Total Lifespan of blaze

[Spongie]

Just curious as to how long these devices last if they are taken care of correctly. I'm hoping mine will last long.

[SunsetRunner]

22 Months, fails to hold charge.

Expected a bit longer for life.  Must be Fitbit's way of generating future sales.

[Rich_Laue]

1 blaze, almost 1.5 years, and still going strong 

[KB9WNS]

HR sensor board U1 pins 5 input 2 and pin 6 VDD corroded from sweat. U1 is an Analog Devices ADG772 Dual Mux/Demux (switch)

[jwebb72]

My Blaze is over 2 years old now, still works perfectly. I wear it every day, 24/7. Only take it off to charge and to shower. Only reason I'm switching to an Ionic is for the GPS, hate running with my phone all the time, lol.

[HAShreve]

Fitbit Blaze appears to fully charge but shows low battery after just .few hours. I have turned off / reset, and followed all contact cleaning instructions. Very disappointed that it appears to have a short life expectancy. 

[HAShreve]

I agree that some people must just be lucky. The newer fitbits do not last. As an active retired senior I find the need to buy a new device every couple of years very costly and disappointing. Seems they work thru warranty and then seem destin to quit working.  

[HAShreve]

My Blaze is also out of warranty. Guess I'll see if I can get a discount on a newer model. Sad.

[fsBlaze]

i've had my Blaze for 15 months and it's now only able to hold a charge for 5-6 hours.  It charges fully but then drains pretty quickly.  From a scan of the message boards it seems like this is a current and ongoing issue with Blazes.  Some have guessed it's a firmware issue and not a battery issue but whatever it is, this is unusable as I know have to charge it every night before bed, every morning when I wake up, while I'm driving, basically every chance I get so it's pretty much only useful for most of my work day and then when I'm in the gym.  It can't/doesn't track sleep since it dies overnight.

[Rich_Laue]

Battery issues after this long of a period are usually caused by not properly maintaing the battery .

Ways to reduce the battery life include: 

Overheating the battery. by consistantly leaving it in a car, or on its charger overnight. This will cause the battery to push it's sides outward. 

Letting the battery often drop below 30% or constantly charging it to 100% 

Letting the tracker sit for a period of time with the battery dead and not putting it into its charger. 

Yes there will be batteries out there that simply are defective and cause problems from the begining. The key to this is that the promblems show up within the first few months. Not after a year. 

[fsBlaze]

As an electrical engineering major and someone who has owned, repaired and maintained electronics of the corded and battery powered kind for decades, I don't need a lecture about how to maintain a battery.  I've built the circuitry to charge batteries.

Poor maintenance does lead to reduced battery life but let's look at the life span of my individual device, which won't be representative of the product line entirely but might paint a picture of why, when a number of people report a similar set of problems, it's good customer service to make an effort to determine if there is a design, material or manufacturing issue and try to remedy it rather than offer a "deep discount" that may actually cost me more than what I would pay for the device from Costco if I wait for the annual Christmas sale.

The FitBit Blaze I purchased brand new from Costco in February of 2017 never held a charge for longer than 30 hours.  I've seen a few posts here or there saying that it would hold a charge for days.  Not in my experience.  I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed that the 30 hour charge time was a design decision for something with more processing power than a simple step counter and was long enough to use for an entire day and charging overnight.  For those of us that want to use the fitbit to monitor sleep patterns that isn't desirable so I charged it daily when I didn't need it (while showering or driving) so it cycled fairly well between 20-30% and 100% because that's about where it could go without charging it two or three times a day.  I didn't leave it charging for extended periods of time because I needed it to track my sleep and my motion throughout the day, the main reason I purchased it, so it wasn't sitting around constantly charging to 100%.  It didn't sit in the car or on a charger over night, because I was using it as it was intended to be used.  I didn't let it sit dead because I used it as intended.

