Product Review: Garmin Forerunner 50

Update October 2009:The Garmin dried out and works now. But, the chime no longer beeps, and I like to set a 20 minute timer to remind me to drink my nutrition. I also like the timer for doing strides. I contacted Garmin, and since I got it wet for more than the recommended 30 minutes, it is not covered under warranty. The cost for repair will be $39. Bluh, wish I had known it was not waterproof.

Also, since it got wet, this device now spikes my heart rate when I am near power lines. Totally sucks, as that is one reason that I replaced my old Polar in the first place.

One more thing. The Garmin can only store about 6 hours of data. So, if you are doing a really long bike ride or race, you will get a ‘low memory’ warning at 5 hours. That message covers up the timer display, so you wont’ be able to see your time any more. How Annoying! No good for an ironman race, for sure, not even if you are a pro. haha!

Update September 28, 2009: I wore the Garmin 50 in a half iron race.  The swim lasted 38 minutes.  When I exited the water, the buttons didn’t work.   There was water under the lens.    I just read the manual and found out that it is only good for 30 minutes of continuous swimming.   Crap.   It works now, 1 day later, but I still see water under the lens.  I wrote to Garmin support, but I doubt it’s covered under warranty, since I wore it longer than 30 minutes.    So, don’t wear it in a race, or any swimming is my recommendation!  I guess I will take the batter cover off and let it dry out.

Update September 20, 2009: Here are a few more notes about the Garmin 50:

• it does not work in water.   the timer does, but the heart rate signal is lost
• if you stop on your bike, and go into a gas station to buy water or to pee, the watch loses connection with the bike cadence sensor.   then when you start riding, it won’t pick up speed or cadence data the rest of the ride.
• the fix to the above 2 issues:   when it loses connection to a device (hr or bike), just hit the mode button four times.  That scrolls thru timer, history, time and back to train.  that tells the Garmin to search for devices again.  Thanks to a reader who gave me that tip!
• speed and cadence data is not accurate for the bike.  it seems to count speed and cadence as zero when stopped for traffic lights and such.  The autolap feature doesn’t seem to work, it just randomly creates a bunch of laps.  One time the watch ran out of memory because it had created so many laps.    So, I try to just remember to hit stop and then start again whenever I stop at lights.
• When I do hit stop at traffic lights then start again when i get going (on bike or run), the timer on the display correctly shows the right time, not counting the stops.  But when upload the data to Garmin Connect or my BT logs, the total workout time includes the stops.   That really sucks.     I did a 9.2 mile run in 1:29.   I was so proud to beat 1:30 on that route.   But my BT log and Garmin shows 1:31 because of stops.    I asked in a BT forum, and the Garmin 305 and 310 don’t add the stopped time.  That’s good, because someday I do want to upgrade, and was hoping to be able to be able to use the same HR strap and the bike cadence computer.
• The heart rate strap causes major chaffing on long runs (2+ hours).     It’s right where the little coin slotted battery cover is.   My Polar HR strap NEVER caused any chaffing.     I tried a  bandaid over the battery cover to see if that helps.  It didn’t.  Maybe it’s the edge between the hard plastic and softer plastic that’s doing it.  I am in the middle of ironman training, and my runs are only going to get longer!   Will update as I figure it out.
• Still, you can’t beat $50 for great overall heart rate data.  I do love the graphis I get at Garmin Connect and the BT logs.
• Oh, one more note.    Took me a while to figure this out.    To change the display of the smaller bottom numbers, you press and hold ‘View’.    For a long time,  I thought you could only change the top numbers (by simply hitting ‘View’).

Original Post written July 25,2009:

My four year old Polar Heart rate monitor finally died.  For a long time, one of the buttons was un-pushable, so I could not see the split timer.    Last month, another button completely cracked off.     I got alot of use out of that old Polar, but it was time for a replacement.

Money is tight for me right now, so I did alot of Googling to find a good cheap basic heart rate monitor.   I ended up choosing the Garmin 50 so that I could upload my data to the BT website.    I got it at Walmart.com for just $50.     Even though it’s a Garmin, it does not have GPS. It’s just a basic heart rate monitor.    It’s a great little device.

