I’ve got a Garmin Fenix 3. (not HR). Generally pleased with it. But the altimeter has gone crazy lately. I’ve recalibrated it and i’'ve tried to clean up those two little holes on the side, it keeps on being crazy. At first it was just adding on extra elevation but now it’s all over the place. I ran along a river the other day, probably had around 20 meters of elevation total, it gave me over 300, all of them well below sea level.
Anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions on how to fix this?
garmin altimeters die after a while - sometimes quickly, sometimes many years.
there is a diagnostic screen garmin support will be able to tell you how to access which will confirm if this is an actual dead altimeter
My fenix 5 does this. I just use elevation correction on GC.
Did not know about this, thanks. Looking around now, but - can this be changed, so that elevation correction is the default setting?
Annoyingly not. Because connect ‘knows’ your fenix has elevation it tries to use that.
Is the temperature also haywire? If so then it is a dead unit. If it’s just one then may be you can ‘clean’ by leaving it to soak in a glass of warm water for a while.
I’ve got a Garmin Fenix 3. (not HR). Generally pleased with it. But the altimeter has gone crazy lately. I’ve recalibrated it and i’'ve tried to clean up those two little holes on the side, it keeps on being crazy. At first it was just adding on extra elevation but now it’s all over the place. I ran along a river the other day, probably had around 20 meters of elevation total, it gave me over 300, all of them well below sea level.
Anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks,
-Charles
go to garmin connect and use the ‘support’ tab on it
I’ve had issues and my new Garmin is being sent to me as we speak…
Wow, what a coincidence. I came to Slowtwicht to check if someone was having the same issue and your post is first on the screen.
It looks my barometer is dead as well. It doesn’t show any change in elevation or pressure. It’s a refurbished unit that Garmin sent to replace my original Fenix 3. Still on warranty, I’ll ask Garmin to replace it.
Anyways, I’m wondering if upgrading to 935. I had a Fenix 5 when first Fenix 3 died but it was completely awful. GPS went miles wrong in the middle of 100 miles rides… I read somewhere the metal cover of the watch could affect GPS positioning
Mine is doing the exact same thing. I’ve tried to clean it and it didn’t work. I’ve been having to adjust every single workout manually. I noticed that this happened right after Garmin pushed through an update a month or two ago. I haven’t contacted them yet. However, I’m going to now.
I had a brand new FR 935, and burned out the altimeter after 4 months of regular use. I attribute this to pool swimming 4-5 times per week based on what I have read on other posts online. Seems like people who pool swim 3-4 times per week eventually burn out their altimeter after a while. Garmin asked me to soak my 935 in warm, soapy water and then try to clean the small hole on the back which is where the altimeter is. This didn’t work; they sent me a replacement. Now I try to rinse off the back of watch in the shower after each swim with a little soap.
I had the similar issue, contacted Garmin and replaced. There is a sequence to validate if the sensor is dead, if so, send it to Garmin before 1 year, they replace it.
Here is what i had from Garmin:
Checking the Baro Test page while the Forerunner 935 is in Test Mode, with these instructions below.
To access Test Mode:
Power off deviceHold the Down keyPower on device (still hold Down) to put in Test ModePress the Back key 8 times
The Baro Test screen will show with values (see picture below).
The barometer is likely broken when any one of the following conditions are true:
Valid? says Not ValidLocal Pressure does not fluctuateLocal Altitude is off by 10,000 feet (3000 meters) or moreBaro Temp is more than 50
If just one of the bullet points are true, the barometer is broken.
Easy enough in GC to enable elevation correction. I assume it uses existing GPS/Survey data. On the good side, I got an extra 200ft of climbing! The issue with barometric-based altitude is that in the high-ish mountains out west, the temperature drops rather significantly, especially above 6 and 7000 feet.
I had the same problem happen, in the day or two after Garmin released the new 945. Coincidence? I think not. I contacted Garmin support and they said for $130 they’ll replace the unit. Thoughts on whether I should push them to do it for free (or something less, like $50)? Has anyone had success getting it replaced for free?
My unit is a Garmin 5S sapphire, that I bought second hand over a year ago so I’m guessing it is at least 2 years old. That means its out of warranty, right?
I had the similar issue, contacted Garmin and replaced. There is a sequence to validate if the sensor is dead, if so, send it to Garmin before 1 year, they replace it.
Here is what i had from Garmin:
Checking the Baro Test page while the Forerunner 935 is in Test Mode, with these instructions below.
To access Test Mode:
Power off deviceHold the Down keyPower on device (still hold Down) to put in Test ModePress the Back key 8 times
The Baro Test screen will show with values (see picture below).
The barometer is likely broken when any one of the following conditions are true:
Valid? says Not ValidLocal Pressure does not fluctuateLocal Altitude is off by 10,000 feet (3000 meters) or moreBaro Temp is more than 50
If just one of the bullet points are true, the barometer is broken.
I was able to do this on my Fenix 3. AFAICT, I passed - not sure what to make of that. i just soaked the watch in soapy water and then walked across a soccer field and back - it’s got me gainig 9 meters then losing 30 over teh course of a 200 meter walk…
I’m going to say no on your case. I had my Garmin Vivoactive HR die recently due to it deciding to not be waterproof anymore. Unit was over 2.5 years old but am the original owner.
Garmin only offered me a replacement refurb until for $120 or 20% off any new Vivoactive line. I did ask if I could get a deal on another line since I was thinking of going back to a Forerunner like a 735 or a 235 initially. Best they offered me was $60 off any other Garmin product not in the Vivoactive line.
In order to get the $ off the new/replacement unit they charged me full price then would credit back once I sent them back my dead watch or not ship the new watch until they received my dead one. Ended up deciding on the new 245 instead with the $60 off that I convinced them to give me. But still had to pay out of my own pocket shipping of the dead watch back to Garmin to get my credit (had them ship the new one first because I didn’t want to wait another week). But they processed my credit same day my dead watch was delivered to them though.
But I do have some buyers remorse because this was a week before prime day I bought my watch with Garmin directly. Noticed that 645s on Prime day deals were only $30 more than I paid for my 245. At least I don’t have to worry about an altimeter breaking at least since the 245 doesn’t have one.