What I thought was simple procedure, almost led me to throw my heart rate monitor out of the window! I was getting some erratic readings before this which prompted me to get the battery changed before my I head to my first Ironman race in Zurich. A quick search online and I found the solution on another blog, even the instructions found on the Garmin website did not work. tsk tsk.
Thank you Daniel Wasser
http://www.koelnerwasser.de/?p=325
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This week I tried to change the Battery on my Garmin heart rate monitor ( HRM2-SS ). The change itself is not that difficult – only remove the 4 screws at the backside, open the cover, change the old Battery with a new CR2032, close the cover and place the screws back. After that the Heart rate was not shown in my Forerunner or Edge…
To fix the problem I tried to reconnect the monitor with the forerunner manymany times – without any success.
A colleague of mine who uses a (optical) nearly similar polar heart belt, gave me the hint to short-circuiting the monitor for a few minutes. Bypassing the battery contacts should cause a reset of the device. This could easily done with a paper clip or by inserting the battery in the wrong direction. The contacts of the monitor are installed in a way that the misplaced battery will only cause a bypass between the two contacts. Be careful: don’ t give reverse polarity to the device – only bypass the connectors!
After this procedure the heart rate monitor build up a proper connection to my garmin computers and every thing works as expected. By the way – i love my Garmin devices!
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ironproject 
This was very helpful. Thank you. The Garmin website is good at some things, but not so good at others. I tried to find the HRM2-SS manual on their site, but Garmin uses a tree structure to filter your selections, and I have no idea, based on their categorization, where a Heart Rate Monitor would be found. I’ll keep looking, but I wanted to let you know that I appreciated your help so far.
i merely shared a link by another blogger, Daniel Wasser.
Garmin’s site is not the most user-friendly and it can be frustrating sometimes.
thanks for dropping by my site nonetheless
What size screwdriver do you use for the screws? I have a PH 0 and got 2 screws out with a lot of effort. The other 2 won’t move and I’m affraid of damaging the screws too much.
Hi Eddie, I’m not too sure what size screwdriver i used. But I’m guessing the screws could be stuck because of oxidation. you could try bringing it to a watch shop to see what they could do about it. 🙂
Hi All, I have noticed recently that my Garmin HR monitor starts out recording my heart rate accurately/ to my exectations (around 150 – 160 beats per sec) but after about 10 minutes into my run the rate drops down to 40 beats per sec and I KNOW I am not superman with such a low hear rate…..!
Could this be due to the battery life coming to an end and neding replacement?
I have used the HR monitor with the original battery for about 9 months and approx 1 – 2 hours per day, 4 – 5 days per week
Any ideas please ??
you could try changing the battery since it’s relatively inexpensive. Also, I’ve read u might get irregular indications in drier climates, that’s why it’s recommended to wet the contact points before a workout.
I’ve experience the spiked indications (180bpm at the start a run) and soon after, my battery went dead. So I think in your case, it’s highly likely a battery problem.
ian
John, I have the same problem and brought the sensor to a watchmaker since I couldn’t find the right size screwdriver (see above, the right size is PH 00 by the way). He measured the battery power for me and found the battery still had almost full power so he didn’t replace it. On another blog I found someone who described the same problem and he fixed it by replacing the chest strap.
So I will try that as well. Also read somewhere that the sensor also fits on a specific Polar chest strap and that those straps are more comfortable than the Garmin straps.
Ian, The watchmaker reassembled the sensor without short-circuiting so the sensor didn’t work. Luckily I read this blog so I knew what to do and at least now I also knew which screwdriver to buy.
Hi,
I have easily changed my battery in my heart rate monitor (Garmin 310X) match. It is still not reading. I have read the tip above, but I am confused with what to actually do do? Is the reset (with pin) inside by the battery? Help
Hi Jac,
you could try this.
1)Take out the battery from the heart rate monitor (HRM).
2) flip the battery, and insert it again. This will reset the HRM. wait for a couple of seconds if you want to.
3) take the battery out again and put it in the correct, secure the cover with the screws and it should now work fine.
good luck :))
I just had to turn my Garmin watch ‘Heartrate monitor’ sign ‘off’ then on and it all worked. Thank you
This makes no sense at all. But I tell You: It worked! 🙂 Thanks for that very helpful tip!
Thanks for posting this, it worked. Thought I was going to have to bin the heart monitor. 🙂
I just went through the same issue with my own Garmin strap and this simple hack did work great. Thanks!
Good to hear that…. 🙂
This trick worked for me too! I have been frustrated about my monitor not working, but I flipped the new battery, waited a few seconds, and then inserted it correctly. Thank you very much for sharing this tip.
I just went through the same type of problem. My HRM3-SS did not connect with my Garmin edge 1000. After spending one hour putting the microscopic screws on an off, and after changing the battery, I went to the web in desperation, and I actually followed the suggestion of one person and used a trombone to shortcut the positive and negative on the monitor. I put the battery back and the cap on and it then connected to the Garmin Edge 1000. Wake up Garmin, this is really crappy. You are getting totally replaced by the Apple and Android for the GPS navigation, by continuing to release product that are from another era in terms of the user interface, and it is definitely the case with the archaic UI of the EDGE 1000, your days are counted. Why don’t you hire people that really know about UI.
Yes, remarkable: after a ‘failed battery replacement I followed Ian’s instructions of 21 May 2015, left the new battery in upside down for about 10 secs and then re-inverted. Instant success. Thanks all