Waterproof HRM

goochinator
goochinator Posts: 383 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Any suggestions for a waterproof ( for swimming) Heart Rate Monitor that also has a GPS?

Replies

  • skinnyrev2b
    skinnyrev2b Posts: 400 Member
    Bump...
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    If you want pure swimming, Garmin does make a Swim watch. But any of the watches won't do well outdoors as they have a hard time keeping the GPS lock when swimming.

    If you want an HRM with GPS that you can take swimming, the Garmins are all waterproof. I've got a Vivoactive which has a swim mode, but I've not tried it as it is still too cold to swim here.
  • singletrackmtbr
    singletrackmtbr Posts: 644 Member
    Garmin has a bunch of different choices. Almost all have GPS and are waterproof. They make a chest strap that is designed for swimming and will give you swimming specific metrics when paired with the watch. This is outside of my expertise so I couldn't tell you exactly what that information is or what the general swimming community thinks of it. Good luck!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Garmin Fenix 3 + HRM-Swim. Works great.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Garmin Fenix 3 + HRM-Swim. Works great.

    Does it work well outdoors?
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I'd say so. Here's a picture of the Fenix 3 (on left wrist) and HRM-Swim (chest strap) in use at the Desolation trailhead.

    27720419040_bfdfd3a267_o_d.jpg
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited March 2017
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I'd say so. Here's a picture of the Fenix 3 (on left wrist) and HRM-Swim (chest strap) in use at the Desolation trailhead.

    But does it track your course and calorie burn well? I'm under the impression that swim gear works well in a pool when you can tell it your lap length etc., but is less useful out in the open in that the GPS doesn't work well. If I'm wrong, I'd be interested in knowing and might even pick up the chest strap.

    Thanks.

    ETA: and it looks like it doesn't pair to the VivoActive HR, even though both are Ant+
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Well, HR isn't a magical key that unlocks the secret of your body's calorie burn, so this will work as well or poorly as any other system of guestimating calories from HR. But from a standpoint of judging the effectiveness of a swim workout, recording HR while swimming and then having a time-in-zone chart is very useful.

    The motion sensor in the watch tracks stroke rate (like cadence). Works well. Generally fairly well correlated to HR.

    Fenix 3 has acquires GPS very quickly, if it knows where to look for the satellites. Every time the watch comes out of the water, it gets a new GPS fix. There's programming to make tracking work as well as possible for a wrist-worn unit.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    Might be why the VAHR isn't listed as compatible. Might not be as good as the Fenix for picking up the sats.

    Thanks. Hope the discussion helps the OP.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Yeah, it's not just that the HRM-Swim (and HRM-Tri) chest strap is waterproof. Water blocks radio signals, like ANT+ and Bluetooth.

    The straps have a memory, they store your HR while you're in the water, and then send the complete HR history when you save the swim activity. So the watch needs special programming to be able to retrieve the HR data, merge it back into the activity, and then recalculate calorie burn from HR.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    My Garmin 920 tracks my course well, or at least well enough so I can't tell that it's obviously off. Pair it with a swim-appropriate chest strap and you'd be good to go.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    Might be why the VAHR isn't listed as compatible. Might not be as good as the Fenix for picking up the sats.

    Thanks. Hope the discussion helps the OP.

    The HRM-Swim uses a "store and forward" approach to data collection, due to the need to account for the inability of the short wavelength radio to get through more than a few centimetres of water.

    The VivoActiveHR is a budget device.

    Essentially the top end devices are what's needed; 735XT, Fenix et all.

    The issue around GPS is that the GPS signal also doesn't propagate well in water, so the location tracking data aren't reliable. There are approaches to resolving that data quality issue but it's a fairly fundamental issue with the physics.
  • jenmarrs429
    jenmarrs429 Posts: 45 Member
    The VivoActive is waterproof and can track pool swims, but won't do well tracking an open water swim. For that, you need a higher end device as mentioned above.
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