bblair

I have correspondence started with Wahoofitness, but am wondering if anyone else has seen this. After a short time, my HR display fluctuates over a very short range, no matter what the effort. At first I though, do I need to go to the ER? I tried the usual wash the strap, wet the contacts, short and reinstall the battery, etc. But sometimes works, sometimes doesn't

The graph below explains it better that I can with words. Red is elevation and blue is heart rate. Very hilly and difficult ride of 65 miles and 5800 ft of climbing. All at no change in HR!

Bald Paul

How old is it? Mine quit after 3 years, I think. I just bought a new one.

Iride01 

Old strap? Might be time for a new strap. With both of the Garmin straps I've had, one of the things they'd do when they started going on the fritz about the 5 or 6 year mark, was to show me with a HR very steady like that. But it would be over 200 bpm. Though on mine it'd only be for about a 10 minute time period once or twice during a ride that long.

If you regularly on that ride did something you normally would have a much higher HR for and you weren't getting blurry vision or feeling faint, then you are probably good health wise. However I do make the disclaimer that I'm not a medical professional and you should seek medical advice from a medical doctor or other medical professional if for any reason you suspect a problem.

bblair

About 7 months old. The battery has been replaced once, although they claim a one year life.

I am in contact with Wahoo via email, but you know how that goes. I send, they reply and ask for more info, I reply with same info.....and so on.

Iride01 

If you email Garmin support, it's the same thing. Takes days and days to get over the initial "is it plugged in?" type responses. However if you can call them on the phone, what might take days or weeks in emails can be over and done in 5 minutes.

So call if you can... it'll be worth the wait on hold.

Caliwild

Mine did the same thing. Put in a new battery and it's working fine now... Worth a shot.

Bah Humbug

My original TICKR lasted forever. My second died before killing the battery and I went back to Garmin.

I had left Garmin HRMs over short lifespans. Who knows anymore.

chaadster

I had a Tickr go wonky with inaccurate readings after about a year-and-a-half of use. I’d see both periods of impossibly HR readings, and other periods of HR readings stuck impossibly high.

I tried battery changes and confirmed all was up-to-date with the Wahoo app, but could not resolve the issues.

Next I contacted Wahoo support, who asked for a purchase receipt, but I couldn’t remember where or how I bought it, and didn’t want to waste time and miss ride data, so I just bought another, new TICKR.

It’s very disappointing to have a Tickr fail so early, as previous HRMs from CycleOps and 4iiii have never failed yet in periods approaching 10 years.

I still have that wonky Tickr and would like to have it working, so I’ll follow along here and see if there are any solutions.

scottfsmith

My first TICKR went wonky after about six months. After trying all of their ideas without any improvement I got a warranty replacement. My second TICKR worked flawlessly for maybe six months but is starting to flake out more frequently now. It will often take awhile on a ride before it kicks in, reading far too low before that. Occasionally it reads far too high, and sometimes it gets stuck at a certain number which I can sometimes fix by jiggering the strap. I'm glad I have my Apple Watch so I can verify its the TICKR and not my ticker that is out of whack.. HR of 220 this Monday was something perfectly normal on my Apple Watch.

I found that cleaning the probes with soap and water usually fixes the issues for awhile on my current TICKR.

I decided to get one of these fancy Fourth Frontier ECG straps as the replacement for these flakey TICKRs but it is currently unable to synch with my BOLT... the BOLT low energy bluetooth is not interfacing correctly with it. They hope to fix that but so far no go. Not sure what I will do if that is not fixed soon as my TICKR is probably not going to last much longer.

bblair

Got an email this morning saying they will replace.

Fortunately, I bought it online via the Wahoo Store, because if I got it through my LBS the receipt would be long gone.

Since no HR data for today, I am just going to assume10,000 calories, which just about come out even with tonight's brats and beer.

scottfsmith

Good to hear. I have found Wahoo to be super for warranty replacements. My BOLT v1 recently had the temperature/altitude sensors flake out and after a bit of Q&A they replaced it .. with a v2, pleasant surprise.

I got the BOLT at my LBS and had no receipt, but I went back there and they looked it up and re-printed it. I think the last receipt I saved was five years ago so it is good they know how to do that now..

bblair

Which I guess is a reason to actually register purchases. I don't always do that due to concern of unsolicited emails and ads, but probable a good idea for just this reason. I have an email account that I use for just this kind of stuff.

force10

Definitely worth considering registering. I had to send send back 3 Garmin HRM's that were doing the same thing before I got a reliable one.

eduskator

+1, warranty claims are easy.

Jack Tone 

I've had the original Tickr for years. It's worked perfectly. Yesterday, after reading this thread, went for a ride and it was stuck on 2bpm.

Edit: Funny thing is that for a split second it would flash 75, then go back to 2. Did that about 3 times. I washed the strap and put a new battery in. Will try again.

clichty

Same issues here with me. My old one was stuck at 180 when I paired with my Bolt however it worked fine when its on Zwift. Ended up getting a new one for outdoor biking and just relegated the old one to the pain cave where it still seems to work.

zacster

It would take mine about 15 minutes of riding and then suddenly it would start recording properly. It didn't matter for outside because the rides were long enough, but indoors if I'm only doing a half hour that would be half the time I'm riding.

Cdst

same thing happened to me. Very close to 120 regardless of my true heart rate. I changed the battery, updated the firmware, cleaned the terminals on the strap and crossed my fingers. The next two rides it was different but still didn’t match my HR from my watch. The third ride after the firmware update it was spot on again. I didn’t change anything else between the rides. Kinda weird but it has been working for about 2 months now

bblair

I thought of that too, but couldn't figure out how to update the firmware. No alerts or indicators on the phone app. Should have the new one for this weekend.

Jack Tone 

[QUOTE=Jack Tone;22598327]I've had the original Tickr for years. It's worked perfectly. Yesterday, after reading this thread, went for a ride and it was stuck on 2bpm.

Edit: Funny thing is that for a split second it would flash 75, then go back to 2. Did that about 3 times. I washed the strap and put a new battery in. Will try again.[/QUOTE

Checked it today. Seems to be working OK. Wahoo utility on phone shows firmware number, but I don't see any way to update?

bblair

Just to put a finish on it: the new TickR arrived in 2 days. Paired and works great. I did have to reset my HR screen on the Wahoo Elemnt, but all is good.

blacknbluebikes 

Thx for the followup, makes healthy threads. I, too, have found Wahoo support to be quite respectable.

rsbob 

Had a similar issue with my Garmin HRM where it was stuck at a ridiculously low BPM. Got a new strap and problem solved.