I appreciate your position as a "community legend" and I'm sure you've provided great advice to people to reach that status.  But it frankly doesn't help anybody to tell people that the irreplaceable fitbit battery died within a month or two after the warranty expired.  Your explanation is sound and the reasoning about the likelihood of battery defects occurring sooner is sound.  But this doesn't look like a defective or improperly maintained battery.  It looks like a design and material decision to use a battery that will last long enough past the warranty period most of the time but not all of the time.

[KB9WNS]

---

@fsBlaze wrote:

As an electrical engineering major and someone who has owned, repaired and maintained electronics of the corded and battery powered kind for decades, I don't need a lecture about how to maintain a battery.  I've built the circuitry to charge batteries.

Poor maintenance does lead to reduced battery life but let's look at the life span of my individual device, which won't be representative of the product line entirely but might paint a picture of why, when a number of people report a similar set of problems, it's good customer service to make an effort to determine if there is a design, material or manufacturing issue and try to remedy it rather than offer a "deep discount" that may actually cost me more than what I would pay for the device from Costco if I wait for the annual Christmas sale.

The FitBit Blaze I purchased brand new from Costco in February of 2017 never held a charge for longer than 30 hours.  I've seen a few posts here or there saying that it would hold a charge for days.  Not in my experience.  I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed that the 30 hour charge time was a design decision for something with more processing power than a simple step counter and was long enough to use for an entire day and charging overnight.  For those of us that want to use the fitbit to monitor sleep patterns that isn't desirable so I charged it daily when I didn't need it (while showering or driving) so it cycled fairly well between 20-30% and 100% because that's about where it could go without charging it two or three times a day.  I didn't leave it charging for extended periods of time because I needed it to track my sleep and my motion throughout the day, the main reason I purchased it, so it wasn't sitting around constantly charging to 100%.  It didn't sit in the car or on a charger over night, because I was using it as it was intended to be used.  I didn't let it sit dead because I used it as intended.

I appreciate your position as a "community legend" and I'm sure you've provided great advice to people to reach that status.  But it frankly doesn't help anybody to tell people that the irreplaceable fitbit battery died within a month or two after the warranty expired.  Your explanation is sound and the reasoning about the likelihood of battery defects occurring sooner is sound.  But this doesn't look like a defective or improperly maintained battery.  It looks like a design and material decision to use a battery that will last long enough past the warranty period most of the time but not all of the time.

********************************************************

I am also an electrical engineer and have done some analysis on the Blaze.  Under normal condition conditions the Blaze is capable of 4 to 5 day battery life if you do not use the continuous sync option.  What I have found is when the battery life goes to crap it seems to be attempting to sync with the server and constantly re-attempting connection to the server via your phone.  In order to sync the phone needs to be connected to a good internet connection as the FitBit devices do not sync off-line.

The Blaze has a 167 milliamp/hour battery and the Bluetooth radio, a Texas Instruments CC2564, has an average current draw of about 40 milliamps during active connection time.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc2564.pdf

Any syncing issues will quickly drain the battery.

Syncing issues can be quickly discovered using WireShark on your network router or on your PC and doing a packet analysis.

Another issue with the Blaze is the poor quality of the HR sensor window which allows moisture ingress when it fails damaging and /or destroying the HR sensor board.

---

[KB9WNS]

---

@fsBlaze wrote:

As an electrical engineering major and someone who has owned, repaired and maintained electronics of the corded and battery powered kind for decades, I don't need a lecture about how to maintain a battery.  I've built the circuitry to charge batteries.

Poor maintenance does lead to reduced battery life but let's look at the life span of my individual device, which won't be representative of the product line entirely but might paint a picture of why, when a number of people report a similar set of problems, it's good customer service to make an effort to determine if there is a design, material or manufacturing issue and try to remedy it rather than offer a "deep discount" that may actually cost me more than what I would pay for the device from Costco if I wait for the annual Christmas sale.

