Blaze not counting stairs

[DianeinMich]

I got my Blaze a couple days ago and have been wearing it along with my One. It seems every day it counts less flights of stairs. Today, after it counted 9 flights, I walked up the stairs at home 7 times and Blaze didn't add to the count. I'm stuck on 9 flights for today. The One says 21 flights of stairs. I did reset the Blaze and that still didn't work. Could mine be defective?

[xpengy]

Mine doesn't seem to be accurate either. I ran up a bunch of flights of stairs and it only said I went up 6 floors...

[KW1]

I've had my Blaze 2 days now and it counted 2 flights yesterday when I've climbed 5 and only 1 flight today when I've climed 3.  My Charge HR was always completely accurate!

[KW1]

Third day with the Blaze and completely opposite floors climbed logging.  Today I purposely only climbed 1 flight of stairs and by Noon the Blaze logged 8 flights!  Clearly it is unreliable.  Fitbit support told me it logged more floors climbed because I was driving in the car at the time Blaze was logging.  What?!!!

[DianeinMich]

@KW1 you must have been driving uphill. I know the Fitbit trackers will add steps if you are outside and it's really windy. I decided to send mine back. I'll try the Charge HR and see if that works better for me.

[JOHNNYBlaze]

My Fitbit Blaze is highly inaccurate about 25-35 beats off on HR for exercise, 3-500 steps off per day comapred to my surge, and most days it has me on 99 floors? WTH?

I still have my surge and love it, love the new blaze look but it's a DUD in my book.

[MelanieR]

Mine doesn't seem to be counting correctly 6 flights of stairs and I finally got 1 to show up on the Blaze.

[DianeinMich]

I wonder if the inaccuracy in counting flights of stairs can be fixed with a firmware update from Fitbit? I did send mine back last week, but I'd consider getting another if the issues were fixed. I didn't hate it, but flights of stairs are important to me. My One is pretty accurate. I'll stick with that for now.

[bigdata]

My fitbit blaze is missing stairs as well.  I did discover something.  In my house, our stairs go halfway up, than there is a landing, you have to turn to make it the rest of the way up.

When I pause slightly on the landing, it does not count as a floor.  When I quickly step through the landing and make it to the top, it counts the floor.

If that is the issue, it could be fixed with software.  Of course, I am assuming that the current software looks at a continuous change in height from the altimater.  My understanding that a change in floors is approximately 10 feet.  When I pause, it looks like the altimater resets and I never make the 10 feet as far as my blaze is concerned.  My knees know a different story.

[Cube]

I have a Fitbit Surge and the stairs count is nearly 100% accurate; so Fitbit has the correct hardware sensor and firmware to be able to calculate it correctly.  Fitbit certainly knows how to do this right.

I also purchased a Microsoft Band 2 to replace the Surge.  However, that has a real serious issue with stair counts.  I rarely get less than 100 count during the workweek (my Surge has been a consistent and accurate at 15-20 flights during the workweek for the past 12 months).  My record is 215 flights registered in one day (actual was 18).  The problem with Microsoft's calulation is they only look at barometric sensor changes and nothing else (like swinging arm movement, time frame for each 8-12 foot change in barometric pressure, time with no change in pressure like when you take a number of steps on the landings between floors, and changes in pressure while going up only).  So I get stair counts credits when I drive up and down hills, when I walk up and down stairs, when storms pass through that cause large swings in barometric pressure, etc.  I have watched my stair count increment while sitting in my office chair during a storm.

MS has released 3 firmware updates so far, but the Band 2 stair count is broken.

I hope Fitbit gets this working as I want to purchase the Blaze to replace my Surge.

BTW - I stopped wearing the Band 2 and put my Surge back on last month.  I couldn't deal with the inaccurate stair count.  And the B2 also has the same issue with the rubber strap tearing just like the Surge.  I beleive that won't be an issue with the Blaze.

[EmersonFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone, thanks for bringing this up. 

A bit more information about floors. Blaze detects floors using an altimeter, which is a sensor that calculates altitude based on atmospheric pressure. This means that since your tracker is designed to look for pressure changes based on elevation gains, you'll have to be physically moving up floors while wearing the device in order to receive credit for the floors. 

If you're confident that you're moving up at least 10 feet at a time with coupled with continuous movement (steps), and you're not seeing floors on your tracker/account, please try reaching out to our Support Team for a second opinion. 

[DianeinMich]

@EmersonFitbit thanks for the info. I would think it has the same sensor as Fitbit One. My One was counting the stairs and Blaze wasn't. I did send the Blaze back. Maybe it was just the Blaze I had. I know some folks aren't having problems with the Blaze and accuracy. After Fitbit refunds my original Blaze purchase, I'll probably order another to try it again. 

[Yhctiw]

Has anyone found a solution to Blaze not accurately counting stairs? I live in a 3 story town home and am constantly up and down but blaze does not catch all of them it's very frustrating

[bbarrera]

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@Yhctiw wrote:
Has anyone found a solution to Blaze not accurately counting stairs? I live in a 3 story town home and am constantly up and down but blaze does not catch all of them it's very frustrating

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Problem has been around for years, stair counting accuracy has been inconsistent for me with Force, Surge, and now Blaze. Somedays it works great, other days not so good. 

[DianeinMich]

@Yhctiw @bbarrera I did return my original Blaze. I decided to try it again and bought another Blaze. This one seems to be pretty accurate with flights of stairs and steps. I wonder if there is a firmware update that your watches haven't picked up?

[bbarrera]

More accurate days than bad days, altimeters are interesting devices and not totally reliable in consumer grade devices.

[KelliGig]

I have gone up my stairs at least 10 times today and it says 3. Very frustrating. If it's going to suck so bad at it, we should be able to change it manually.

[Rich_Laue]

Please remember that an up of 10 feet is needed to receive one flight of stairs.

Up until the last decade or two houses only had 8 foot ceilings and are not high enough.

Yes anytime that air pressure is used to detect changes in elevation counts will not be perfect.

[KelliGig]

My stairs are, and I measured, 10ft and that is to the actual stair not the several feet higher that I am, above that. So still doesn't make sense

[Rich_Laue]

Is your Fitbit hand holding onto the talking, and is your Fitbit counting the individual steps while walking up them?

Fitbit won't give floors unless steps are being counted.