Which HR monitor is correct?

[GrasB]

I have 2 ANT+ heart rate monitors. One reads higher than the other one but it's really only noticeable once my HR is over 120bpm but from that point the discrepancy builds quickly. Is there an easy way to work out which one is correct or more accurate?

 

[Svendo]

Measure manually, I find carotid artery easiest and suitable time piece like, I dunno, the timer on a HRM ?

 

[GrasB]

My little problem with that is 175bpm to 115bpm in 39 seconds making the manual sample system less than useful.

 

[Svendo]

In that case might I suggest your glamorous assistant does it while you maintain your high BPM, although in this case I'd recommend the femoral artery as the easiest !

Seriously I dunno, which do you trust more (I'd be tempted to assume it's the more expensive!)

And how did you find out? were you wearing them both for a laff one day? I thought of doing this when I put my Garmin heart strap through the cool wash by mistake to see if it was still working, but didn't need to in the end. (It does still work BTW, Kudos Garmin!)

 

[GrasB]

Both are Garmin deluxe straps so not a meaningful difference there. I first saw a discrepancy when I left one at work so used the other one & oddly got a noticeable difference in HR ave & max for a similar effort level. I then tried both at the same time using different reporting devices, that was fun & games getting it all set up & working. That showed a real difference between the HR recorded when my HR started to rise.