Heart rate showing "--"

[JT1985]

I have had two Fitbit Blazes now. And they have both been doing exactly the same things and I was wondering if anyone with knowledge (actually works on the product) knows about this particular issue. To start things off. I have read the manual on proper placement of the Fitbit Blaze on my wrists. This is not a issue of that, nor is it an issue of a dead battery or a low battery or a magnet or something of similar dis-connectivity problems. With that out of the way here is the thing I have noticed.

For the last five months I have noticed repeatedly (on the previous Blaze and also on the one) that when my heart does this strange "jumping around" that the Fitbit will do "--" for up to three or four minutes, sometimes only a few seconds to thirty seconds. And it doesn't matter if I move the tracker to my other armor or anything it will continue to show "--". At these times I have had surface muscular discomfort on my left side of my chest (never deep where the heart would be)(For those who will say go to the doctor I already have and they say my heart is perfect) for about two to twenty seconds or so; extremely mild too. Not even a one on the scale. After it goes away either the "--" goes away immediately or it takes "X" amount of seconds more to come back and display my heart beat again. Never at any of these times has it shown a one hundred and fifty plus heart beat. Nor have I collapsed or had a heart attack (that I know of). So I am wondering if the Fitbit Blaze will alert people like this with a "--" when there is a heart problem. Like if the heart is irregularly beating too quickly (like one second its eighty five beats and then the next second it's one hundred and fifteen and then the next a different number.) would this throw the Fitbit off so much that it's like "uhhh ... can't compute"?

I do notice when I am not having that chest issue thing I described it does it as well if my heart jumps to one hundred and thirty (from doing something that would push it that high) and then I stop doing what I am doing and my heart is lowering quickly. That it will do the "--" there sometimes too.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity

[Rich_Laue]

@JT1985 the dash "-" is simply aleating you to the fact that your blaze can not find a pulse.

[JT1985]

So you're saying my heart stopped? Sometimes these things happen for up to three or four minutes.... I don't collapse or have any problems and if I take my pulse myself I can find it still....

[RobertHouston]

Note that Rich said the the Blaze can't find you heartbeat, not that you don't actually have one.  🙂

[JT1985]

That doesn't answer my question in my OP.

[Rich_Laue]

Was I trying to answer your question? Or was I simply trying to correct your misconception that the "-" has to do with more than the tracker not being able to read the heart rate. 

As for the manual, I downloaded and read it before I bought a Fitbit tracker. I also browsed the Fitbit help docs before purchasing. 

[JT1985]

Basically what I get out of what you're saying is, "we (moderators and official people who work for FitBit) will not answer your question. We are not medical doctors and we don't care if you're asking about technical problems with the device in relation to "health" problems. Sorry you won't find that answer here. We stand by our product regardless of anything. Don't like it take us to court and make the court force us to admit our "wrong" if not then you're just gonna have to deal and we don't need you as a customer."

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you around @JT1985, thanks for troubleshooting this by yourself and @Rich_Laue, @RobertHouston for stopping by.

As our friend here mentioned, when you see the "--" in your heart rate information it means that your Blaze is having a hard time finding your pulse. I know that you have already saw this, but I recommend double checking this post, where you will be able to find some tips in order to properly wear your tracker and have a better heart rate reading and try to restart it too. Also, verify that the heart rate option is in "On" or "Auto".

About the discomfort you are having, are you experiencing this while wearing your tracker? Have you tried to take it off some days to see if there's an improvement in this?

See you later. 

[JT1985]

That is not necessarily true what you're saying. If you refer back to my original post I already stated I took care of that and I have already read what you suggest. This is not the case. No the tracker has an issue if the heart rate increases to fast or decreases too fast, or if it's really erratic it can't track the heart beat until it changes to a rhythm that it can read. This is not an issue of it not being placed correctly.