Question
Do you recommend that I purchase the latest Garmin Chest HR strap even though Forerunner 945 supports wrist based HR?
My set up:
Old Garmin Forerunner 920xt and old Garmin Chest HRM that supports ANT+ only.
My Plan
I am considering to finally upgrade to Forerunner 945.
Considerations:
As most of us I train indoors as well as outdoors… I use wahoo KICKR with Zwift for indoor cycling and True Treadmill / Zwift Run / old Garmin foot pod for indoor running.
I don’t think that wrist based HR from 945 sends a separate HR bluetooth signal for zwift on iPad to detect.
I have the 945 and still pair it with my wahoo HR monitor. The couple times I have forgotten the chest HRM the optical HR is way off. I used to use a Scosche optical HRM and that worked well but the 945 optical is no good for me. Might be different for you though. Best thing to do is to test it out and see.
I do believe you can send HR data to Zwift directly from the watch. I forget what it’s called though.
Maybe… I have a 945, and its HRM is very good (for me). I still use a Scosche Rhythm+ 2.0.
I am one of those fortunately people for which wrist HRM generally works well. I got a few hiccups with my old 735XT, but the latest HRMs in the 945 and 945 LTE have been flawless for me. I still use my Scosche because I just trust it more, but it is probably not necessary.
No, a 945 wrist HRM will not rebroadcast in Bluetooth. It only rebroadcasts in ANT+.
EDIT: The 945 got an update a while ago that enables BT rebroadcast of HR.
If I were you, I would get the 945 and see how it works for you during your workouts. It may be great, and eschewing a separate HRM is very freeing.
I still use an old chest strap with my indoor trainer, because I often forget to bring my Scosche to the basement (or leave it there and cannot find it).
I have the 945 and still pair it with my wahoo HR monitor. The couple times I have forgotten the chest HRM the optical HR is way off. I used to use a Scosche optical HRM and that worked well but the 945 optical is no good for me. Might be different for you though. Best thing to do is to test it out and see.
I do believe you can send HR data to Zwift directly from the watch. I forget what it’s called though.
There’s a setting to “Broadcast HR†and if you turn that on you can pick it up in Bluetooth. I use it for indoor cycling.
Edit - I was wrong, I use an Ant+ adapter to pick up the broadcasted HR
I wanted wrist based to work and sometimes it’s very good, others it’s lousy. I went back to the smelly salty strap a few weeks ago, joy.
Wrist heart rate is getting better, particularly with the newer watches. However, the 945 is older generation so appears to have more limitations as a result. I use heart rate from the wrist when I am not too concerned with accuracy, use a strap other times.
BTW, straps are only smelly and salty if they are not cleaned properly each time after use.
I wanted wrist based to work and sometimes it’s very good, others it’s lousy. I went back to the smelly salty strap a few weeks ago, joy.
BTW, straps are only smelly and salty if they are not cleaned properly each time after use.
I have been using straps more or less daily since the first Bush administration. I have washed them zero times. How often should they be cleaned, in geologic time? Maybe mine is due.
Wrist-based optical works good enough for me for steady-state efforts, but then again so does RPE. For short duration intervals and anything over threshold I use the chest strap.
I have not had great luck with Garmin straps though, they seem to start going wonky on me after 2-3 months of near daily use. Polar straps last much longer and I can replace just the strap when it wears out.
No, a 945 wrist HRM will not rebroadcast in Bluetooth. It only rebroadcasts in ANT+.
This changed in early 2020 in their beta firmware. Pretty sure it’s been fully rolled out for a while as I’m recording HR in Xert on an old iPhone (no ANT+) from my 945 using the inside bike profile.
BTW, straps are only smelly and salty if they are not cleaned properly each time after use.
Yup.
Every second use I wear my Polar Chest Strap with the actual unit snapped off of it into the shower, and I give it a good wash in there.
Agree with others. Wrist is getting better, and Polar has one of the best wrist sensing units built into their watches, but it will never be as accurate or consistent as a chest strap!
