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

[fastnet]

Expensive hiccup all the same, as you say otherwise it does what it says.

[jle152]

I'm seeing wrong readings at times too. It seems in particular that as I hike downhill, the Blaze can sometimes more or less double my heart rate. it was between 100 and 125 as I was going uphilll and then there was a sustained peak at 161 as I started walking downhill, when it most likely was around 80. It may be the acceleration changes associated with walking downhill (more impact than walking uphill) in some conditions can cause incorrect readings.

Actually, it might be that if the frequency of the steps matches the heart rate, the FitBit sees extra peaks it interprets as heartbeats. I've seen this before, and I think I've seen it as well with the Surge I had before the Blaze, Need more smarts in the algorithms... Picture of the hike profiles below.. 

 

[swiftm]

it is reading way to high for me as well. saying my resting heart rate is around 90 when it is actually around 70. Anyone find a fix for this? or did i waste $200+?

[fastnet]

You probably wasted your 200. I only rely on mine for steps as I have found
too many faulty readings by manually taking my pulse against the Fitbit
reading, so I can not rely on it. Annoying thing is Pigsback.com have a
smartwatch similar to the older fitbit for about £25 and I bet it works
really well.

[AshGrover]

I had the same problem of high reading and it would suddenly climb up to 150+ when I am walking. At my age that is very near the calculated peak zone and I panicked. But then in manual measuring I found it was showing almost 70 beats more! And when I stop it will drop quickly to an accurate number. After a week of monitoring the problem during walking and using heart beat measuring device doctors use, I figured out that when I am holding something in my hand which prevents my hand from swinging to and fro the reading is fairly accurate. Obviously there is some connection with the oscillation measuring system and/ or connected s software. FITBIT should rectify this so the device is useful. A device without HR monitor is much cheaper and the whole purpose of device is defeated.

[smitty3705]

The blaze heart rate is a joke.  When on the tread mill that had a heart rate monitor, my heart rate was 128-130.  The blaze reading ranged from 98 to 142 during the same period.  My resting heart rate varies from 48 to 65 in the same week.  As i have medical issues and want to know the real number, i have removed the heart rate tracking from my Fit dashboard, as it is a joke.

[AshGrover]

It is a very expensive joke. I wonder how can I get money back.




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[fastnet]

Same here, stopped wearing it as it was not worth charging it. Load of
rubbish.

[fastnet]

Doubt you will, I threw mine up in the cupboard and forgot about it.

[SunriseRunner44]

I am equally as disappointed with the Blaze and its highly inaccurate Pulse measurements.  Upgraded from a Charge HR because the band on that was about to fall off (yes Fitbit, still not happy about the way the bands disintegrate on the Charge HR).

It was readiy apparent after putting the Blaze on that the heart monitoring is VERY HIGH and inaccurate.  I'm normally 67-73 sitting, 80-85 when up walking around.  Within about  16-20 steps up walking around wearing the Blaze my pulse was at 95 and climbing.  Just standing in the kitchen it crested 120 bpm. 

Sad that something that I was seeing as an upgrade replacement for my Charge HR is so inaccurate when it comes to measuring pulse...

[fastnet]

It is not sad it is simply a useless piece of junk that you and I along
with countless other people paid a substantial amount of money for. I have
seen the Fitbit reps replies and I am afraid you would be banging your head
off a stone wall in trying to get them to admit it has any faults at all.
Just warn your friends not to buy this rubbish.

Fastnet.

[Vints99]

Sadly I will be retiring this expensive piece of junk as it also inaccurately reads my HR way too high or not at all. I won't be purchasing any more Fitbit products in the future either. 

[Wilkovian]

Yes, I can certainly understand that.


I'm looking at switching to a Garmin vivo in the next few months for similar reasons. I need the heart rate to be accurate when exercising at the very least and I have no faith in the wrist-mounted heart rate monitoring except for resting heart rate during the day.


Fitbit also seem to consistently ignore suggestions for improvement such as button lock options and so on.


I think they've been a great company and I have a lot of brand loyalty so hopefully one day in the future they'll release a product I can get behind but at the moment I'm afraid they seem not to have the product I want. They're only looking to corner the market on mass production entry level stuff that is 'good enough' when they could easily have something that was a really great experience to use.


I know quite a few others who have switched as well I'm afraid. Real shame.

[Rich_Laue]

I know many that have switched from other companies to Fitbit and are happy that they did.

The Versa has been getting great reviews on there improved heart tracking durring exercises. Physically the sensors look different. 

[Vints99]

So is that the Fitbit marketing strategy? Create an inferior product that is worse than its predecessors with hope that the customer upgrades? Sounds like an Apple marketing gimmick and it stinks. I think fitbit should Honour their customers with a free or deeply discounted upgrade to a working device since we actually didn't get what we paid for with the blaze. There is no way I burn 3500 calories a day but the blaze thinks I do. It has been wrong since the day I paid 280 for it. Seriously. It's expensive garbage. 

[fastnet]

You are so right, very expensive garbage!!.

[Rich_Laue]

If your expecting it to match or react as an EKG or physical probes in a chest then your probably going to be disapodisapp. The tracker is looking at the changes in the density of the blood in the viens. 

[AshGrover]

If the tracker is showing a heart rate of 150 when the actual rate is around 80 what's the point of spending $300? I have checked this but wearing two devices. At my age of my heart rate goes to 150 I would be breathless and shaking.




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[fastnet]

No I am not expecting it to behave like a precision medical device, but a
pulse reading of 164bpm when manually taken it is 104bpm when exercising is
what I am disappointed with. And it really makes no difference how tight,
or what position on my wrist I wear it. If its just a digital watch that
can measure steps for 280 Euro then it is a bloody ripoff.
Peter.

[fastnet]

Exactly, it shows my heart rate at 164 when walking briskly but when I
check it by manually it is just 105bpm rendering it unreliable and useless.
Measures steps ok but then again so does a $20 stepometer.
Peter.