Garmin Heart Rate Strap

Hi All,

I have a Garmin 310 with a Garmin Heart Rate Strap. It all works well until I get too cocky in the swell and have a swim. Once I'm back on board my HR either drops to zero or about 50 beats. From this point on the HR is useless and anything I try to recitify it gets me nowhere. I always use a gel on the strap and it works perfectly unless I take a swim.

Does anyone else have the same problem?

Yep, exactly the same issue. With mine it's even worse - if I get hit by a wave e.g. going through the shore break, same thing, it stops working.

Sometimes it'll recover half an hour later, but usually it's out for the duration.

Very annoying.

Never noticed that, and I tended to swim a lot at the start.

On to my second strap as they do wear out, plus keep an eye on the contacts of the module on to the strap as they can get coated in salt/corrosion a little sand paper can help

Gave up on using it. You need a special paste to put on the contacts to get it to work properly against your chest, I never bothered. They even gave me a new strap to no avail, they should have sent me the goo!

I had similar problems with 2 straps. First time it went wild I thought my heart might be screwing up. This past year I called Garmin about it and they sent me their latest version and it has been flawless. The "new" one looks a bit different and is marked R and L to make sure it is put on properly. Don't have a heart problem after all.

If you want to try a new strap, get yourself a Polar Wearlink Chest Strap, they are heaps cheaper than the Garmin straps (most cycle shops can get them), you just need to trim the plastic a little around where the sender unit clips in with a sharp knife. I went through a few straps for awhile then eventually replaced the sender unit (that was the main cause of problems I would occasionally get) and it came with the new Garmin strap which looks quite different, that was about a year ago but I have not had to use the new strap since replacing the sender unit and have been using one of my old Polar Wearlink Chest Straps. No problems since. I have never used any gel.

I've been seeing this problem every since I switched to the Garmin soft strap (the one with the the L and R and the snap-on transmitter). As soon as is gets doused by wave or immersion, I lose the signal indefinitely. Even conks out on particularly sweaty erg work-outs. Contacts look fine. Eventually dug out my old Garmin hard strap, which never had any such problem in 3+ years of use.

I've got a 910 and had the same trouble with the newer HR strap (the one that snaps on). My HR would go up to 200bpm.... kind of off putting when I was on my road bike.... Anyway I went to a shop and got the old HR strap which has no connections. The guy thought I was mad downgrading to the old one (one piece), but I have not had any trouble since.