Blaze versus surge for spinning

[chamcmillan]

I am researching my options...currently use the HR Charge. I run with my phone using the nike app so the gps function is not a concern for me. I am lookign for a device that I can track for calories burned and heart rate. I notice that heart rate tends to be off even with the charge HR. Which one is better the blaze or the surge?

[Rich_Laue]

While they all use the same technology, in theory the blaze being a newer product should have more tweaking done.. Fitbit has always stated that the watch during exercise should not be worn to close to where the wrist bends, and this is the best advice for consistent accuracy. Currently there will be times that a wrist based tracker, looking at the changes in blood flow in response to a beat of the heart will not be as accurate as monitoring the electrical signal that makes the heart beat. It is monitoring something that is two steps in the process away from what a chest strap monitors. 

It would be like recording the time of a switch on/off change by looking at the light, coming through a window, given off by the bulb from across the street. Sure it can be done.

The advantage to a wrist mounted HR detector is comfort and can be worn all day, you can't say that about a chest strap. 

The medical field has been using something very similar to fitbit, it clamps on to the tip of a finger and uses light to detect the pulse. 

[bbarrera]

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@chamcmillan wrote:

Which one is better the blaze or the surge?

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@chamcmillan The Surge has issues with premature band failure, requiring replacement of the entire tracker. In addition the Surge is overdue for a replacement ("Surge 2"), similar to the recently announced Flex 2 and Charge 2. It is also lagging behind on feature enhancements. I would avoid the Surge at this time for those reasons.

If your HR "tends to be off" with Charge HR, then its hard to say if it will get better with a newer device. That said, placement on wrist is a big deal with optical HRM accuracy, so the Blaze or Charge 2 may in fact give better results.