Smart scales that work with Garmin Connect
In this article we provide an overview of smart scales that work with Garmin Connect. You don’t necessarily have to opt for a Garmin-made scale. There are some third-party solutions such as Withings, Fitbit, Wyze that you can connect indirectly to your Garmin account. So your options may not be as limited as you may have thought.
Garmin scales
Garmin Connect and the web-dashboard provide a detailed overview of your fitness tracker and smartwatch stats. You can also connect other equipment to the platform such as smart scales. This results in a more holistic overview of your health and fitness stats. The ability to see your activity stats alongside your weight and body composition is very useful.
Essential reading: The best smart scales: keep tabs on your weight and body composition
The easiest and safest solution, of course, is to opt for a Garmin scale. This will work seamlessly as it is built to communicate with the company’s smartphone app.
There are a couple of products you can choose from including the first and second generation of the Index scale. We suggest going for the latest edition. The S2 comes with a number of upgrades on the S1 scale, including a sleeker design and bright LCD colour display, along with enhanced accuracy of sensors.
Mind you, both generations will spit out information on weight, body mass index (BMI), body fat, water percentage, bone mass and skeletal muscle mass. So you’ll be covered whichever you choose. Plus you should be able to pick up some nice discounts on the S1. But the S2 is more accurate and comes with some nice extras so we suggest going for that one.
To use a Garmin scale you’ll need to connect it. Fortunately, this is very easy. The process consists of:
- Going to www.garminconnect.com/indexscale.
- Selecting Mobile or WPS. The first allows you to setup the scale via the Garmin Connect mobile app. The second lets you set it up through a WPS-enabled Wi-Fi router. The mobile option is probably easier.
- Then its simply a matter of following the on-screen instructions on the computer or smartphone app to configure the device so that it syncs to your Garmin account.
As mentioned, the Index S1 and S2 are the only scales that work natively with Garmin Connect. They are pretty straightforward devices that don’t go much beyond the basics. We have not had any word on the S3. But don’t be surprised if that one lands in the near future as the S2 is nearly 3 years old now.
But there are workarounds that allow you to link up third-party scales.
Third-party scales that work with Garmin Connect
If you don’t want a Garmin scale, we suggest going for one made by Withings. The French-based outfit is the leader when it comes to innovative smart scales. You might even say it is in a league of its own on this count.
Its product range has some of the most advanced tech you can find on the market. The scales work well and you won’t need to replace them after a year or two. One of the most high-specs of the bunch is the Withings Cardio. In addition to weight and body composition, that one also does a mini heart assesment each time you step on it.
If you want absolutely the best the company has on offer, then check the Body Scan. We published our hands on review of this device a few months back. It even tracks segmental body composition, metabolic assessment and heart health. There’s even an ECG monitor on-board that checks for potential heart rhythm irregularities.
How to sync a Withings scale to Garmin Connect
The bad news is that you cannot connect a Withings scale directly to Garmin Connect. The good news is that you can do this through myfitnesspal. Simply open a myfitnesspal account and link up both your Withings and Garmin account to it. The connection works flawlessly. If there is a glitch and the data stops syncing, simply disconnect/reconnect your Garmin account to myfitnesspal.
I used this solution to connect my Withings scale a few years ago. It was a 10 minute process and the connection has been working perfectly since then.
Mind you, only your weight will come through to Garmin Connect but you can always use the Withings Health app to check the other stats. The important thing is for the weight to come through. Because that is really all that you need as far as the Garmin software is concerned.
It’s worth mentioning – if you’re not going for the Garmin Index, no other scale will bring body composition stats into Garmin Connect. There’s a long-running thread on the Withings forums to bring a direct connection to Garmin Connect. But that’s unlikely to happen.
Other smart scales that work with Garmin Connect
In addition to Withings, you can sync other scales to myfitnesspall and than to Garmin. This includes Fitbit scales although we do not really see a reason for someone to purchase a Fitbit scale to work with Garmin as there is little difference between the two. But there are some inexpensive options you might want to opt for such as Renpho smart scales, Weight Gurus scales, Wyze scales and a few others.
Finally, if you don’t want to use the myfitnesspal route, another solution is to link up your accounts via smartscalesync.com. But that does require you to pay a $15 per year fee. The benefit of that type of connection is that this will sync more than just your weight to Garmin Connect. You can sync pretty much everything – including fat, muscle, water, bone, etc (depending on what metrics your smart scale tracks).
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Your definition of “seamless” and mine are very different. Seamless would be tapping your phone against the scale and it does everything else on its own. The process you describe is a pain.
Agreed. Its super flaky work around