Blaze Heart Rate Monitor reads too high

[Wilkovian]

Hi, 

So I switched to the Blaze from a Charge HR, which I really loved, because I wanted something that looked more watch-like with some more smart-watch type features. 

I love it but I've noticed the HRM sometimes decides to just climb and climb. I like to do long warm-ups before I exercise and some of that involved jogging on the spot etc (I must confess I occasionally do this to bring my steps up as well). 

Sometimes when doing this in particular my heart rate on the watch shows as climbing rapidly and then sitting around 145 and occasionally 155 when clearly it's only actually around 75/80. 

I suspect the answer is simply to take it off when jogging on the spot and not using that to raise my steps... but it is a convenient way of doing so when I have a really busy day at work and happen to get 20 minutes to myself when I get home or something. IT sometimes reads this as elliptical training which is fine as I can just delete the activity; but the heart rate reading too high issue bothers me as it suggests my daily heart rate readings and calorie burn might be way, way off and I'm just not noticing it. 

Sometimes I can make it not do that by sitting for 20 seconds and letting it get back to a realistic heart rate and then starting again and trying to hold my hand still but sometimes not. 

Any thoughts? Anyone had the same problem? 

I've tried different arm positions

[Jrdubyakc]

@Wilkovian Welcome to the Fitbit Community!  So when you had the Charge HR, would it only show your heartrate at 75 when you were warming up? I am just wondering how you know it should be so much lower? 

[Wilkovian]

@Jrdubyakc A combination of what my Charge showed which was around 70/75 and I also use a Polar chest heart rate monitor.  The Charge showed always within 2 or 3 beats what the Polar showed; as does the Blaze most of the time except for these situations

[bbarrera]

Double check again with a side-by-side comparison against the Polar. If Blaze is too high, then it likely is having a hard time finding your HR and locking on to your stride.

[Wilkovian]

@bbarrera Yes I think it definitely is but I'm not sure how to solve it; I know you're not supposed to tighten it too much but I've tried it very tight, middling tight and snug without constricting as well as slightly loose and at different spots on the arm and all seem to exhibit it sometimes. 

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you around @Wilkovian, @bbarrera and @Jrdubyakc thanks for stopping by and the troubleshoot provided.  The heart rate reading varies depending on several factors like movement, temperature, humidity, stress level, physical body position, caffeine intake, and medication.

If you haven't already done so, please review our information and tips for heart rate accuracy at http://fitbit.link/qrewt. If your heart rate monitor seems broken or inaccurate after taking the recommendations into account, I recommend getting in touch with our support team, since they have the proper tools to see the information that your tracker is registering.

Let me know the outcome. 

[goodmorning]

I have bought 2 fitbits since April.  I started with a Charge HR .  When I .saw that I really would use it dailty I purchased a Blaze.  My resting HR has been between 69 and 72.  Rarely the same two days in a row.  Now I am seeing 6 days at 74, and then today 75.  This causes the HR to register 104 or something rediculous when I stand up and walk across the room.  When I contacted Fitbit I was emailed that I have the wrong email address (it hasn't changed), I suppose this is a way to not deal with the issue.

[The_Lion]

I have these problems too. The heart rate is climbing rapidly, then it falls down. But I already had this behaviour with my Charge HR. High HR, then "--" and after that a normal HR.

[Wilkovian]

Hi, 

Yes I've experimented with different places on the arm etc. but none of them seem to have much of an effect. On the flip side, yes sometimes my heart rate is unexpectedly high but I've been verifying using both a Polar heart rate strap and just counting it myself and when it jumps during on the spot jogging (and I've noticed it a few times on walks as well) it is going way above what it is in reality; it will go up to the 160s sometimes which during a jog on the spot is crazy; for comparison in the same times the Polar heart rate strap was counting about 82 and I counted myself with my pulse and a stop watch and got a similar figure; about 13 beats in 10 seconds. 

As I say; if I stop still and hold my arm still for 20 seconds, it usually resets and drops to an accurate reading. The issue is that I need to do this every couple of minutes worth of exercise sometimes. 

I've tried wearing it 1 finger width up from my wristbone, 3 finger widths up from my wristbone and half way up my forearm and I've tried it on both arms and with the Blaze set to 'dominant' hand and 'non-dominant' and the same issue arises. 

The only way I can find to limit it (though not prevent it completely) is to hold my wrist close to my waist and as still as possible when jogging on the spot or similar. This seems to reduce the instances whereas if I move my arm normally in a slight swing to the rhythm of the jog on the spot the heart rate read invariably seems to climb quickly and absurdly. 

It's a real shame because aside from a few very minor quibbles it's the only issue I have with the device; but it is a major one as I'm very keen on using my tracker to help with weight loss and maintaining fitness levels and if it's giving me false readings like this it makes it difficult to rely on. 

Hope there's a fix or that this is at least useful info for the developers of future software versions or something. 