Question
Do you recommend that I purchase the latest Garmin Chest HR strap even though Forerunner 945 supports wrist based HR?
My set up:
Old Garmin Forerunner 920xt and old Garmin Chest HRM that supports ANT+ only.
My Plan
I am considering to finally upgrade to Forerunner 945.
Considerations:
As most of us I train indoors as well as outdoors… I use wahoo KICKR with Zwift for indoor cycling and True Treadmill / Zwift Run / old Garmin foot pod for indoor running.
I don’t think that wrist based HR from 945 sends a separate HR bluetooth signal for zwift on iPad to detect.
Added bonus - it’ll even rebroadcast an external ANT+ HRM over Bluetooth. Found this out when I had my 945 plugged in to charge and could see the OHRM was off but I was still seeing data in Xert.
What you want is the Virtual Run profile on the 945. This will transmit HR and footpod data from the watch over a single bluetooth channel to Zwift, etc. https://support.garmin.com/en-AU/?faq=pyniXQfLiu3BS1yKFlLn36 This is really useful, as running multiple sensors over bluetooth can exceed the channels available on your ipad/Apple TV/laptop, etc.
The 945 now supports OHR while swimming, although some people find wrist slap as your arm enters the water can hurt accuracy.
There are still a few advantages to using a chest strap:
calcuating LTHR requires the HRV data that only a chest strap can provide. Same also with respiration rate during activities.
OHR sensors are not as responsive to sudden changes in HR as a chest strap. If you want to track HR during say, sprint intervals, a chest strap is still the way to go.
But these advantages are still available with your older ANT+ strap.
The reasons to get the new HRM-PRO are pretty niche:
download and store HR data later if your watch and strap are separated eg. swimming, contact sports. (Although this is available on the old HRM-TRI ANT+ strap also).
multiple BT channels if you are trying to record on multiple devices eg. executing a TrainerRoad workout on your phone, while running Zwift on your ipad for visual entertainment
TL;DR, keep your old strap, use Virtual Run on your 945.
That is great. So, virtual broadcast would transmit over blootooth? This is important to me as I am retiring my old apple powerbookpro that has a USB port into which I stick the ant+ thing. So, I am getting rid of that laptop and instead want to use zwift on iPad or iPhone so don’t want to mess with Ant+ while indoors anymore.
So - new question - I saw people say here that 945 is old technology. I thought it was the latest Garmin they had. What is the latest then? I need a triathlon watch that will last ironman distance.
Yeah the 945 can effectively act as a bridge between an ANT+ HRM and something that supports Bluetooth HRMs. I’m running HRM-Tri (ANT+ only) → 945 → iPhone (Xert) without any issue (generally). The 945 needs to be recording an activity, but I do that anyways so the Garmin metrics get data.
The 945 is the newest of its series, but it’s also been out for ~2 years which in normal times means it’s due for a replacement soon. With the 945LTE having come out relatively recently (although with a newer OHRM I believe) and general COVID related product release delays, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the 945 continue to be the newest watch in its series for longer than it historically would have been. If you need something that can last ironman distances in Garmin land it’s the 945 or Fenix 6 for the newest models which is more of a style/weight consideration than anything else. It’s a good watch (as was the 935 that preceded it) and most of the improvements are likely to be metrics/maybe OHRM related than core features would be my guess.
Thank you. One more question: do you find that 945 captures pace correctly on its own? I still use Garmin footpod for indoor speed detection but Garmin does not make those anymore so should it go bad I will not be able to replace it. And it is ant+ only.
I don’t do much treadmill running, so I’ve never gotten a foot pod. It seems like it’s still possible to find the Garmin ANT+ one and if you couldn’t find that one, there’s always Stryd (which does a lot more than the Garmin one).
Once calibrated to the treadmill(always use the same one at my gym), my 935 tends to be withing 1% of the treadmill on steady runs and 2-3% on interval days. That’s well within treadmill error
For me, the wrist based HR measurement also seems good, so I don’t wear my chest strap on runs.