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I've The big difference between the 225 and the [[Best Running Watch| tested several optical heart rate monitorsGarmin 620]] and found them rather ineffective, so I came to the {{Garmin 225}} with low expectations. I initially found that the 225 worked better than I expected, but when I did more rigorous approach I found is the addition of [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring| accuracy was lacking]](OHRM). I've found that OHRM is not ready for real world usage. I'm also a little disappointed in the way Garmin has crippled the 225 's software compared with the 620, and I was hoping the [[Garmin 235]] would be a big improvement. The addition of older 225 doesn't have Garmin's [[Connect IQ]] which is a big functional improvementanother significant shortcoming, and I'd argue it should be a major factor in your choice of watches. For a more fundamental look, there are four basic questions:
=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 [[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.
* 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.
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:Garmin 225 Warmth.jpg|none|thumb|x200px|I found it helped to keep the 225 warm for improved heart rate accuracy, but in colder conditions this becomes essential to prevent frostbite.]]
|[[File:Garmin 225 Imprint.jpg|none|thumb|x200px|I had to have the Garmin 225 tight enough that it left a clear imprint when I took it off.]]
|[[File:Garmin 225 Confused.jpg|none|thumb|x200px|I'd rather the Garmin 225 said it couldn't find a Heart Rate rather than guessing. Here you can see it getting a Heart Rate from black cloth.]]
|}
==Heart Rate Comparison with Chest Straps==
[[File:Garmin225 Comparison.jpg|none|thumb|500px|Comparison of the Garmin 225 with the [[Garmin Epix]] and the [[Suunto Ambit2]].]]
The diagram above is a comparison of the Garmin 225 in red with the [[Garmin Epix]] in blue and the [[Suunto Ambit2]] with the Polar H7 strap in green.
* The workout is a [[High Intensity Interval Training]] session, something that tends to highlight problems in [[Heart Rate]] monitoring due to the rapid changes in intensity. This is a WinTab workout, using 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds recovery, repeated eight times. (This is often confused with a [[Tabata]] workout, but a Tabata uses a specific intensity of 170% of the workload at [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]], not 'all out'.) The chart does not show the prior [[Warmup]] and short recovery time to rest the various monitors.
* The Wintab is from 1:00 to 5:00 on the chart, followed by a [[Cooldown]] from 5:00 to 14:00. There is then a gentle increase in intensity (going up a hill) from 14:00 to 16:00. After running as gently as possible from 16:00 to 19:00 there is a ~1 minute higher intensity period followed by a short walk to the end.
* The red arrow shows the rapid rise in heart rate from rest to maximum intensity. You can see that the 225 lags slightly behind the other two systems, but this is not excessive.
* The blue arrow highlights a slight drop in the HR reading from the 225. I've noticed this periodically, where the 225 becomes just slightly confused. One of the reasons I wore both a Garmin and Polar HRM is to verify that the fault lies with the 225, not the chest strap. These periods of confusion are generally fairly short and the different is not huge. In other optical systems, and with the 225 if it's not clamped down hard, they will often get wildly confused, reading wildly low (~90 instead of ~130), or wildly high (~170 instead of ~130).
* The green arrow shows another lag in response, and because the period of high intensity is so short, the 225 never reads the highest reading of that segment. If you relied on the 225, you'd see a heart rate of 10 beats lower than actually occurred.
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.
=Teardown=
There's a nice teardown of the Garmin 220 (the 225 without the OHRM) on [http://www.microcontrollertips.com/teardown-garmin-forerunner-220-sport-watch-heart-monitor/ microcontrollertips.com].
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin 225 Review}}
[[File:Garmin 225-top.JPG|thumb|right|300px|The {{Garmin 225}}, showing the display of Heart Rate from its Optical Heart Rate Sensor.]]
* '''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.)
The 225 is not a good choice for ultrarunners, as its battery life is too short. See [[Best Running Watch#Watches for Ultrarunning| Watches for Ultrarunning]] for more details. (Turning off the optical heart rate monitor only increases the battery life a couple of hours.)
{{BuyAmazon|AZID=B00XKRWTUE|AZN=Garmin 225}}
=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 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 See [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] for 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.)
|[[File:Polar V800-side.JPG|none|thumb|150px|Polar V800 side]]
|}
=Teardown=
There's a nice teardown of the Garmin 220 (the 225 without the OHRM) on [http://www.microcontrollertips.com/teardown-garmin-forerunner-220-sport-watch-heart-monitor/ microcontrollertips.com].
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
