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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin 225 Review}}
I've [[Best Running Watch| tested several optical heart rate monitors]] and found them rather ineffective, so I came to the {{Garmin 225}} with low expectations. To my surprise, I initially found that the 225 worked much better than the competitionI expected, though there are still compromises in but when I did more rigorous approach I found the 225's optical HRM[[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring| accuracy was lacking]]. I'm a little disappointed in the way Garmin has crippled the 225 software compared with the 620, and I was hoping the [[Garmin 235]] would be a big improvement. Sadly, while the 235 adds things like [[Connect IQ]], it's optical HRM is nowhere near as good as the 225. '''If you want optical heart rate monitoring, the 225 is the best I've found.''' A simple rating of the Garmin 225 can be based on how well they can answer some basic questions:
* '''How far did I run?''' This is the most basic question, and the 225 has rather poor GPS accuracy, so its estimate of how far you've run needs to be treated with a quite a bit of caution.
* '''How fast am I running?''' Knowing how fast you're running can be a nice to know, or it can be vital for your training or race performance. Because of the nature of GPS, watches that rely on GPS signal alone tend to have serious problems with current pace. Without the ability to display current [[Pace From A Footpod]] while getting all other data from GPS, the 225 can't answer this question. The poor GPS accuracy exacerbates this issue, and I've seen the pace estimate wildly wrong on the 225. The 225 would be my top pick for marathon runners, but I firmly believe that this is a killer feature, as accurate pacing is essential for a good marathon performance. (I've some slight hope that Garmin will add this feature in with a firmware update, as they have to a number of their newer watches.)
[[File:Garmin 225-top.JPG|thumb|none|200px|The {{Garmin 225}}, showing the display of Heart Rate from its Optical Heart Rate Sensor.]]
=Optical Heart Rate Monitoring=
No one likes to wear a chest strap, and it can be particularly annoying for ladies as it can interfere with support clothing. This makes the idea of an optical heart rate monitor [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] that uses the changes in capillary fill under the watch quite attractive, so I focused on this functionality.
* Optical HRM is never going to be as accurate as a chest strap. The chest strap measures the electrical impulses from the heart and can measure the time between each beat. This allows for analysis of [[Heart Rate Variability]], which can provide some interesting insight, such as [[Firstbeat| Training Effect]]. If you need that level of accuracy, optical HRM is not there and I doubt if it will ever get there. On the other hand, if you're after a good approximation of your heart rate, then optical holds more promise.
* One of the challenges for optical HRM is that movement can move the blood in the capillaries and make measurement tricky. I've found that the 225 works best with the strap tight; I have to tighten the strap two notches past where I'd normally consider the watch to be 'comfortably tight'. This tightness is enough that I can clearly see the imprint of the watch in my wrist when I take it off after a run. However, I have low body fat and skinny wrists (~9 inches/15cm), so those with a little more soft tissue might find it easier.
* Because blood flow to the skin is reduced when you're cold, I found it helped to keep my arms warm. In cold weather I used an arm warmer with the thumb hole placed so I could peak at the display. In really cold weather I'd normally wear my watch over the first layers of insulation, which obviously won't work with an optical HRM. This means the 225 will have to be covered most of the time in cold weather, which is annoying at best.
* The Garmin 225 will give a HR reading even if it can't get a reasonable signal. I'd much rather it gave a clear indication that it was having problems so I could adjust things. I generally know roughly what my HR should be for a given situation, so I can rapidly work out when it's confused, but you might find it harder.
* If you're still reading this, and you're okay with the compromises I've mentioned, then I found the 225 to do much better than the other optical HRM systems I've tried. I had remarkably few instances of the 225 reading wildly too high or too low. The graph below compares the 225 with two chest strap based systems, but I'll post a true analysis to [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] when I have more data.
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Overall, I'm impressed with the Garmin 225's optical system, and I think it's well worth considering. You need to be prepared to live with the compromises, but for many, the chest strap has its own issues, including chaffing and the strange looks you sometimes get.
=Garmin 225 Pros=
* The GPS accuracy of the 225 is reasonable. It's not as good as the [[Polar V800]] or some of the other watches, but it's okay for most usage. Not surprisingly, the accuracy is about the same as the similar [[Garmin 620]].
* The 225 is small and light, but the display is quite legible for its size. The display is color, but really this isn't much use on the 225. There is a display of HR with a color indicator of zone, but that's more of a novelty than a useful feature.
* The 225 has some basic activity monitoring built in, which is not as good as the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] but it's nice to have.
=Garmin 225 Cons=
* The Optical HRM is not suitable for real world usage, but it's on a par with other systems. I'll add more details in the near future.
* A lot of the missing features from the [[Garmin 620]] are from Garmin crippling the software rather than hardware limitations. I always like to see a company make the best product they can for a given price point, rather than using software crippling. Things like only displaying 3 data fields, or limiting the number of screens of data on the 225 is needlessly annoying. It's particularly bad when you want the optical heart rate monitoring, and can't get the advanced features on the 620.
* There is no way of displaying your current pace from the [[Footpod]] while using GPS for overall distance and course. While the 225 now has good GPS accuracy, it is not sufficient to give useful current pace information. For situations where pacing is critical, such as running a marathon, a Footpod works better. (Earlier versions of the firmware would always display the pace and distance from the Footpod when it's connected, but this was fixed in a recent update.)
