I guess it’s simultaneously comforting and frustrating to know this experience is fairly common. By contrast, my running buddy has had two Wahoo Tickrs, One lasted 5 years and his current one has lasted 2 years. So it sounds like these devices are generally cheaply made and it is a dice roll whether they will last or not.
I think I will throw away the two Wahoo Tickrs that I’m using now that only work half of the time. I have two more brand new HRMs that were warranty replacements: one from Garmin and one from Wahoo. Hopefully I’ll get lucky on one of those, but if not I’ll try a Polar H10 once those both die.
Thanks for your responses!