Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM 3 underreporting total ascent / elevation gain
Has anyone else noticed their ROAM 3 significantly underreporting total ascent?
On a recent 34.66-mile ride, I recorded simultaneously with my ROAM 3 and the Cadence iPhone cycling app:
Wahoo ROAM 3: 1,211 ft
Cadence: 1,514 ft
The interesting part is what happens when the Wahoo activity is uploaded elsewhere:
Wahoo app: 1,211 ft
Strava direct from Wahoo: 1,211 ft
RideWithGPS from the same Wahoo activity: 1,515 ft
Strava “Correct Elevation”: 1,379 ft
I initially suspected the ROAM’s barometric altimeter, but the underlying elevation data doesn’t appear to be the problem. I compared the altitude samples from the original FIT file copied directly from the ROAM with the independently recorded Cadence data. The two elevation profiles track extremely closely (correlation ~0.999).
The Wahoo FIT file itself contains enough elevation change to calculate roughly 1,500 ft of ascent with moderate filtering, yet the ROAM stores Total Ascent as only 369 m / 1,211 ft.
That makes me suspect the ROAM 3’s Total Ascent algorithm is filtering out legitimate smaller/gradual climbs on rolling terrain rather than the barometric altimeter actually missing the elevation changes.
I’ve submitted the data and original FIT file to Wahoo Support.
Has anyone with a ROAM 3 compared Total Ascent with a Garmin, Karoo, RideWithGPS, or another simultaneous recording? I’m particularly interested in rides with lots of smaller rollers rather than one or two long sustained climbs.