Blaze Water Resistance

[SunsetRunner]

Time and time again we have asked you people to make the device Water Proof.

Why can't you get it through your thick skulls that there are water sports/activities.

Can I wear my Blaze while swimming?

Fitbit Blaze is rain, sweat, and splash proof. We recommend that you do not swim or shower while wearing Blaze.

Moderator Edit: Edited post title for clarity.

[MikeF]

I'm not Erik but I'd say 'No' since the Blaze will have the opening for the altimeter in the same manner as the Charge and Surge trackers.

The Flex is a completely different design and able to be sealed more completely since it doesn't need to measure air pressure.

(This is not the same as saying that the Flex meets a different standard of water resistence to the others)

[EmersonFitbit]

@JoanneinCA To MikeF's point, there's a number of reasons we'd advise against showering with our devices, protection of the altimeter being a main point. In addition to this, keeping the tracker dry helps prevent build up of unwanted bacteria. 

Our existing Product Care Page touches on this briefly, but in short- a dry tracker is better than a wet tracker in terms of prevention of irritation on the skin. 

[JoanneinCA]

Thank you for your replies. I understand about the cautions regarding skin sensitivities after the problems with the Fitbit Force and complaints a couple years ago. I believe that one was discontinued.

My question relates only to the device itself, whether the water resistance standards are lower for the Blaze than for the Flex. I am one of Fitbit's biggest fans. I just want a straight answer.

[mattfitz143]

How canb you say the only time you need a fit tracker to be waterproof is when you are swimming? Are you saying the trackers will hold up to being submerge in a tub full of water when bathing your children or when you forget it is on and you are doing the dishes and completely submerge it in the sink? Will the fit tracker be fine after that. I myself would love a fit tracker that I do not have to worry about that, I would like to be able to leave it on 24/7 for a complete track of the day. All days. There are other companies that do this.

[Schnervel]

I was interested, until I read that it is not waterproof.  I can't tell you how many fitness devices I have ruined because they got wet.  I will not buy another one that isn't waterproof.  Seriously, my Charge got destroyed when I washed my car.

[SimplyAdventure]

The waterproofing kills it for me. I picked up the very first Fitbit (and loved it). Got the Flex when it came out and loved it but going from a "normal" watch to it annoyed me a bit due to waterproofing. I wanted a watch and fitness tracking so I went to Garmin (worked ok) and then the Misfit app on a Pebble (worked well). Both waterproof. Then I picked up an Apple Watch and despite ratings it works quite well underwater. I've spent countless hours in pools, hot tubs and even the ocean with my Apple Watch without a single ill effect... though after recently winning a Charge HR in a contest I've been playing with it again and remember the joy of competitions with friends, etc. I don't actually need or want 95% of the Apple Watch's functionality... just want tracking and the ability to wear it in the tub.

So... while I STRONGLY prefer the Fitbit ecosystem and would gladly trade in my Apple Watch for a Blaze, the fact that it can't even be worn in the shower is just a bad business decision. Justify it however you want but serious atheletes get wet, period. Whether it's washing mud off your arms after a climb, falling into a stream, kayaking, swimming or taking a shower after a hard workout the truth is that people get wet. I'm sure your product managers are telling you that your sales figures aren't suffering so it doesn't matter. They are saying that your focus groups didn't highlight it as a key concern. Your engineers are telling you that the altimeter needs a hole directly into the circuit board. And sales wants to keep costs down. That doesn't make any of them right.

At the end of the day this is a luxury niche product. Your community drives your lock in and once they start to leave what's really seperating you from everyone else? Already the number of active friends I have is a SHADOW of what it used to be just a couple of years ago when I left the Fitbit community. 

Right now others aren't executing well in a few key areas... but that's not a situation that will last forever. I loved my Fitbits. I love my Charge HR (even if it's **ahem**ed annoying to take on and of constantly every time I encounter water). I *WANT* to be wearing a Fitbit 5 years from now. 

Step up, and I will be. This is a tiny hurdle. If your engineers insist it's not, snag someone from a competitor since they have all already solved this issue.

[margjordan]

A lot of people want to measure their heart rate during swimming even though the distance isn't recorded. Also measuring heart rate while paddling, sailing or many other water sports would be helpful. I use my phone app to measure distance. 

[JoanneinCA]

SimplyAdventure, a lot of my friends have abandoned the Fitbit too. Many have gone to the Garmin because they can swim with them. Some have gone to the Apple Watch and swim with those too, although I don't think the're really water resistant either.

[SimplyAdventure]

I have considered the Garmins but I had so many Bluetooth sync issues with my original Vivofit that I didn't bother trying any others. I do like their smart band, but their software was more like a C grade whereas Fitbit's is a solid A. 

I'm not highly motivated to bail on the Apple Watch (primarily due to the fact I can get it wet, even if it's not technically waterproof) but Fitbit's software, battery life and my years of history inside their ecosystem would motivate me... if only I could get them wet. I actually don't care about swim tracking (though there's certainly a market for it), but water resistance is such an oversight, especially on a $200 device.

You know... if Fitbit can't get the hardware right, they should sell a $50 version of their app I can install on my Apple Watch. I'd be happy to pay that to be in the Fitbit ecosystem so I could run competitions with my few remaining friends in the Fitbit system 🙂

[mattfitz143]

This is exactly what I am talking about. They refuse to see

[mattfitz143]

I do understand how people want to be able to measure heart rate while swimming and lap count. I just want it waterproofed. Those would be great additional features but for just waterproof at this time would be great

[JoanneinCA]

SimplyAdventure, you own the Apple Watch, how does it compare for the pedometer feature? Can you see your steps on your watch? I've had a Flex for over 2 years and always wear it in the shower, and have since the day I bought it. Also occasionally swim with it, have worn it in hot tubes and have submerged it in fish tanks for short periods of time. Never hurt the thing. When I purchased mine it was advertised as being water resistant to 10 meters. (Their spec sheets have changed.)