The FitBit Blaze I purchased brand new from Costco in February of 2017 never held a charge for longer than 30 hours.  I've seen a few posts here or there saying that it would hold a charge for days.  Not in my experience.  I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed that the 30 hour charge time was a design decision for something with more processing power than a simple step counter and was long enough to use for an entire day and charging overnight.  For those of us that want to use the fitbit to monitor sleep patterns that isn't desirable so I charged it daily when I didn't need it (while showering or driving) so it cycled fairly well between 20-30% and 100% because that's about where it could go without charging it two or three times a day.  I didn't leave it charging for extended periods of time because I needed it to track my sleep and my motion throughout the day, the main reason I purchased it, so it wasn't sitting around constantly charging to 100%.  It didn't sit in the car or on a charger over night, because I was using it as it was intended to be used.  I didn't let it sit dead because I used it as intended.

I appreciate your position as a "community legend" and I'm sure you've provided great advice to people to reach that status.  But it frankly doesn't help anybody to tell people that the irreplaceable fitbit battery died within a month or two after the warranty expired.  Your explanation is sound and the reasoning about the likelihood of battery defects occurring sooner is sound.  But this doesn't look like a defective or improperly maintained battery.  It looks like a design and material decision to use a battery that will last long enough past the warranty period most of the time but not all of the time.

---

I am also an electrical engineer and HAM radio operator

I have also have had battery life issues.  The battery is a 167 milliamp-hour battery.  The FitBit devices require an internet connection to sync to the FitBit servers via the phone app.  

My Blaze has had normal battery life of 4 to 5 days between charges with the "All Day Sync" disabled and heart rate set to "auto".  The Bluetooth transceiver is a Texas Instruments CC2564 which has an average current draw of about 40 milliamps when actively transmitting/receiving data.  If there is an issue with syncing either with your phone or the FitBit servers the battery will drain rather quickly.  I have done WireShark analysis on my network when I had issues with battery life, typically less then one day, and noted that there is excess activity during those periods. 

The problem is likely a server-side issue and maybe an internal firmware issue or possibly a compatibility issue causing the Bluetooth radio to constantly attempt to connect.  My current "frankenstein" Blaze has 2 year old battery in it and currently is lasting about 4 days between charges.  The same battery had gone to less then one day at times.  

The battery charge control circuit is a Max14676 and has an advanced charge control algorithm.

The other issue with the Blaze is the poor quality HR sensor window which I fixed using "Duck HD clear" brand of duct tape over the window and LED's and that has improved the HR sensor accuracy to better then original new and works rather well.

[5arahr]

My zip lasted less than a year, but that was my fault. I dropped it in the toilet, ha.

But my other 2 devices, the Charge HR and Blaze lasted about 11 months each and both were replaced. The HR, was actually replaced at no charge 2 times. I clean them like the directions say and never get them wet... so I don't know why I can't get a full year out of them. 😞

[HAShreve]

I am a retired senior. Sure hate that I have to purchase a new Fitbit every
couple of years. Seems for the $$ they should last longer than just past
the one yet warranty.

[Aldridge19]

My experience is very poor.  The first lasted less than 9 months, the second lasted 21 months.  I would expect better reliability for a premium product.  Fitbit customer support very regimented in their 2 year warranty and not interested in helping (even offered to pay for a replacement pebble and Fitbit refused).  Would not recommend the Blaze.  

[tasian]

Mine lasted 1 year and 3 months. Sadly

[K9dancer]

Had my Blaze for 18 months.  I used it every day, and would charge it twice a week.  It worked fine until it suddenly didn’t.  I kept everything clean, did all according to what I was supposed to do, but the battery stopped holding a charge.  Not happy with the offer of 25% off another product.  Considering I’d have to buy it from their site in US dollars, converted to Canadian, I would be spending more than the original cost of the Blaze.  Seems odd that SO MANY people have had their Blazes die on them all around the same time.  I am finished with this company.  

I bought a different brand that does as much as the Blaze and more with a more streamlined look and much better customer service.

[Sam369]

My son and I both had a Blaze. they lasted less than 2 years. I'm done purchasing fitbit products

[HAShreve]

AGREE ~ Certainly seems Fitbit lasts past the one year warranty, yet dies
before the second year. Replacing every two years makes the cost seem
pretty steep.

[DKWilliams]

Mine just turned three years old and it's been well taken care of. It's no longer accepting a charge.