[Wilkovian]

Hi,

Has there been any update on this? It's still having the same issue with the activities I'm afraid. I've tried moving to different spots and have still been comparing it to my Polar chest strap monitor and monitoring it by counting for verification. 

Running on the spot still makes it start to climb rapidly unless I hold my hand at my waistband whilst jogging and even then it's 50/50 to see if it starts to climb on its own anyway and then I have to stop and let it sit at which point the heart rate blanks to '--' for about 30 seconds then returns a realistic reading again. I'm assuming it has to do with the movement of my hand? But given that I run with my arms moving slightly (as they are when it over-reads my heart rate jogging on the spot) I'm concerned for the accuracy of other activities too. 

As I say, if it's just an artefact of the optical reader as opposed to the more accurate electrical reading from a chest strap then I suppose that's just something we'll have to deal with; it just seems like something the developers might want to know about for future iterations of the devices.

[Edit: Spelling]

[goodmorning]

I took mine off and sat it on a table.  It said that my heart rate was 85, after resetting.  Over two weeks my base rate rose from 68-72 over several months,  to 74 for several days, then 75 for several days, next 76???  I did contact fitbit and asked for an update that would address the problem, they said that it was impossible to contact whoever does the updates. It was the same with my charge hr which is why I bought the blaze.   I am glad to hear about the difference with your chest belt, at least I know that I'm not alone in this.  Have a great day.

[bfox]

Is there any way to prevent it from guessing heart rate based on stride?  Its pretty annoying to have it log 180+ bpm when the actual heart rate is closer to 110.  I would rather have no data than bad data.

[Rich_Laue]

@bfox i don't understand what your asking. The Blaze uses two lights and looks at the volume changes of the blood in the capillaries to figure out your pulse.

See the Heartrate FAQ  at http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1565

The stride is only used when determining how far uouve walked, based on the strps taken.

[Wilkovian]

I have noticed to be fair that sometimes when you take it off rather than reading a '- -' for heart rate and assuming base line it does sometimes remain at whatever the heart rate reading was when it was removed. 

I don't like to sleep with it on; I'm not bothered about checking my sleep habits particularly and my partner doesn't like it because sometimes if I roll over or something I can catch her with the edges of the bezel so I take it off. When I pop it back in the charger it realizes it's not on my wrist and I get a normal readout. When I don't, it often gives me an overnight calorie burn that is crazy and I have to put it in as driving or something sedate so that it discounts the extra calories burned. 

Not sure if that's connected to the heart rate issue or not, but it's another anomaly that I figure is worth reporting!

[bfox]

I get what your're saying, but just try this:

Clap your hands at a rate of about three beats per second for a couple minutes without actually doing other activity to actually raise heart rate.  Then look back at the fitbit data.  The fitbit algorithm takes that "activity" and projectects where the heart rate should go.  Thought it may work on average, even under real activity that projection is not accurate for many people.

I'll rather get real data, even if its lagged.

[bbarrera]

@bfox you are absolutely right, if Blaze can't find HR sometimes it will lock onto your running cadence (or clapping!). Here is some collaboration from well respected triathlete and fitness tech reviewer DCRainmaker:

"This was a slower pace for me, so my HR was much slower (130BPM).  However, the Fitbit Blaze was showing nearly 20-30bpm higher, around 160BPM.  Why?  Well, it made the classic mistake of optical HR straps: It locked onto my running cadence.  This often occurs when a heart rate strap can’t find your heart rate"

Source: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/03/fitbit-blaze-depth-review.html

[AlejandraFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @bfox, @Wilkovian it's great to see you around, @bbarrera and @Rich_Laue thanks for stopping by.

If you are having problems with your heart rate accuracy, I recommend checking this post, where you will be able to see some things that might be affecting this reading and some tips to improve this feature. 

See you later. 

[fastnet]

I am 66 and my Fitbit blaze does exactly the same thing, it rises to 160BPM or thereabouts on brisk walking but on checking my pulse manually I find my heart rate is actually 100BPM. As it is important to me to read my target heart rate this watch is all but useless. We all know that stress, caffeine, temperature etc affect your heart rate and I have tried wearing it in various positions on my arm. Sometimes it loses the pulse altogether and then shows very high (160 ish) and on adjusting on my arm sometimes it will show the 90---100BPM that it should be showing. Any ideas would be welcome.

[Wilkovian]

Hi Alejandra,

Thanks for your reply. I've tried all of those things many times and sadly it's no better. Mostly I think the device is great but that particular feature definitely needs attention I'm afraid. Something to be considered for future models and updates perhaps? 

[Wilkovian]

Hi Alejandra,

Thanks for your reply. I've tried all of those things many times and sadly it's no better. Mostly I think the device is great but that particular feature definitely needs attention I'm afraid. Something to be considered for future models and updates perhaps?