I love the Fitbit app and the Blaze looks nice as far as I can see. But while I continue to wear my Flex in the shower I would be hesitant to risk the Blaze at $200. (Although I suspect that it would do equally well in the shower since there are other trackers with altimeters that are safe for swimming.) For me, swimming with it isn't that important but being able to shower with it is. My hands are in water too many times a day to have to be so cautious with a fitness device.

[EmersonFitbit]

@JoanneinCA I do my best to not take my Blaze into the shower, but it's happened. It'll put up a fight against moisture to that extent, but there's a number of reasons we advise against it (prevention of irritation the skin, etc.).

[JoanneinCA]

EmersonFitbit, if it's a choice between getting the Blaze and showering with it daily like I do with my Flex, or jumping ship and going with one of the competitors whose bands are rated for swimming and showering, which direction would you go? I can live with a tracker that I can't swim with but not one that I can't shower with. (Forget the skin sensitivity thing, for me that hasn't been a problem.)

[bbarrera]

Well EmersonFitbit is a bit biased, I think you know his answer!

To date I've been unimpressed with Fitbit wrist trackers, for various reasons. The Blaze looks interesting on paper. The Apple Watch has proven its value just with notifications, a feature that Fitbit seems reluctant to embrace - why can't I chose the notifications that show up on a Fitbit? (And why can't it mirror my phone?)

I've got a pool and swim with my Watch. And after a 2-4 ride I take it and my chest strap into the shower to clean them. Watch works with Bluetooth chest strap for activities that don't work well with wrist HRM (barbell, dumbbell, rowing, etc). Build quality on Watch is very high, I hope the next version is officially swim rated. Even better if it supports ANT+ sensors.

[SimplyAdventure]

@JoanneinCA I would say the pedometer tracking is comparable. You can measure and display progress a few different ways. It's a pretty solid product. In fact, the critical weakness is it's insistance on not allowing you to really store your health related data in the cloud. Example: I do a lot of app testing, so I regularly wipe my phone... which means I lose my ENTIRE iHealth history each and every time. It really makes it not terribly useful for me from that perspective. The fact it has no sleep tracking and the battery life is terrible are also huge negatives. I also, from a privacy standpoint, dislike that it has a microphone.

I got my Flex wet too back in the day and never had any issues. It's only after reading the forums and Fitbit's offiical comments that I'm afraid to get the Charge HR wet. Unlike the Apple Watch (which is also not technically waterproof) I couldn't find anyone online who said "I get my charge wet all the time and it's fine". All I found were reports of fogging, and only two of those.

With the new Blaze, it's just too expensive to take that chance unless some folks who have expeirence with it come forth and say "yeah, it's basically golden, we do it all the time". I totally understand why Fitbit is shy about wearing it in the shower after their massive recall and brand issues, and I can support official guidance that one SHOULD take it off, I just want to be able to leave it on if I choose.

Heck, even the Apple Watch Sport Band gave me a little rash after a few weeks. It's a weakness of those kinds of bands when exposed to water. I switched to a nice metal band and zero subsequent issues.

[SimplyAdventure]

@EmersonFitbit So this is actually quite useful. I understand being a mod and potentially a Fitbit employee (I don't know) you can't say "go forth and wear it everywhere" because of the legitimate concerns about irritation, etc. I want Fitbit to avoid another episode like that as well.

However, if you could back channel some reviewers to include statements like that (if accurate) about them being fine in the shower that would be incredibly useful. Maybe even send one to some gear lab blog so they could test it's waterproofing in an unpaid review. If it doesn't fare well, no harm no foul since it officially isn't "waterproof"... but if it fares well (like the Apple Watch does against all original expectations) then that actually could really be useful.

I'm tempted to try to get my Charge HR wet to see how well it does tomorrow... have found nothing about those online either.

Thanks for your reply and your engagement. For my replies at least, I hope the tone is coming off less as complaining and giving y'all a hard time and more actually trying to offer positive, actionable recommendations and feedback from a customer perspective to carry some amazing products over the finish line for my personal usage. Keep up the good work!

[Rich_Laue]

@bbarrera when a company like Apple makes thier own hardware, writes their own software, and handles everything in between their devices,  it is easy to set up mirroring. 

Fitbit has chosen first to make devices for exercise tracking, and have at the requist of users added some smart type features. 

[SimplyAdventure]

@Rich_Laue To be fair, the Pebble (even the original) supports mirroring on iOS (and Android too I believe). Believe the top end Garmin does as well, though I could be wrong. It's actually not that difficult to hook into the notification center API to display all app alerts to the watch. The trick is allowing per-app customization... which isn't really critical in my book. I personally would turn all notifications off except phone calls, but that's just me (plus accessing that API real time all the time is a serious battery hog). Wouldn't mind a weather alert (like for tornados, etc) but anything else is just a districation for my personal usage 🙂

[bbarrera]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

@bbarrera when a company like Apple makes thier own hardware, writes their own software, and handles everything in between their devices,  it is easy to set up mirroring. 

Fitbit has chosen first to make devices for exercise tracking, and have at the requist of users added some smart type features. 

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Your joking, right? Its completely open and since iOS7 all anyone needs to do is write some code for their Bluetooth device. No phone app required. There is even an 18 month old Arduino project that supports mirroring iPhone notifications. The Bluetooth chipset vendors give you all the libraries you need. Thats why Garmin and Pebble have it, really easy to implement.