FitBit Blaze not tracking heartrate accurately

[KayZ]

Anyone know what to do to make the Fitbit blaze measure heartrate more accurately. When I self count (which I did several times today checking), my counting is in line with what my bike says (above you can see the Blaze says 61 while my bike shows 124). My resting heart rate while sleeping is 72; so, 61 really shouldn't be possible while in the middle of exercising.

I noticed yesterday it said my average heart rate was 69 while biking (no way this was the case). When my bike says anything over 130 and I check the heart rate isn't even showing up on the Blaze half the time- at onepoint my bike said 137-143 and I self counted 35 beats in 15 seconds- so, in line with the bike, but Blaze said 107.

I've tried restarting, I switched wrists, tightened, loosened, put it on so the watch face is on the underside of wrist... Everything I can think. The watch is fully charged right now.

[KayZ]

I posted in another group and got a possible fix of watch placement (wearing it farther up the arm) I will try. I will update after I bike tomorrow- hopefully that will fix it!

[Michmich55]

The heartrate on my Blaze is quite inaccurate. In spinning class today, I could only get my heart rate up to 135 bpm. After 1 hour of spin class it says I burned only 239 calories. When doing tabatas, I should be able to get my heartrate up to 175-170. My polar watch was much more accurate. I've tried moving the band tighter and looser as well as up and down my arm 

[Michmich55]

Oops. I meant 165-170

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi @KayZ @Michmich55! Great to see you in the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

@KayZ, As you mentioned, whenever you're exercising it's important for you to wear your tracker higher on your wrist and a little bit tighter to prevent the heart rate sensor to lose contact with your sking making it to sense your heart rate inaccurately. Just for anyone else who might need this information, keep in mind the following recomendations:

For all-day wear when you’re not exercising, your tracker should usually rest a finger’s width below your wrist bone and lay flat, just as you would wear a watch. Fitbit’s PurePulse heart rate tracking system is designed to be most accurate when the tracker is worn on the top of your wrist.

For improved heart rate accuracy keep these tips in mind:

1. Experiment with wearing the tracker higher on your wrist during exercise. Because blood flow in your arm increases the farther up you go, moving the tracker up a couple inches can improve the heart rate signal. Also, many exercises such as push-ups cause you to bend your wrist frequently, which is more likely to interfere with the heart rate signal if the tracker is lower on your wrist.
   
2. Do not wear your tracker too tight; a tight band restricts blood flow, potentially affecting the heart rate signal. That being said, the tracker should also be slightly tighter (snug but not constricting) during exercise than during all-day wear.
3. With high-intensity interval training, P90X, boxing, or other activities where your wrist is moving vigorously and non-rhythmically, the movement may prevent the sensor from finding an accurate heart rate. Similarly, with exercises such as weight lifting or rowing, your wrist muscles may flex in such a way that the band tightens and loosens during exercise. Try relaxing your wrist and staying still briefly (about 10 seconds), after which you should see an accurate heart rate reading. Note that your tracker will still provide accurate calorie burn readings during these types of exercise by analyzing your heart rate trends over the course of the workout.

Hope this helps!

[Nikmo]

I have exactly the same problem no matter how I wear the Blaze. Snug and higher up does not make a difference. I use the Blaze to run so no high impact moves on the wrist. I have to manually check my heart rate because I do not trust the readings.

[SunriseRunner44]

Just walking around the house with my brand new Blaze, wearing it one finger width above my wrist bone, I get a range of 75-135.  Really.  135bpm while casually walking around the house.  I have used the Charge HR for two years and find it to be fairly accurate with a sitting pulse of 58-74, and a pulse of 80-90 when standing not doing much, to 95-115 when taking a brisk walk.  The blaze is all over the place with its measurement of blood pressure when I am just standing.  Sometimes it starts up and just keeps going up, 85, 90, 110, 125, 135 when I am just standing in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. 

After reading other posts in the community I see that this is a regularly reported problem.  If there isn't a viable solution to this, then I'm afraid it very soon will be going back to where I purchased it.  Too expensive of a toy to not have the blood pressure measurement be reliable.

[Milanneven]

I have the same issue with my blaze. No matter how I set it on my wrist, I get the same inaccurate results. I find the charge 2 is way more accurate. I'm going to return my blaze soon and just keep my old charge 2.

[atormena]

The same happened to me! This simply does not work properly. Just bought the Samsung Gear Fit2 pro and will see if that works better. 

[NiaK]

So I'm not the only one. My blaze is often grossly inaccurate. I mean my heart is pounding away as I run and I look down and it has my heart rate at 80 or 90. At first, I thought it just needed 15 seconds to catchup but even then, it's often very inaccurate. I thought I was upgrading when I moved from the Surge. Very disappointed! 

[Robmarie]

Yes, I have the same issue. My HR will go up to 100 and I'm just sitting at my desk. I take my pulse and it's normal resting HR. I go on walks and it goes up to 170, when it really is maybe 120s. I've worn it tighter and it still acts nutty. I've also tried it on the inside of my wrist. That helped once. Any tips would be helpful.

[DouglasL]

My Blaze stopped trying to read my heart rate about a month ago. The lights are on, but no one's home.

[Tfisher87]

Thanks for your response. I have tried this and it didn’t solve the issue. That is why I posted. I am not sure what else to do at this point. It is giving false HR readings. 

[ClareMcA]

The same thing happens to me! Every few days just before or at 12pm my heart rate would apparently be 175bpm?? And I’m just sitting at my desk in work! My HR doesn’t even go near that when I’m exercising! Same with the resting heart rate, I’m pretty sure it’s inaccurate! 

[Mickey502]

Mine stopped all together reading my heart rate. That is one of the reasons I bought it because I have a heart condition that I have to monitor during any activity. Called the Fitbit company and the supervisor was suppose to email me and didn’t receive any correspondence on this matter. I was hoping to get some help somewhere. This is too expensive of a thing that doesn’t work properly 

[NiaK]

OMG same thing. I'd be on maximum incline on the treadmill, 30° for 15 minutes and the darn thing has my heart rate at 64! I'm sweating away at this point! Then it will jump to 175 then 102 two seconds after! It's ridiculous!

[JDew]

Experiencing similar issues for the past week. Owned device for less than 6 months. Resting HR will read as high as 110-115 bpm even though it's in the 60s. Or sometimes it wont get a reading at all. Every night I get inaccurate sleep tracking. Have tried all troubleshooting steps with no change

[Kelwrenn]

Mine has been doing the same thing-following, was there a fix yet?

[Robmarie]

No, there doesn’t seem to be a fix based on feedback. Thanks all for not making me feel like I’m nutty!