Why's my HR Monitor Playing Up?

[Intelligenthamster]

I have a CatEye HR-10 heart rate monitor, a few months old, which is a useful bit of kit. On Friday I strapped it on, and it kept reading over 200 bpm plus en route to Summer Lightning. For en route, read in the car, quite relaxed as I like driving and I know the way very well. Could have been interference from car electronics, except problem persisted throughout ride!

Normally when riding I know when I am hitting the 180+ mark as that is when the legs are burning, I am puffing and I have run out of gears .

Same problem again today,lowest reading 197 even though I was sitting at rest at the time nowhere near any electrical / electronic gadgets. Huh? Either I have a serious cardiac problem, or my monitor is playing silly B's.

So I check it later by the traditional, take-own-pulse-while-timing-minutes method. Monitor is out by 20-30bpm so all data about time in and out of optimum zone is bad data!

Anyone else had this problem, or any ideas what I do about it?

 

[chris42]

How far is the chest strap from the monitor?
Most will only be accurate under 1 metre distance. I reality this is nearer 80 cm

 

[Intelligenthamster]

Receiver worn on the wrist- I have just measured the gap, 18 and a half inches or 47.1 cm if you like things metric.

I don't know if it has anything to do with it but I have only had the problem while riding one bike out of my three, but bike has no computer or anything and it still doesn't account for the 197 at rest!

Weather on Friday and today has been very hot and humid after months of cool rain, possible factor?

 

[frog]

One of the department heads passed me at the traffic lights near work a few months ago. As we waited my HRM was clocking 225. Once the lights changed it went back to normal. I rang the bloke the next day and said he might have a poorly screened HT lead under the bonnet. During the chat he mentioned he had a Bluetooth device in the car and he normally kept it off but for some reason he had it running all the way home that night.

We did a check over the next few days and sure enough it was the Bluetooth gadget in his car. Well, that's one solved. Just need to find the other hundreds which send mine haywire

 

[Tynan]

it's your heart

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Ooh! My dicky ticker!




When my HRM starts playing up, it's the battery on the way out.

 

[skwerl]

you're not wearing a quartz watch on the same wrist are you?

 

[Andy in Sig]

It could be a few wild cardiac fluctuations preceding your untimely death.

 

[wherryman]

Hi, I have the Cateye HR200 and have the same symptoms - a resting rate of 226 and occasionally 72 while going uphill ! The bluetooth point is interesting - I will turn mine off for the next ride, however I have found that lack of sweat therefore a dry contact on the chest doesnt help as the problem seems to occur early on in a ride. I nearly sh*t myself first time out when it read 226 especially since I had just been for an ECG at the docs!

 

[thejonesy]

I'd try a new battery in the sensor strap bit first. Other problems could be spurious electrical signals (in the car), try wetting the HR sensor to get better contact with your skin, or other times I've had dodgy readings is when someone else is wearing a HR monitor nearby!

 

[Intelligenthamster]

Thanks for replies, sensible ones especially I will try a new battery, although the gadget is not that old I do wear the sensor on every ride (and any drive to or from the start) so it may well be past its best.

 

[wherryman]

Switching bluetooth off corrected my problem today but I also noticed each time I passed under electricity pylons the monitor read wrongly unless I really was down to 36bpm !

 

[yenrod]

Liverpool has an underground railway on a smaller scale than lardun. Was on it once and mine (HRM) was going crazy....

Makes you think twice when that happens..

 

[Jonathan M]

I noticed that my ciclosport HAC4 gets dodgy readings if the battery is on its way out, but also if i am cycling in a more remote area it get fluctuating readings - I've wondered if this is interference from the ubiquitous mobile telephone, and that as I get more distant from base stations, the phone has to give a stronger signal to maintain contact.

 

[yenrod]

I recall once the mp3 wire and the non digial belt buzzed once as I felt it !

It really did give me cause for

I noticed that my ciclosport HAC4 gets dodgy readings if the battery is on its way out, but also if i am cycling in a more remote area it get fluctuating readings - I've wondered if this is interference from the ubiquitous mobile telephone, and that as I get more distant from base stations, the phone has to give a stronger signal to maintain contact.