this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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I and my family have had Garmin's like the venu line for years and I am in the hospital all the time. I've tested mine against the polar h10 and multiple medical tests and during times of Hospital stays for lengths of time. Mine has always been accurate and within a beat or two in the heart rate and a single percentage or 2 on pulse ox.
Garmin has fantastic customer service. Perhaps updating your device, or contacting them for an exchange would be worth while. All their watches I have had, seen, have been accurate. I'm not refuting what your saying just trying to give my perspective.
You can also set to track every second vs the default smart tracking every few minutes. Switch wrists as everyones vein layouts are better or worse to get a reading, keep it snug but not tight and not loose the sensor shouldnt indent your skin. Hope any of this helps. Don't settle for subpar results or experience. They make good equipment IME.
I didn’t try actually contacting customer service about it but from talking to other people it has to do with how the watch moves around during exercise that gives the false readings. If I just sit still and compare to a pulse oximeter it stays pretty close but if I am biking or walking around the values change drastically. Then for some reason while when I sit down or lay in bed my heart rate is around 65 it says my resting heart rate is in the 50s
It seems like a reading issues rather than a hardware issue. Try placing the sensor on the inside if your wrist where the skin is softer and veins are more prevalent. Also play with the tightness and fitment location up or down a little. Go to settings turn data to gather every second. Update the hardware and apps during syncing with phone or wifi. I know mine can be off under vigorous fan biking where your really thrashing your arms. But it's fairly accurate any other time. I'd like to note the resting heart rate also appears to be an average of sleeping and awake values as an average. I've noticed mine doing that same thing. My resting us regularly in the mid 50s with slight variations.
If you do intensive exercises or more moving than otherwise a watch on your wrist could reasonably keep up with. I highly recommend pairing a Polar H10 (roughly 100 usd) strap to your garmin and that's hospital/lab grade accurate. Pairs right to the watch and nothing else is needed, syncs the data accurately and to connect app as usual. 400 hour battery life, adjustable, comfortable. Check it out. Good luck.