Just got a Coros Pace 2 and the HR numbers are way off

Cadence lock. Look it up. Coros is the best watch out right now.

no not really wrote:

Cadence lock. Look it up. Coros is the best watch out right now.

Thanks. Hmm, I'm already wearing it pretty tight, tight enough that when I take it off I can see the pattern of the watch band on my skin and I don't wear it too close to my wrist. I think I'll contact customer service and see what happens.

From a recent thread:

ViperDom wrote:

Your forerunners HR is not reliable.(or any wrist based HR for that matter)

Wrist based HR can be decent with a good fit and easy pace, but once you pick up the pace and the arms start pumping all bets are off. Intervals? all bets are Def off.

Another common fail of Wrist HR is that it can sometimes lock on to your Cadence. So your 180-195 readout when racing could have actually been your cadence.

I have the same 35 & similar 45 and use a Polar OH1 arm band which is way more reliable. I've compared the data of all to my Chest Strap HR (which is 99% accurate if setup properly) and the OH1 is pretty damn close while the 35 & 45 are clearly sub-par data that you would not want to draw any conclusions from.

Check out the arm bands.

Also, i'm curious, Why did you choose the Pace2 over the similar spec&$ Forerunner55 ?

and Did you go with the nylon or plastic band?

Get a chest strap or optical upper arm band.

My garmin 245 heart rate started going haywire 2-3 weeks back. I wasn't sure why but I think it has something to do with cold whether as it coincided with a drop in temps. I looked up the issue and found a reddit thread that said in colder weather, the blood flow to your extremeties was decreased and optical HR was just not accurate then. Who knows, but I never trust or train by HR, especially in the winter.

I’m a happy Pace 2 customer. When I *need* HR data, I use a chest strap. My Pace 2 isn’t that off, but it’s off-ness seems to come more in the form of some “bad days”. The majority of the days, my pace 2, Apple Watch (that I also wear anyway), and chest strap are all pretty close. On a minority of days, the Pace 2 is significantly off, by like 20-30 beats or even more. I can usually make out that it’s one of those days, but not always confidently without the Apple Watch or chest strap. My apple watch’s optical HRM seems more reliable to me in that it has inaccuracy but not these occasional wild bad days. I’ve also found that loosening and wiping the back surface and just tightening it back on sometimes brings it out of its wild mode.

That said, all optical HRMs will be less accurate compared to a chest strap, but if yours is consistently reporting far higher, you might have better luck exchanging it, if you can, for another piece and see if that works better.

Thanks.

So I contacted Coros customer service and they asked me to send in a bunch of data files. They were not able to reach any conclusion and said I needed to run with both my Coros and Garmin so they could see the comparison. So the one time I ran with both watches, the Coros HR was actually in the normal range and had the exact same avg. HR as my Garmin (130 bpm). Damn. For nearly the same exact runs this week (pace, effort) the avg HR on the Coros was 160-180, so it obviously malfunctioned the first 3 times I ran with it. These were all easy runs for me.

The main difference today was that it was warmer, about 55 degrees vs. 30-40 degrees for the other runs. I know cold can be a factor, but that would really suck if it can't perform reasonably well in 30-40 degree weather. Again, I'm not looking for perfection, just a HR reading that has some basis in reality, ~95%.

As for why I chose the Pace 2 over the Garmin 55, it mainly had to do with reviews I read, in particular DC Rainmaker and reddit. I really like the simplicity of the 35, but thought an upgrade would be nice, mainly for some of the more advanced features (e.g. race time predictor). The Pace 2 did really well in GPS accuracy tests and the battery life is supposed to be phenomenal. I'm sure the 55 is good, but nothing stood out to me in any of the reviews I read.

I was kind of surprised by the GPS measurement of my run today. The Pace 2 measured 6.38 vs. 6.30 on the Garmin 35. That's a pretty big difference, more than I would expect. I assume the Pace 2 was the more accurate one but I will see if I can compare my run to Google maps to get a better idea.

I think you’ll be forever frustrated trying to get accurate results from a wrist based watch. Too many variables that can throw it off and they are all prone to cadence lock for the first bit of a run.

I went and bout a Scosche Rhythm 24 and wear it on my forearm and it’s usually accurate, but it’s also OHR based and is subject to error.

Forgot to answer, I went with the silicone band.

You need a heartrate strap for the most accurate readings.

Coros Runner wrote:

Within the past week I bought a Coros Pace 2 based on all of the good reviews that I read.

I like the watch overall and the features, the GPS is accurate, but I am having an issue with the heart rate numbers while running.

I'm not looking for perfection, but the HR has been between 160 and 180 on all of my easy runs, whereas it should be somewhere in the 125-130 range based on years of data that I have. It's only been 4 runs so far, but I'm thinking this isn't a fluke. I can't even imagine what the HR number will show on a tempo run, probably well over 200. Is it possible I have a defective unit? It seems like most of the reviews say the HR sensor is pretty accurate.

On treadmill workouts I’ll take heart rate with one of those monitors that clip onto you’re finger and also reads oxygen level and it nearly always matches my COROS pace 2

I’m disappointed in COROS watches. I though I’d love them over the Garmin 245.

1)Takes forever to get the heart rate to start reading before you go to run.

2)workouts and designing them suck. On Garmin under rest or recovery you can select a distance range when building a workout. COROS only allows time or heart rate for the rest period.

3)when analyzing data after a workout you can’t filter out the rest or recovery time from the run time like you can on Garmin. On Garmin if you build rest or recovery periods in the workout you can filter them to get your average time, pace for interval portions. COROS you need a calculator.

4)COROS can’t differentiate from a 400m and 440yd track. It auto assumes your on metric track. There should be a way to select 440yd track if that is what you are on.

It also can’t calculate distance and on the track. On a 440 yard track it laps 1 Mille like 20 meters past where you started. On a 440 yard track 4 laps should be exactly a mile.

Pros-

Data looks awesome on your phone app.

Able to create a workout from your phone at the track instead of having to build it on Garmin connect on your laptop