Wednesday, January 28, 2009

it's not me, it's you

Another snowfall warning today, so not likely to be running outside.  This morning I did Jillian's 30 Day Shred, which I was going to follow up with a spin on the bike.  

Yesterday I purchased a bottle of the Heart Rate Mate, so I put some of the gel on the HRM's electrodes, strapped it on, turned on the Garmin... 255 bpm. Exactly the same as when I turned it on for my last run... It fluctuated slightly to 254, back to 255, so it's not the display.  I did a reset of the Garmin, hitting the mode and power button at the same time, answered yes to the prompt of loosing all my data, fine because all my workouts have already been synced, and waited.  It got through it's cycle, turned it on again, still the same.  Ok, doesn't appear likely that it's the Garmin unit itself, or me.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I changed the battery in the strap Jan 14th, which I blogged about here.  So I figured I'd remove the battery from the strap and put it back in... see if that does a reset of any kind... EWWWWW, EWWWWWW, EWWWWWW.

I opened the compartment for the battery, and the stench was horrible!  Maybe it wasn't my running clothes that smelled!

How can it get this corroded so quickly, and why?!  I'm pretty sure the strap is done, it appears pretty "rusted" inside.  I don't get it!  I closed the compartment tightly when I changed the battery, have been using the strap for over a year now, but this happens within the last 2 weeks?  Ugh.  At least now I know why the readings have been completely wack-o!

35 comments:

Bruce said...

your right it me its not you. Its always me.

Now you got me wondering if you got sweat so strong it corrodes batterys.

joyRuN said...

Would Garmin take it back? Now you got me hoping that I'd never have to replace my HRM's battery (which is impossible, of course).

Marcy said...

Oooohhh man Mel that stinks! I was going to suggest the same thing as Joy. I hear Garmin has great customer service!

Diana said...

My battery for my MP3 player corroded because I always "parked" it in my sports bra when I ran since it's on off brand and not the famous IPod which has all kinds of holders made for it. I had a huge red burn on my one boob for a week!! Talk about ouch! I can't believe I just put this info out there! Oh well, run on!

Pedalman said...

That stinks...When you changed your battery was there a seal between the cover and the base? I forgot to put mine back in last year and the same thing happened.

Heather said...

That sucks - at least you know what the problem is now! You must have some powerful sweat.

Kita said...

Oh darn...that sucks. Right in the middle of your heart rate training. bummer.

Marlene said...

yikes, wth!

i hope they'll replace it for you.

SuperDave said...

Ewwwwww!!!
haha

Blyfinn said...

I don't see how that is possible that it's that bad already. I think it must have been faulty. I'm try and sent it back.

Carly said...

That is messed up. I would at least attempt a call to Garmin. They really do have great customer service. I need to check mine out too.

My Life & Running said...

Definitely call Garmin (although could it be bad batteries??). My Garmin died at mile 15 during my first marathon. They sent me a complete new one...

My Life & Running said...

Oh - what I was going to say also is that the way the Garmin sits on my wrist, one of the gold "charger" disks always gets coated in grimey sweat. I have to be careful to clean it or it won't charge... weird, but I wonder if you might have a similar problem with how the strap sits on you?

BeachRunner said...

Bummer. But at least you know that is the culprit. Hopefully Garmin will give you a break or something.

Run Mommy said...

I have never seen that before! That is very alarming!

Marci said...

The corrosion is likely a combo of salt and heat from running. You are such a trooper with this HR thing, I would have given up long ago!

Lisa Slow-n-Steady said...

weird. i wonder how that happened.

Irene said...

Oh, Ewwwwwwwwwww!

Steve Schumph said...

Great blog Melanie and thanks for taking a peek at mine!!

Michelle said...

I would say call garmin STAT!!!!

This seems like the sort of thing that SHOULDN'T have happened!!!

Garmin tech support is pretty good!!!

teacherwoman said...

rusted. that sucks!

lindsay said...

wow! that's crazy. seems like you found the culprit at least. hopefully they will replace the strap for you!

MCM Mama said...

Definitely call Garmin. If they won't help, try cleaning it out with a cloth. We recently had a toy get left outside and corrode, but after cleaning it out and changing the batteries, it did start working again.

Good luck!

Sonia said...

Wow that was fast and it's totally not normal!! There must be a leak and it's causing the rust. Call Garmin, they will send something else to replace it! I know I would, these toys are expensive enough that they should last long!

Viv said...

OHHHH I was drinking my coffee. I don't want to even think about mine. I haer you can just buy a new strap and i have alos heard great CS at Garmin.

RunToFinish said...

HOLY COW, if mine gets corroded that quickly I will be muy piooozeed. That was a nice way of saying upset.

i mean isn't Garmin made to handle our stank?

The Lazy Triathlete said...

Thats strange. I have been using my for over 18 months and I have not any real problems. It sounds to me like there was a manufacturing problem with it.

Runner Leana said...

Wow, I wonder how that happened! Definitely get in touch with Garmin and see if they will replace it for you. At least you know your heart rate really wasn't 255!

aron said...

yikes!! no wonder your HR is all out of whack. that sucks that happened :( hope you find a fix to that soon!

Brian said...

EWWW corrusion, hopefully it didnt get on your clothes, must not have smelled pretty!

tfh said...

Well, at least you solved the mystery...

Amanda said...

Wow, I just bought one today. I hope it doesn't corrode that fast. They should replace that for you!

Groover said...

Oh my god. That looks pretty bad. Wondering if you could still get it replaced under warranty?

Gotta Run said...

OMG... I did not realize that strap thingy even had a battery. Maybe that is where my smell is coming from as well. :)

TNTcoach Ken said...

Maybe I won't look at my strap! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

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