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With my first Garmin Edge 305, I got the cadence and heart rate accessories. Cadence is still humming along, but the heart rate monitor has been not accurately reporting heart rate over the past couple months.

Two battery changes and various attempts to wet the contacts and my skin beneath have not resurrected the reliability of the heart rate monitor strap.

Do you all have any further suggestions to try to get the Garmin Heart Rate Monitor working properly again, or is it time to just bite the bullet and buy a replacement heart rate monitor strap. If so, another Garmin-branded one or a different ANT+ heart rate monitor?

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What does it do when its inaccurate? Have you tried thoroughly washing the strap to remove (conductive) salt residue? – Daniel R Hicks Jan 31 '12 at 4:07
Given the battery changes, if you haven't washed the strap, try doing that, first with soap and water, then wipe with isopropyl alcohol. If you get no different response, replace the strap. BTW, I recently had to replace my Edge 305 because the PC drivers were blue screening my Win 7 PC. If you use the Garmin software at all, you might consider an overall upgrade. In addition, they've changed the design f the Garmin HR strap, so if you do decide to replace it, it will be with the newer soft strap, not the same as your original one. – zenbike♦ Jan 31 '12 at 4:49
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What exactly does inaccurate mean? Too low a number? Too high? Sometimes works, and sometimes not? – zenbike♦ Jan 31 '12 at 4:50
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@zenbike Inaccurate in the fact it's way too low, both the realtime reading, and the average as a product of that. I'll try cleaning it as you both have suggested. – Keefer Jan 31 '12 at 12:31
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Maybe you're dead? – lawndartcatcher Jan 31 '12 at 15:48
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2 Answers

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Given the battery changes, if you haven't washed the strap, try doing that, first with soap and water, then wipe with isopropyl alcohol. If you get no different response, replace the strap. BTW, I recently had to replace my Edge 305 because the PC drivers were blue screening my Win 7 PC. If you use the Garmin software at all, you might consider an overall upgrade. In addition, they've changed the design f the Garmin HR strap, so if you do decide to replace it, it will be with the newer soft strap, not the same as your original one.

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up vote 1 down vote

It might not be the case here, as it states that problems have been for months, but last summer I had a similar problem, except that the belt was working perfectly. The problem was caused by overtraining and my body was not able to give more than 165 bpm at maximum effort.

A few rest days solved the problem. After that I paid more attention to rest and food intake directly after the ride.

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Yeah, this isn't the case for me for sure. My heart rate was saying 100 bpm average for hard workouts. – Keefer Feb 2 '12 at 16:52

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