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!
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1 2 3 … 7 Next »I use RockTape and because it holds up during sweaty sessions, like the Band-Aid, it's worked like a charm!
I have been wearing Garmin chest straps for ten years and have this year developed the red painful rash directly under the strap. First happened with brand new swim compatible and then with every other one I have, Tri and running. This rash makes it impossible to wear a strap as the rash will last a week.
I have tried washing and or soaking old straps but same rash reappears. So I went to my GP Doc who is a multiple Ironman man finisher with a ton of experience and quite matter of factually states, you have been where them a long time so you deleveloped a serious latex allergy and there is virtually nothing you can do at this point.
So if any one has the same condition and has found a work around would love to hear it as I train with heart rate.
Thanks,
Pete
I always keep the transmitter separate from the strap when I'm not using it because I thought that was supposed to preserve the battery. Is that wrong?? So I would have to reapply a bandaid every time. I have this chaffing problem on almost every run. I have tried Body Glide but it always seems to mess with the connection because my HR data is way off.
Thanks for the post. Way down the road and I'm trying to figure out how to track hr and heal the raw spots from my Garmin strap. I plan I trying several if these ideas. Would be nice if the company would have a go at improving their product though.
I stopped using the HRM on my F3 because of this problem after regular red weals across my chest. I did try fiddling with tape and plaster for a while but in the mornings I just want to get out of bed and run, not perform enthusiasm destroying surgery first. Like others I'm curious why Garmin hasn't redesigned the strap. I never had this problem with Polar which seems to have softer edges. I did try a polar strap with the Garmin sensor but could not make it work consistently or correctly even though others claim success . Saying all vendors have this problem doesn't really show customer service. I'd pay extra for a strap that worked and didn't cut me. .
Can you use an old style sensor with a new style strap?
I have been trying to find the appropriate place to post my question. I have an old style HRM strap from
wahoo and the readouts are very wonky. Sometimes I'm dead, sometimes my HR is double what it should be. I read where you said that the sensor rarely goes bad so it is probably the strap. I changed the battery first but that didn't work. My strap/sensor is like the "older soft strap" in the pictures on the post. I've seen Polar straps and even a Cats' eye strap for sale but the snaps are not on separate ends of the strap but embeds in the strap.
i've been getting torn up off, and and mostly on, for years. i've tried to wear it backwards and it doesn't work for me. i've tried adjusting the tightness of my sports bra, the tightness of the monitor strap, can't seem to find the right formula. the best thing for me so far is using medical tape in the bad spot. just a 2" x 2" strip. it's gotten to the point where i need to use two pieces cuz the pod/strap slices through one layer. i still have times where the normal 'bad spot' is fine, but it will chafe me in another spot, it's ridiculous. i'm going to try the band aid and duct tape. also note, as per garmin, we are supposed to take the pod off from the band after each use to help prolong the life, so new band aid or duct tape will be needed for every run. thanks for the posts everyone!
Thanks for this tip. I never had a a problem with my old 305 for years and years. My Fenix is rubbing me crazy. Thanks again - looking forward to trying this out!
I don't get it. It is 2015. I learned of the problem yesterday after running with my new Garmin. I have very deep slices in my skin, one of which already looks infected. Based on this series of comments, Garmin knew about this problem for several years. Why are we still dealing with it? How long does it take an engineer to design and test a new strap? This is irresponsible on the part of Garmin.
It's really not unique to Garmin though, it happens to pretty much all HR straps equally these days.
Looking at their software and its quality, or lack thereof, I don't think we can expect any decent QA from Garmin. Software or hardware.
I actually tweeted garmin about the monitors and the suggested wearing it backwards. I questioned if it would still work but it was kindly pointed out that your heart beats can be felt in both sides!
Yes, it generally works.
I can't believe no one else has commented on this - did this work?? I think my problem is that the plastic bit of the HrM has to sit under-ish my sports bra, and the two sort of combine to rub me raw. if I could just spin it around, though...