mgreer wrote:
BungleJapan wrote:
Is the transmitter unit dead or the strap?
Both. The strap would die first. I used the Polar straps as the replacement and they would last longer (I thought they were more comfortable as well). My experience with the transmitter was that they would die after about the 2nd strap and aligned roughly a couple of months after a battery replacement. Might have been some user error with the battery replacement and not getting it sealed well, but IMO, the Garmin HRM battery lid and the 4 tiny screws is a pretty awful design. Give me an idiot-proof twist to open/close design like on the TICKR any day of the week.
Except for the fact that for o-rings in order to properly compress them to seal require quite a bit of force pushing down on them and that is probably why they have the screw design. As convenient as an easy twist open close design is unless you are able to crank it down with enough torque you won't get enough compression to seal as well as using several screws. That is probably why a TICKR is only rated water resistant 5 feet and the older Garmin HRM's with replaceable straps/batteries are rated up to 30m (or almost 100ft) depth.
I have the older Garmin HRM and replaced the stock soft strap with a HRM USA branded on and it works so much better than the Garmin one ever did with spikes and high readings. I'm hoping that it is easy to source an replacement o-ring for these things for the next time I replace the battery (only have replaced it 1 time and have had mine for nearly 7 years).
Food for thought. I also have a Vivoactive HR with the optical and find that is a chore to turn on Ant+ only transmit mode for HR when cycling (I use an Edge 520 when riding). Why it won't also transmit HR in BTLE I don't understand since it used that to pair with my phone. I've also noticed it will randomly stop transmitting HR and I just went back to using my Garmin HRM with soft strap when riding. I thought about buying one of those Scosche Rhythm but the wife gave me the Vivoactive as a gift so I never bothered.