Are there.any known issues that could possibly send my heart rate from 160 bpm to 221 bpm in literally 1 sec this happens when on the bike or running, im 59 years old and if it was 221 id be dead
My (somewhat educated) guess is that it has nothing to do with Zwift, all Zwift should do is display the value it receives from the HRM. Can you pair your HRM to another device, and check the numbers that you get there?
Normally when I see 221 it’s a case of the HRM is not reading my HR. Depending on the actual HRM it could be multiple issues.
- Optical HRM on arm. If mine shifts off of the arteries, I get 221
- Optical HRM on arm. If it’s too cold (not an issue this time of year), my arteries have a bad habit of disappearing, I get 221
- Chest Strap. If it shifts, I get 221
- Chest Strap. If I don’t moisten it prior to the workout, I get really odd numbers
Can you pair your HRM to another device, and check the numbers that you get there?
sounds more like the Hr strap issue than zwift, i have had wahoo tickr straps decide to stop working or give extremelty low or high readings
Which HRM do you have?
Hi thanks for reply, I have polar chest strap, not had problem before I have it connected to garmin aswell and it gives correct hr for effort
When is last time you’ve replaced the battery?
A very steady voltage is required for HRMs to function correctly. If the battery is nearing end of life and throwing out erroneous data, that could be a culprit.
Changed it a week ago, went running out side with no issues, it’s just on zwift run and ride.
Are you connecting via ANT+ or Bluetooth?
If you have the ability to switch either or, what happens then?
In that case, sounds like something is getting confused or a bad signal once in a while.
As a weird comparison, I have some LED lights under my rocker plate, that will for some reason accept my HRM’s signal, and start flickering. Doesn’t happen every time, but happens once in a while.
Or it is indeed just spitting out erroneous data. Like Wahoos have been struggling with disconnects the past year or so, and would spit out a 2000w spike… which we can’t get rid of on Zwift.
Every other platform that accepted the data like Garmin, Intervals, etc. all ignored the spike, but Zwift for whatever reason has it locked in forever now (yes I’ve contacted support, they said they’d remove it, and several attempts of asking later I’ve given up).
Just wondering if it’s one of these scenarios where Zwift seems to lack filtering; where things like Garmin has at least some limited form of filtering.
Only last two things I can think of that you personally can deal with:
Check and clean the strap as best as possible, ie cleaning off all the salt buildup and just properly giving it a thorough washing.
Make sure you put in the correct battery; Polars use a CR2025 (not CR2032)
Only other comment is, after a quick google, seems it’s not totally uncommon with Polar straps. Lots of folks on internet either said cleaning helped, or had to warranty claim, etc.
Ty for your input I’ll give it ago, regards
I have replied on your other post. There are medical conditions which can cause your HR to jump from 160 to 220+. Hopefully it is a faulty HR monitor but do get yourself checked over.
When your hr is elevated (outside of exercise) beyond your normally expected level try taking your HR manually. Is it easy to count and rhythmical ?
Or is it difficult to count because it is irregular - get yourself checked out.
When I saw 220 on my HRM it turned out I was experiencing atrial tachycardia and required medical intervention but that’s a common maximum number for HRMs and the cause can be completely innocuous because the HRM is simply confused for some reason which may be technical rather than medical. My arrhythmia was mostly resolved with a cardiac catheter ablation and the remaining occasional lumpy beats are not fixable but not dangerous. Once the condition really developed it became very obvious that something was wrong because my heart beat felt like a cat in a dryer, but many people do not notice when they are in abnormal rhythm.
Sorry to hear that, it must have been very scary. The thing is I have my garmin running at the same time and it was giving me a reading off 170 my actual max is 186. My real concern is that it will mess my training sessions up as zwift now thinks I have a max heart rate of 226 sorry thought it was 221 but I just checked again
Ah I missed that part where you said it’s normal on the bike computer. What are you running Zwift on and are you pairing via Bluetooth or ANT+? I would want to try pairing it via whichever protocol you are not currently using to see if you get a different result, and upload a log file to zwiftalizer.com to see if there are disconnections. Whether those are options depends on what you’re running the game on.
You can edit the max HR value on your in-game profile so the reported HR zones from workouts will be right, but obviously that’s not a solution to the underlying problem and won’t prevent it from an erroneous update in the future.
Personally I have two HRMs (Garmin HRM-DUAL and a Coospo HW706). The cheap ones are so cheap these days, and they are generally quite good despite the low price, it might be worth picking up an alternative HRM. Since you already have a chest strap, I would pick an optical arm band as the alternate. It’s so convenient that I almost never use the chest strap any more.
I’m currently running Bluetooth, I’ve tried running ant+ but it doesn’t work very well for me, I might give it another go just to see, to be fare I was thinking about an arm monitor but I didn’t think they were any better than the wrist monitors I might get one just to see.
Personally, I would say that the arm monitors are better than the wrist monitors, but still not as good as a chest monitor.
If you have the ANT+ dongle on an extension lead, you can try positioning it in different places to improve performance.
You can also upload log files to zwiftalizer.com and it will tell you the RxFail % for ANT+, which will never be zero but lower is better and you can use that to guide the positioning of the dongle.
ANT+ is also vulnerable to 2.4GHz WiFi interference, especially on channel 10, so if you can eradicate any 2.4GHz devices or switch to a different channel for 2.4GHz, that can also help. More tips on ANT+ in this article and video:
Update, have had high heart rate fo 2 days now after rramp test and then running a fast 10 miles had pain in chest but ran through it, been to doctors had ecg, im now at hospital being monitored for AF, and suspected heart attack whilst i was running so maybe the HR monitor was right at 226,
Steve, really sorry to read about your heart issue. Hope it was just AF, no heart attack and it can be corrected and/or controlled.
Posting here can help others understand that it may actually be your heart and not a faulty HR. Took me best part of two years of very intermittent issues and a 2nd HR monitor before getting identified as possible Atrial Tachycardia, still ongoing.
Follow doctors orders and I’m sure you can be back with regular exercise soon.
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