Hello everyone. I’m the owner of a Garmin 935 since the summer of 2018. Now there is an opportunity to exchange this watch for a completely new one from the box Wahoo Rival . I started watching reviews on YouTube and the reviewers were not very happy with them. Tell me, please, a year later, as the watch began to sell, did Wahoo make significant corrections to their firmware? Does it make sense to buy new Wahoo Rival now? I have a Wahoo Roam bike computer and would like to be in the same ecosystem, and the design and the brand new battery in the watch are also attractive.
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Hi, not sure if anyone’s replied yet, but I’ll try and answer your question….
I put off buying a Rival because it looked to be lacking features upon release. I’ve now had one about 3 months, and on the whole I’m liking it. I have had to return it twice, due to them not recording pool swims, but my third one is working, must have been a bad batch.
There’s been some significant software updates ringing it up to date, it looks good and is simple to use. I like that it links in with the whole ecosystem.
A word of warning though, the full ecosystem isn’t fully integrated yet, so SYSTM workouts don’t sync to the ELEMNT app and visa Versa.
A massive downfall is that you can’t sent preplanned workouts to the watch yet, although I’m promised this is happening soon….
Should you get one? If the promised updates happen soon, yes, I think it’s a great watch. If not, it would be an issue for me…. And wahoo really need to get the apps synced to pull everything together.
I’ve just pulled the pin and bought one, I have been following Wahoo since this watch came out and I’m a fan of Frodeno & Walmsley FWIW. I’m a longtime Suunto user and have been using the Suunto 9 Baro for a couple of years now with no complaints. My Rival should turn up in a day or two so will be iteresting to see how it goes, hopefully the elevation recording isn’t as bad as some reviews I have read and this has been addressed in some of the more recent firware updates
Quick question, does anybody know if you can charge the watch during an activity?
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Well it certainly looks like you can which is what I had hoped for! It arrived yesterday so will take it out for a run later this morning. First impressions are great - it looks fantastic, wears extremely comfortably, charges fast and this thing is so light 
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The watch overall was great and easy to use.
However, after 3 replacements the pool swim function never worked.
I ended up buying the Fenix 7, which itself has pool problems, though usable.
The moral is check the blogs before buying…
True… unless you buy a Polar Grit X Pro like I did and then realise that their forum got deleted some time ago! I’ve had my Rival Elemnt a couple of weeks now and I have no complaints, it does what it says it does. I do however feel that I am running a little faster than what the watch is telling me and I believe it’s slightly under calculating the total distance I’m running, nothing too major though
I have swapped between Garmin (Fenix 6, FR935/945) Suunto (5) and the Rival for some time now. I am on my 3rd Rival. 2 did not record pool swims as some have already said. These units appear to have defective barometers which are used to detect you are swimming as they also give very wrong elevation data on run and rides. My current one works. I do like the Rival because of the app integration. It is focussed on SBR rather than all the ancillary features of - say - a Garmin. I also mainly use one as I prefer the Bolt over the Edge for cycling so like the integrated system.
Overall I think anyone would be happy with a Rival if they did triathlon. If you are just a runner then get a FR245. If you are just a swimmer get a Swim2. If you want maps/sleep tracking/music/contactless payments get a Fenix/FR945
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I did a hill hike with the family for the first time with it yesterday. Elevation ended up being way off, often looking at the watch as I was ascending steeply but the Grade was showing 0.0 and the elevation was not being counted. I was definitely going uphill but the watch was simply not registering anything. Is this a known bug that is likely to be fixed with a future update or do I have a watch that’s not working properly?
The watch recorded 150m, Strava corrected it to 201m so that’s a considerable amount of elevation that wasn’t recorded 
My first wahoo competitor purchase was not the best. The watch had to be returned twice, the recording of the workout in the pool did not work. When I received the working version, I was satisfied with the watch. Wahoo Rival suits me. But the disadvantage of the watch is that it cannot sync the watch with third-party apps to compose structured workouts other than training peaks. I can’t even use Wahoo’s programs to create a structured swimming or running workout plan, and it makes me frustrated. Garmin Connect has the great ability to use third-party programs to create structured workouts, as well as use your own program. I want Wahoo Rival to have more features for structured learning and analysis of learning progress. 
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