Heart Rate on cardio highly inaccurate

[MelissaBB1113]

I've been a loyal user for several years. I started with the flex, then the Charge HR, now the Blaze. I loved the Charge HR, never had any issues that made me question the authenticity of the information being provided. With my Charge HR, the workouts I did on the Elliptical had my heart rate at about 120-140 (I have a very low resting heart rate --53 to 55) and my equivalent calorie burn was 210-250. 

I used the Blaze last night for the first time on the ellptical. I am familiar on placement on my wrist as I had the Charge HR. I was astonished when I got off and it said my heart rate got to 195 (!!) and I had burned over 300 calories for something that I have done, at the same pace, on the same machine, for over a year with the Charge HR and never burned more than 250 for the same quantity of time. 

I am concerned that if this is the case, I may need to return it. I want something that is accurate to a certain percentage- doesnt need to be dead on- but it needs to be somewhere in line with what would be expected for a particular energy expenditure. 

Is there a fix? I've done the reboot. The accuracy of my resting heart rate is not being questioned, this is on par with what I saw with the Charge HR. I find it highly unlikely that a casual workout on the elliptical that I was over my max HR. 

[MelissaBB1113]

This was my heart rate from the Charge HR during the same activity 

[MelissaBB1113]

This is from the Blaze for the same activity

[ppdski]

I'm having similar issues with my Blaze. When I begin an elliptical workout my Blaze shows my heart rate increasing dramatically, up above 160. In the past, my Charge HR would track along with the heart rate shown on the elliptical machine, but at the beginning of the workout, the Blaze is really high. However, when my heart rate gets up to ~140 on the machine, my Blaze begins tracking around the same heart rate as the machine. 

[MelissaBB1113]

This actually shows my beginning heart rate around 160 and elevating to 195. That's beyond my MHR. My resting appears to be normal, as its around 53-55. But, after two minutes or so of exercise its showing 163, then goes up. My resting I can confirm is accurate since I've actually been hooked up to an ekg and the beats were only 2 off on my charge. My concern is that it's not accurately portraying the amount burned in myfitnesspal. I wonder if there's a solution?

[bbarrera]

You definitely have a problem, and if reseting doesn't fix it then you have two options: a) live with inaccuracy, or b) return it. 

[MelissaBB1113]

This is actually the second one in a month. The first one wouldn't hold a battery charge. I've had this one two weeks. I wasn't able to work out prior because I was sick. First time I thought it was a fluke but second time yesterday was very similar: my MHR is 192 and this is saying that I'm averaging 182 and have been at 196? Seems highly unlikely as I'm not winded.

[bbarrera]

by "return it" I meant get a refund and go back to Charge HR. You could gamble and wait for firmware update. I've had HR tracking accuracy issues with Surge and Blaze, as I do interval training at my lactate threshhold and need very good accuracy, so I've given up on using Blaze/Surge for tracking workouts.

[pierrotsc]

@ bbarrera. If you gave up with surge/blaze, did you find a good replacement device ?

[MelissaBB1113]

@bbarrera, I did understand what you meant by returning it. There is functionality of the Blaze that I do like better than the Charge. However, I tie my Fitbit to myfitnesspal to help keep my calories and macros where I want. I want it to be, at the least, somewhat accurate. I was hoping that someone else experienced the problem and had a resolve other than to restart or return it.

[bbarrera]

@pierrotsc Started with Flex, then upgraded to Force and after recall started using my iPhone as Fitbit step tracker (MobileTrack) to compete in step challenges. Also use Garmin Edge 520 bike computer and Apple Watch to remind me to stand up once an hour (I'm a desk jockey) and for excellent notifications - including Fitbit notifications about daily step goal ("Overachiever! You're 12,223 steps over...), challenge updates (a few examples - "Bill cheered you for joining" and "joe accepted" and "Bob pulled past Steve for first place"), and even private messages. Thats something the Blaze still doesn't do.

I keep buying and trying Fitbit's latest & greatest (Surge, Blaze), but HRM isn't accurate enough for my training program (HR interval training). And for a rookie athlete like myself the Surge/Blaze/FitbitDashboard are missing too many features that I've come to rely on from Garmin, AW, and TrainingPeaks.

For now I'm tracking steps with phone, and using Garmin Edge to record bike rides and it auto-syncs (all data: HR, cadence, speed, map) to:

- Strava

- TrainingPeaks

- RideWithGPS

- MapMyRun

- Endomondo

And Endomondo syncs the bike ride as an activity to Fitbit Activity. It doesn't sync HR, cadence, and map because thats how Fitbit wants it. There is no 3rd party integration that syncs HR and map to Fitbit, instead Fitbit wants you to record that with the app or Surge/Blaze.

TrainingPeaks does the best job at giving me a complete picture of my fitness level, and help determining if I'm over-training or under-training. Nothing else like it that I've found, although Garmin Connect comes close.

Fitbit is great at motivating people to move, and I'm past that stage in my fitness journey so if MobileTrack disappeared I might leave Fitibit world. That said I really like the simplicity and accuracy of Fitbit One, and highly recommend it or MobileTrack to anyone that wants to use walking to get in better shape.

[AngelaMa]

Hello @bbarreraand @pierrotsc! 🙂 @MelissaBB1113 and @ppdski welcome to the Fitbit Community! @ppdski thanks for sharing your experience. Since your tracker is providing inaccurate reading of your heart rate when you get a higher reading, make sure you are wearing your tracker as instructed here since this issue could be caused by incorrect wrist position. 

@MelissaBB1113 thanks for all the troubleshooting you have gone through. I would like to continue talking about this via private message. 

Tag me if you have any questions! 🙂 

[ppdski]

@AngelaMa thanks for your response! I'm wearing my Blaze the same way I'm wearing my Surge and ChargeHR when I work out, and I've tried adjusting it during my work out too, so I don't think that's the issue. Do you have any other troubleshooting I could try?

Thanks!

[AlejandraFitbit]

Thanks for the information @ppdski. I would like to know if you keep having problems with your heart rate accuracy? If you do and have followed @AngelaMa's instructions without success, feel free to contact our support team. For a faster response you can contact them via phone or chat.

Let me know how it goes.