Garmin 405 not measuring correctly?

I haven't read the whole thread. My Garmin 405 is very accurate when there are not any turns, pretty accurate with some moderate turning but the pace feature is worthless. Garmin knows and is working on a fix.

Garmins are worthless on the track.

I finally broke down this summer and bout the 405, my first GPS watch (I'm generally very anti-gadget). For almost $300 I'm still not sure I got my money's worth.

On the positive side, I like having it for long runs because I can just go out and run 16 miles, for example, and I don't have to sort out the course before hand. GPS is going to get me close enough to 16.

On the negative side:

The pace calculator does not seem to work unless I'm running in the wide open without any overhead obstructions. If I'm running a tempo run at 6:15 pace and enter a wooded area, it will tell me I'm runing 8:30s, for example. That does me no good.

It's practically useless for fartlek intervals because I don't trust that's close enough on 1/2 miles intervals, for example. I'm just as well running hard for 2:40.

And the worst thing is that it seems to go bonkers on warm days when I sweat a ton. Sometimes I've stopped the timer to wait at an intersection and it won't start again unless I remove the watch and wipe it down.

Are you talking about the "current pace" thing? That has long been recognized to be damn near useless. In every version of the ForeRunner. Don't even bother with it. Instantaneous, accurate pace is simply not reliably possible.

Change the "current pace" field to use splits/laps instead. You should be able to set it to report more frequently than just one mile.

Another thing I've learned is that for running, I disable the Auto-pause function. Force yourself to manually start and stop the ForeRunner when you come to stop lights and such. You already should have years of experience doing this with regular watches so it should not be anything but a natural movement by now. Auto pause is too easily affected by coverage.

Finally, set one of the fields on one of your screens to show you the current accuracy. Anything over, say, 80 feet will give you less accuracy. I find that most days, my 205 quickly gets down to around 20 feet. When it's around there, I know it's dead on. Conversely if you are running and this number soars, you know you have coverage problems and consequently can take the measurement values with a grain of salt.

I am in the same boat as you. My first GPS.

It has more pros than cons in my limited experience.

Yes, under humid conditions, the thing trips out. Crazy.

I may have a simple solution for your pace problem.

You need to set your watch to give you mile splits every mile. I believe you have to be in workout mode for this to work effectively. The watch will actually calculate-based on distance traveled- what your estimated mile time will be for each mile thereafter. This is neat because you can view what your end mile will be from any point out before that mile distnace. Don't be confused and think you are viewing your current pace because you are not. I found this to be accurate.

For the poster that mentioned it being useless on a track. Why is that? Is it the 4 turns?

Yes, I am talking about "current pace" - sorry for being unclear. I have mine set to report the pace at each mile, and I think this is fairly reliable. Even if the current pace is way off, the mile split will come in close to what I think I'm running. I used it in the Falmouth Road Race and it was darn close.

As far as starting and stopping, I do have it set to manual. But twice in the last few weeks I've stopped it and when I pressed it to retart, nothing would happen. It was very frustrating. When I took the watch off and wiped it down it worked again.

I got a 405 the day before boston and have used it ever since and i think its great. i have had the sweat/rain problem with the bezel on the watch and with the button not working sometimes. I've found if i lock the bezel then I usually have no problems. While it defaults to current pace I quickly found that that was useless and I changed the setting...i have two setting depending on the workout (just tap to swap between the two)1 setting shoes lap pace, total time and distance and the other just shows lap time and total time which i use when on the track.

I use the 405 which has been very accurate for me. Since it is using a satellite feed, a straight line will work better than multiple curves / turns.

RunDaddy wrote:

As far as starting and stopping, I do have it set to manual. But twice in the last few weeks I've stopped it and when I pressed it to retart, nothing would happen. It was very frustrating. When I took the watch off and wiped it down it worked again.

Well that's odd. Don't have that problem with my 205. Wonder if it has anything to do with the new bezel control on the 405. I am actually fairly happy with the 205 and think I will stick with it. It is larger, true, but it holds a charge longer, has a bigger display, and has the multi-sport mode that the 405 inexplicably lacks.

Yeah the bezel...while a cool idea...isn't really that great. Locking it prevents some problems but causes others like you can't change turn on the light and if you still idle for too long and watch switches back to clock mode you have to unlock to get back to the menus...

I've found the charge on the 405 to be fine i can easily get 2 days worth of doubles in without a charge maybe more...but i've never had a 205/305 to compare. The 405 does have the multisport mode but i've never used it so again don't know how it compares.

I have the 305 and it's perfect. Exactly on for wheeled courses. Of course that's not why I purchased it, I wanted to be free to run in any direction when doing long runs and also to be aware of total distance on tempo or fartleks.

As far as the track it's right on there as well. To the poster who asked why someone would wear it on the track: bc they want their heart rate numbers!

I can't comment on the 405 but I can comment on the polar 800sd top of the line model. Do not buy a polar they have horrible products and customer service.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average.

So, at 15 meters and 5:00 pace we're talking about 3 seconds per mile....4 seconds at 7:00 pace.

Garmin's statement about their device being accurate to within 15 meters doesn't mean it is accurate to within 15 meters PER MILE. It means that for determining your current location, it is accurate, on average, to within 15 meters. And that fact alone tells you almost nothing about how accurate it is in calculating distance.

dukerdog wrote:

Garmin's statement about their device being accurate to within 15 meters doesn't mean it is accurate to within 15 meters PER MILE. It means that for determining your current location, it is accurate, on average, to within 15 meters. And that fact alone tells you almost nothing about how accurate it is in calculating distance.

While I do not dispute any of what you say, I have found in practice that when the accuracy reading is around 20 (I think it's feet, might be meters), I almost always hit a mile split within 3 seconds of the true mile marker. This is on the Boston Marathon course so I trust the mile markers.

BostonSweetLou wrote:

The 405 does have the multisport mode but i've never used it so again don't know how it compares.

Not according to Garmin's own documentation:

Thats interesting...maybe i'm not sure what they mean but multisport then...i know it can be used while biking with a cadence sensor.

No offense, but what is the issue if you are on a track? That is a 2% error, not bad for a GPS the size of a wrist watch and cost a couple of hundred dollars.

I have used my Garmin on a track and I just adjust the splits to be accurate.

Multisport mode does not refer to using the unit for things other than running. It refers to using the unit in competitions, in which you are performing more than one sport while the clock is running. Like a duathlon.

You set up a sequence of sports (e.g. running, then cycling, etc) and then start it. Then, as you are going along, each time you hit the "lap" button, it switches to the next sport. It can be set to automically include transition periods as well. If you have "auto-lap" turned on, it will still record those laps as well.

If Garmin could just make the thing truly waterproof, it would be perfect for triathlons. But for now it's simply not ready for the swim. So when I do a triathlon, I turn the unit on and leave it on my bike. My multipsort begins when I get out of the water and start T1

Ahh thanks for the info, sorry of the confusion. yeah theres no way in hell the 405 is waterproof...its water resistant and thats even being kind especially if you dont have the bezel locked. Someone must make a gadget for triathlons, right?

My Garmin didn't work right, I wound up just returning it. I would do measured loops to test it out, it was fine in the city, but on trails it was WAY off and trails were really what I wanted it for in the end. So I returned it (luckily got a full refund). Plus the pace indicator NEVER worked. It would always tell me I was going 13 minute pace, then I would pass a mile in like 6:45 (on the watch, mind you) and it wouldn't adjust at all. I hated the thing, I just use my old watch again.

Oh, and not to mention the time that I did a 10 mile loop with someone who had a garmin, his said we did 10.6, mine said we did 9.7. Uhhh what the fuuuu