Is Blaze the only one with the accuracy problem?

[chilehead]

Wish I had read the posts here before I bought the blaze. Seems a good number of people have a 20+% accuracy count problem.  Mine is almost exactly 20% short of steps, compared to manual counts of a couple hundred steps.

After using a Flex and One for years with very accurate results (and losing the One last week, hence the new purchase), I'm extremely disappointed with this device.  I'll be returning it.

Do other trackers have the same accuracy problem?  Specifically, the Charge/Charge2?  I'd like to stay with the fitbit family after getting so many fitbit friends, but I'll be looking at other brands now too.

[Rich_Laue]

I can only speak for the Ultra, Zip, One, Charge, Charge HR, Surge, and Blaze. 

The Ultra, Zip, and One are consistently within in two steps on a 1000 step walk. 

The Charge, Charge HR and Surge are within 5 steps on a 1000 step count. 

The Blaze seemed to be off by 15-20, unless i start walking towards the start line. 

With the second update of the surge i found that it was about 30% short.. After the Third update it was better than new

[bbarrera]

@chilehead The problem with "1000 step count test" is that most of us don't spend our day taking 1000 step walks, and even if we do, there are reports that Blaze and other wrist trackers will under-report steps if:

- your arms are not moving

- your arms are swinging "power walk" style

In addition you may get an excessive number of steps just from driving a car, or if you move arms a lot.

To answer your question, the Blaze is not the only one with accuracy problems. I definitely have seen step counting issues with Flex, Force, Surge and Blaze (I've never owned Charge or Charge HR). In my case the biggest problem is while pushing a shopping cart at Costco, where a 2000-3000 step walk results in only 200-300 steps. Its somewhat an issue with wrist trackers, although the issue is more pronounced on my Fitbit Surge and Blaze versus the other brands I've tried.

There are workarounds. Rather than buy yet another tracker, I use my iPhone 5s as step tracker which is supported by Fitbit's MobileTrack. My phone is always in my pocket, and like the Fitbit One its tracking steps from my midsection which is more accurate tracking location for Fitbit trackers. I've also seen some folks report they wear Blaze on ankle, or put in pocket (like my phone workaround), you may find those workarounds better than alternatives.

Hope that helps.

[Rich_Laue]

I haven't noticed a change in count with a power walk style, what I've noticed when starting out from a standstill there seems to be 15 missed steps. 

As for receiving steps from driveing or excessive arm movement, you will need to by a tracker that attached to your body core.. Any and every tracker on the market that is attached to the arm is only able to monitor arm motions. When the arm is in motion than false steps may be recorded, this goes for every tracker on the market. 

[chilehead]

---

@bbarrera wrote:

To answer your question, the Blaze is not the only one with accuracy problems. I definitely have seen step counting issues with Flex, Force, Surge and Blaze (I've never owned Charge or Charge HR).

---

For me, the Flex was pretty accurate.  Which is why I'm surprised that the Blaze was not.  I can definitely see issues with how this works for different people.  I'm not an "arm swinger" when I walk, but they don't hang motionless on my side either.

[bbarrera]

@chilehead Yes, Flex and Force were pretty accurate for me too, except when pushing a cart around Costco and that is where I first ran into the issue of receiving only 200-300 steps instead of 2000-3000 steps. With the multi-sport Surge and Blaze I started seeing more arm movement accuracy issues, and more reports of arm movement accuracy issues on Blaze forum.

[LSales]

I was wondering the same thing and was on here looking to see if any others were as well.  I started with the fitbit, moved to the HR and now the blaze.  On busy days I am 2000-3000 fewer steps than I've seen on the HR.I am interested in seeing if anyone has suggestions.  

[MikeS1971]

I never had step count problems when I had my Charge HR. My Blaze didnt have step count problems until April when the most recent software update was released.

