Thank you!
Sarah
http://www.thinfluenced.com
Glad I am not the only one having this issue.
I have opened a post on a running forum asking for help and these were the most popular tips :
- Tighten the HRP to stop it from rubbing on your skin
- Vaselline or bodyglide
- Some people have reported results by sliding the sensor so its on their LH side with one electrode in front one side/backish. I even read people putting the sensor on the back. Apparently the HRM still works
– Loosening the HRM and lowering it a bit
- Put some athletic tape on your skin at the spots where there is the chafing
None of the above worked, I shall try with your tip and report back.
– link to i.imgur.com
Note that in my case the chaffling occurs on the sides of the sensor. Have a look at what my chest looks like at the moment – warning, it’s an Italian male hairy chest with abrasions
(BTW English is not my Language and I would love to be able to edit my comments to get rid of typos)
Thanks for advice. Have the same problems on long runs. Especially with standard garmin HR band, chaffing with premium band is very reduced (though still happns – especially when it is hot and humid).
I have additional question… One of the screws holding together the HRM is damaged. Three can be unscrewed without a problem. I need to change a battery, but dont want to break or damsge HRM. Its actually not so cheap. Garmin shop just offered me a new strap for 60 eur
My chafing occurs on the sides of my body, rather than in the front where the pod is located. Nothing seems to help, but I’d love to hear if anything is working for others.
Thanks for that Ray! I actually ended up bleeding down my white run short during 13+ mile run one Sunday. I have been wearing the classic strap now for the last month and it is just starting to heal up. For me it only happens with so-called Premium strap. Can’t wait to give this a try.
I’ve used duct tape for this same purpose myself (and yes, I’ve been rubbed raw/bleeding before I finally found this solution). Duct tape is cheaper than bandaids too!
I use Duct Tape, in the same fashion. I swear to you, it works, and stays longer. Maybe you use band aids for a sprint, but Duct tape for 140.6
Incidently, duct tape is also awesome on the inside of shoes that cause blisters! 
Thank you, Miss Bertie! You rock!
I’ve been using BodyGlide for this exact problem, and while it works, my HRM strap eventually just gets gunked up, and Garmin says that actually dropping the strap in a washing machine is a no-no. With BodyGlide, the strap also tends to slip around and give me nonsense readings after a while, so this tip is golden.
I was having this problem also, but fixed it by getting a Wahoo Fitness HRM.
I was having terrible problems with the Garmin misreporting HR, tried a few different tricks and finally gave up on it when I discovered how difficult it was to get the screws out of the battery cover.
The Wahoo Fitness model has none of these problems. It cost more, but I thought it was worth it for something that is reliable, doesn’t irritate my skin and easy to change the battery.
I had the same problem and at first used Bodyglide, etc…
I TOTALLY solved the issue using a Polar strap instead of the Garmin one.
By the way, the Polar strap seems to be more “resilient” to sweat, etc and avoid the “fuzzy HR” which sometimes happens using even the latest “premium Garmin HR strap”
I’ve been wraping my strap with athletics tape. Its just a mather of “bending” the edges of the strap away from your skin. I also had a problem with hair being slowly removed because they where caught between the strap and the sensor.. OUCH!
Has anyone tried wearing the strap upside down?
Aye. Half the heart rate and still rubbing. So didn’t work for me.
Only happened once. The strap was looser than normal. I tightened it a bit more and the chaffing disapeared.
Easy one!
This was a timely post as I had pretty well given up on wearing a HRM on the run portion at Ironman Canada next week. Sadly I tried the bandaid on a short one hour run yesterday and the chaffing seems to be just as bad. Oh well, I’ll wear the HRM on the bike and just go on perceived exertion on the run I suppose! I’ve had similar issues with the classic strap and the newest strap.
Thanks for the tip.
Got this problem as well after switching to the latest Garmin “premium” strap. I have been using the previous versions for more than 5 years with no problems at all.
Using tape on the chest works – but Yesterday I tried putting the tape on the HRM instead and it ended up bloody after a 12K run. Seems like a design flaw to me.
Will try with duct tape.
I came up with a more durable/washable fix using a piece of mouse pad. Picture here: link to tinyurl.com
Wow…that really worked. I was going to skip the HR sensor for Rev3 Cedar Point this past weekend. I still have the wounds from previous use (wondering why these are so slow to heal).
I decided to give the band-aid a go for the race and it worked like a charm.
Just wanted to say thanks for this tip. Have been using it since the original post and it works like a dream!
Long time reader and finally going to comment- used the same waterproof bandaid after this post through months of rinsing, 2 halfs, and a full IM without any chafing or bleeding. My scar from the last 2 years is still there, though! Can’t thank you enough!!
Glad to hear it helped!
I *knew* you’d have a solution for this — used my 910xt for the first time w/ HRM yesterday, and have a nasty ‘tatoo’ from the strap rubbing. Will definitely try this before I run tomorrow. Thanks, this blog is the best.
Since I have both the newer Garmin strap lying around as well as the Polar strap – if the newer Garmin strap helps with the spiking problems then is there any particular reason you still use the Polar one? I will admit, the Polar one feels “nicer” – the Garmin one still feels a little cheap.
First of all, I really appreciate your great website!
I’m a happy owner of a garmin 310xt with a heart rate monitor. However, I have the chaffing issue a lot. First of all, I’m undure of exactly where to wear the device. The manual says “just under your breastplate” or something like that but I’m unsure what exact body part they’re actually refering to (I’m not a native En speaker). I get the issue when putting it under “pectoralis major” – right under the main chest muscle where I would guess it should be. If I move it to under my ribs, I have no problems. However, I’d like my data to be as reliable as possible, still.
Would you mind posting a picture of where it should be? Or maybe show it on an illustration?
Thanks very much. I’ll keep reading your site!
- John
I just switched to the newer Garmin 910xt after using the Forerunner for 3 years and I have the worst chafing under the plastic chest piece! No amount of body glide, repositioning or flipping the strap upside down has helped. I’ll try the bandaid or duct tape tricks! NEVER had an issue with the old strap!
First hit googling, “garmin heart rate monitor rubbing,” with exactly the problem I’m having, and what looks to be a perfect solution. Thanks for posting! It almost seems so obvious I probably wouldn’t have thought to write about it, but I’m glad you did.
After 30km / 18 miles yesterday I have a red scar across my chest from the HR belt. Not so great.
Thank you for the solution – I found waterproof tape in the bathroom link to i.imgur.com
Picture taken with vintage Nokia E71 from .. 2005
That was brilliant!!! My chaffing was where the sensors are on the new “comfort” strap which is a horrible name for such a torture device! Needless to say it was very, very painful. Thanks for sharing. That worked like a charm.