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Hi Ray, great advice. I was plagued with this problem which appeared to occur 2 months after purchase. I swapped my Garmin HR strap for a polar one and use gel (I too ended up with a massive tube unexpectedly). I have not had a single erratic reading since (honestly).
Hmm.. I was confused about this, because it’s never happened to me. But the winter is our rainy season.
“Holy Tube of Lube.”
I haven’t used that phrase since my last visit to the Adult Book…… Oh nevermind!
For a long time, I was looking for a solution to this very problem. Hair gel works great. Standard hair gel that you can buy at a drug store for a few dollars. It’s an excellent conductor.
Awesome blog. I almost went out and bought a whole new HR monitor for my Garmin, but then I did some research and found some information (including your previous blog on the topic) and I started wetting it. Works great!
Does this also help with the spikes caused by billowing shirts? On my bike rides this is my main problem. Early in a ride I will get sustained HR readings well of 200 bpm.
so that’s what you use your lube for ;-) I bought some of that buh-bump HR gel and its been sitting in my bag for years…
I’ve tried everything BUT the HR gel… so I finally decided I should splurge. Thanks for the tip on the Holy Tube of Lube – I should have enough to last till at least next season!
LMAO you’re set for life
Shame you can’t use it as bike lube!
Interesting that dry weather is part of the issue; I was just reading that someone’s theory is that the dropouts are caused by static. One recommended fix is to spray the inside front of your shirt with an anti-static spray. If you have a pump spray bottle and a bottle of liquid clothes softener you could make your own; a teaspoon or tablespoon in a cup or so of water. Another is greasing the front of the HRM; use a *minute* bit of petroleum jelly and rub it all over the front with some toilet paper.
Awesome Post!! I just bought the HR gel. My Garmin has been driving me nuts in the last few weeks, it keeps telling me my HR is super high (which it isn’t) and forces me to either slow down to a walk or ignore it. I really hope this works, but thanks in advance for the post!
You got some great articles here DC! I just thought I’d add something to this one – I found pure aloe as a cheap solution with my Garmin strap.
Very helpful, Ray! I think you showed somewhere else that you can use SportTracks to somewhat fix these problems. For example in a race last weekend where this happened I clipped all the HR data over what looked like my real SS heart rate of 157, then exported the TCX file for a more accurate TSS computation.
Funny I was also surprised by the huge tube. You can use a little snack size ziplock bag to keep just a bit of lube handy (like in the back of your SUV). Just squirt some in the baggie and seal that up. Could even tuck that into an underseat bike utility bag for when you’re reminded of this problem by seeing a wild HR reading.
Hello!
I have used 1 Polar and 2 Garmin generations of HR bands. All of them failed, sooner or later. All of them have had build quality issues. After reading the recommendations by Garmin, it was pretty obvious that the source of nosie in HR readings was static electricity. Dry air, tecnical garment, vs. moist, cotton, etc. all indicates that building static electricity between the external surface of the band and the body (and then releasing it suddenly), may create the spikes. I work with data acquisition from electronic sensors (not related to health!), and static is always an issue.
In October I bought my 3rd generation Garmin HR band (010-10997-07). I cannot comment on aging since I lost it a week ago at the gym, but readings seemed to be quite correct and stable (I am using a 910xt). The most noticeable aspect of this band is what looks like a static shielding, on the OUTSIDE of the band, that somehow is connected toa similar patch in the inside. In the instructions, you can read that you have to apply moist on both sensor pads AND the patch. It seems that you “ground” the outside of the band, with your body. I used it for a month without any problem. Does anybody has used this new band for a longer span? It is stable with time? In addition, It may suggest some fixes to old bands…
Cheers!
Hi Ray,
One of the things I really likes about the old Polar Training Peaks software was the ability to smooth/correct/edit HR after the fact… which let me get rid of spikes and drop-outs.
I haven’t used Polar in for ever… I blame that in part on you; in part on my Polar watch pins breaking out of the watch body… Garmin, here I come. But I can’t figure out how, or figure out if it’s possible to edit my training data (HR, for the most part… the GPS-derived speed, etc., I’m not so fussed about) once it’s been uploaded to Garmin Connect, or Strava, or…
Have you come across this? Any suggestions?
And hey, like most all of your readers, love your site.
–tim
Not easily. You can use some 3rd party tools like Sport Tracks and Training Peaks to do it (as well as Golden Cheetah, which is free and works best for it).
I believe a few of the tools I put up on the tools site can also do it, just with less finesse: link to dcrainmaker.com
HaH! You’re saying “not easily”!? Isn’t that a bit like Chopin saying “this next bit is a little complicated” or Bannister saying “we’re going to run the next 440 a bit faster”!?
Thanks for the link to your tools page. I’m not surprised you’ve addressed this before.
–tim
A bit. :)
I’d start with Golden Cheetah actually, it’s free and easy to crack open the file, edit values, and then re-export as a .TCX file for quick uploading to 3rd party sites.
What about wrist based HR monitors like the one in the Fenix 3? I am seeing unexplained high HR readings when it is cold out.
link to strava.com
I really don’t think my HR was 185 for that whole run. You can see the HR went up as the temp went down at the start of the run. This was a day with temps below 10F although I have seen similar things when it is warmer. But, I don’ think I see this in the summer.
Just found this article as I was looking for solutions for the HR readings on my Apple Watch (S6) being very sporadic since the temp has dropped. Will the HR gel work with optical HR sensors, or is only for HR straps?
Hi Sean,
On first blush, these are 2 different issues. Electrode gel is intended to improve the electrical connection/conductivity between a HR strap (or electrodes) and your skin, so that the sensors can pick up the electrical signal better. Optical sensors use visible light transmission and … I don’t know exactly how they work, wavelength/doppler shift would be my best guess.
You might try ultrasound gel, which is used for… ultrasound imaging, of course. So long as your Apple Watch is waterproof, this might help… but ultrasound isn’t visible light frequency… so it’s just worth a try, not a definitive fix.
I’m hoping you can help me with my HR monitor dropping out while I am using an ice sock during a race.
About 15 minutes into the race, my HR seems to drop down to resting, but that is definitely not what’s happening.
I only have this problem when using an ice sock.
Would the gel prevent this?
It’s a Polar H10 with a fresh battery.