During the week, I walk 2 miles before work (roughly 3700 steps), 4 miles on my lunch break (roughly 7400 steps) and a six mile walk/run after work (roughly 11,000 steps). Before April, my miles to steps ratio was very consistant and within a resonable percentage. After April, its all over the place and off by thousands of steps.

Because of the Blaze, Ive stopped caring how many steps I take during the day. I now concentrate on how many miles I can do in a given amount of time during my workouts. I began to find that the total amount of steps I took during the day didnt have an effect on my fitness or weight loss anymore.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hello all, I hope you are doing fine! About the accuracy inconvenience you have, I recommend restarting your Blaze trackers and test them. Also, you can check the Things you can do to make you Blaze more accurate post, where our friend @bcalvanese is providing some steps to improve this.

Let me know the outcome.

[chilehead]

I've been on support chat and phone a couple of times and gone through all the tests.  I was sent a replacement Blaze and had the same sort of troubles.

Unfortunately due to the 20% or more inaccuracy in simple things like a walk, I'm now returning it.  My plan is to get a Charge 2 in the hopes that a different model has different results.  I understand that wrist trackers are going to be somewhat inaccurate due to differences in people's style of walking, but my Flex never had this.  

Yesterday I was out in the morning and did at least 10 100 step counts in the morning,  About half were right on, most of the rest were < 10% off, so I thought my problems were solved.   I went out in the afternoon, with no difference in walking style or speed, and found the problems were back.

I don't have enough data points to proove this, but it seems like the tracker does better when it's cool out.  Yesterday morning was about 15-20 degrees less than the afternoon.  I've noticed this before, but it may be complete coicidence as I don't have enough data one way or another.

[Rich_Laue]

With owning 9 different Fitbits with currently having 5 attached to my main account, I can say that they are now accurate.
The Surge after its first update i found off by 20-30%, the second update fixed this.
The blaze seems to be off by only a count of 15 - 20 steps whether i walk 100 or 2000 steps.. Now if i walk a little, pause just long enough to start the tracking i find the Blaze to be within 5 steps of my 100 or 2000 step walk. This leads me to believe that it has problems when I'm starting out, i let my arms swing normally.

@chilehead i suggest trying that walk again, this time only count your right foot step, but start the walk with the left foot, now when you hit 100 you've actually done 200 steps, for me the Blaze will still be off by 20. If i count off 500 right foot steps for a walk of 1000 steps my blaze is at km off 20 steps.. Now my accuracy is 2%

[DanHanz]

I've had a blaze for a couple weeks and it's all over the place. For instance last night I decided to take it off and leave it on my desk overnight. To my surprise I woke up with 18 steps, while it was on my desk! That is better than the usual 400+ I usually get while sleeping. I keep checking at different places and I got 75 from getting in my car. Just opening the door and sitting down. With very little walking I'm already over 1500 for the day. It also says I have burned over 3000 calories today which seems crazy. I've noticed the other day when I did go up and down some stairs that it didn't log most of the flights, other times I get several floors that I didn't walk. I love the encouragement and the connection with friends but I don't like the inaccuracy and in my case haywire calorie burn probably due to my afib. I've read lots of these posts and have a hard time figuring out how I can keep track of steps when from day to day it might be 1000 to 3000 off? Are other fitbits more accurate? Are non arm fitbits more accurate? Having a hard time finding answers.

[oBoy]

All of those numbers are normal. Do you mean 15,000 steps? Or...

And depending on when you went to bed, the imaginary steps on the desk may be explainable.

[Rich_Laue]

Hello @dan hand, if you want to test the step accuracy of your tracker. 

Put the tracker into its tracking mode. 

Take a walk while you are counting the steps. 

After say 100 or 200 steps, stop and compare. 

As for any arm based tracker, they are mounted on the arm and not the body core. Therefore arm motions may add steps. 

A body core unit such as the Zip is mounted to the body core, but here again excess movements or a car ride may also add steps. 

Through  the week and month I find the two trackers average out.