Garmin 50 Available at Walmart.com for $50. (Click Image)

In a nutshell, the device is comfortable, has all the functions I need, and allows me to upload my workouts to my BT log so I can see my time in zone data.  And I get some nifty heart rate charts at the Garmin Connect site.  I’m really enjoying that part.  I have already learned that I am running and biking too slow on my long workouts, spending most time in Zone 1, when I should be pushing it a bit harder to Zone 2.    Slacker!

It took me a while to figure out how to use it.  But I remember it took me a while to figure out the Polar when I first got that too.  Just have to RTFM!

I included some pretty graphs for you to look at.    Below that, I listed some Pros/Cons/ and Issues.   Enjoy!

Here is the “Time in Zone” chart I can get from the BT site.  This is from a 32 minute run where I did 60s hill repeats.  Most of the time was in Recovery, which is okay for that particular run. I did push myself up into the Zone 4.   I should have hit Zone 5, but really did not.    Altho, it is hard to get into Zone 5 in 60s…my heart rate doesn’t respond that fast.

For the same run, here is the HR graph from Garmin Connect.    Note how the heart rate jumps up during the hill repeats.

Pros

• Comfortable on wrist
• Cheap!
• Has a timer  that you can set to beep for doing intervals.  My polar did not have that.
• HR data seems accurate.  I’ve only gotten one erratic heart rate spike of 209 bpms.  My old Polar gave me high spikes every time, making the max HR number useless. I assume this comes from power line interference.
• Can upload to free Garmin Connect website to store workouts and view graphs.

Cons

• There are only two displays on the face of the watch, and you can change one of them.   One shows total time.  The other can be changed to show heart rate or split time, or if you have the bike computer attachment, you can also show one bike data there, such as cadence, speed, etc.    I really like to see heart rate and split time.    I miss that.
• The buttons do not make a beep sound when you press them, unless you have the “Chime” feature set to “On”.  But then the watch beeps every hour, which seems like a waste of battery power.

Issues

• The workouts are classified as “Other” unless you are using the optional Footpod or GSC 10 bike speed/cadence attachment.    This caused an issue with uploading the workouts to BT.   I ended up buying the GCS 10.   That solved the problem for bike workouts.  I figured out a workaround for Run workouts by manually editing the files that are stored on my computer, changing one string at the top of the .tcx file from Activity Sport=”Other” to Activity Sport=”Running”. That did the trick and only takes a second.
• When I paired the GCS 10 to the Garmin 50, it lost the pairing with the heart rate monitor strap.    So, then I had to re-pair that.   Then it lost the GCS 10.   Even tho the manual says to only pair one device at a time, I ended up having to pair both together.  THEN, it lost the ANT stick USB device.    So, I had to pair all three of them.   Oh, and you have to have the HR strap ON while pairing, so it picks up a heart beat, and you have to spin the pedals on your bike, so it picks up speed from the bike, while pairing.   A little bit of a pain, but once you figure things out, it all works great!
• The ANT stick is easy to misplace.    So I put a brightly colored keychain on it!

Notes about the GCS 10 Bike Computer Attachment

• This device is really nifty.  It’s a wireless sensor that you attach to your rear chain stay of the bike, along with two magnets.  It then sends data to the Garmin 50 watch to record and display cadence, speed, average speed, max speed, average cadence…all that good bike data!
• The bike computer keeps recording data even while stopped at traffic lights and such.   So, it is reporting an average speed that is much lower that my wired bike computer (2 mph slower on today’s 70 miler)    There is an Auto Lap feature on the Garmin 50 that I have to explore.
• I took two pit stops today.  The first one, the bathroom was locked, so I only left my bike for a minute.   When I took the 2nd pit stop, I went into the store, peed and bought some water, so it was a few of minutes.  The Garmin 50 lost connection to the GSC-10 during that time.  I had to stop and save the workout, and restart to get it to pick up again.   I wonder what the timeout time is for that to happen.