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wgat is the best fix for the Blaze step counts

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‎03-13-2016 07:23

‎03-13-2016 07:23

My wife brought the Blaze as an upgrade to her Charge HR. But as we have gone with this product we are not impressed. The step count is dramatically off with this product. I have a Surge and out of the 3 the Blaze fails in comparison. I don't know if they were trying to keep pace with the Apple Watch but; looking for advice to help correct the issue.

We've read keeping your arm at a 90 degree angle but; let's be real about that as an option. How would that be a fix in everyday life, especially when my wife logs close to 6k steps a day at work alone.

We've tried the while resting the Blaze which has not helped either.

We've made sure that we configured all the settings such as stride count, etc, etc which has helped some.

I like the idea that Fitbit came up with but; truly feel that they missed on key and major design specs for this to be a great product. I would love to hear from someone at Fitbit about their future plans or updates to help fix these issues. Even if it was a firmware update they are planning to roll out. Preferably sooner rather than later.

With us using these products for healthy choices and actions this kind of inaccuracies are a big set back.

Open to suggestions from anyone or suggestions on how to get more accurate results with step counts.
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7 REPLIES 7

‎03-13-2016 07:27

‎03-13-2016 07:27

There is no adjustment and not much you can do. The suggestion box is stuffed full.
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0 Votes

‎03-13-2016 07:50

‎03-13-2016 07:50

Have you done a step count test during ypur daily walk/run yet.
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‎03-13-2016 07:50

‎03-13-2016 07:50

How inaccurate are we talking?  A good test to see if it is working well is to simply see how many steps it is at and then walk/ count in your head to 100-200 and see if it got it correct. Mine has passed that test everytime (it's always within a few steps), and I don't walk with a 90 degree bend in my arms to make it work.

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‎03-13-2016 08:03

In response to AdamMSC

‎03-13-2016 08:03

We'll try that. But we're talking significant. With her Charge at work by time she got home she would have 6k steps. But with the Blaze by time she gets home she'll have 4K steps. We've tried the other rests also to no avail. 

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‎03-13-2016 08:10 - edited ‎03-13-2016 08:19

In response to kriabick09

‎03-13-2016 08:10 - edited ‎03-13-2016 08:19

Could be your other devices, or your Blaze needs to be hard reset (hold the left button and the bottom right button for about 10 seconds). I just did another test with mine to 200 steps, and I included pivots, stops, and walking in odd patterns to intentionally throw it off, and it only missed 4 steps. For her device to be off by thousands, something is definitely wrong!

 

One other thing: I've read about some devices counting typing as steps. The Blaze does not do that. You don't want a device that is super sensitive to movement; you'd be getting inaccurate results on the other side of the spectrum, which would be entirely misleading. I'd much rather have a device that slightly undercounts opposed to dramatic overcounting. I am not suggesting that your devices were doing that, but it is a possibility. I never owned a fitbit device prior to this.

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‎03-13-2016 08:50

In response to AdamMSC

‎03-13-2016 08:50

Another thing I noticed is that if you alter your stride measurement from the base formula then you don't get as much credit for steps as you do with the auto calculation of stride length. Under settings in the web app look under personal info and see what the stride length is set to. Also make sure your other data is correct like height,gender and weight. Some people leave gender blank which will mess with the auto calculation of steps. When I compare my Blaze daily step counts against my Polar M400 they are withing about 20-30 steps of each other. I normally do about 20K steps a day at work as I am a custodian on a large campus and walk everywhere. 

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‎03-13-2016 17:50

‎03-13-2016 17:50

I found the blaze to be very very inaccurate with steps (like missing half). I actually got another one sent to me (to see if I had a defective one - although the complaint was weak vibration).... Both units exactly the same, so it wasn't defective device. Back they both go. I really wanted to love it but something is very off with this new design. What a shame. I'll go back to the hr for now.
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