Altimeter / Floor Counter for Charge 5?

[marcusdeshaun]

Does Charge 5 have an altimeter or some other way to count floors climbed? I bought the Luxe without fully investigating all the specs and want to make sure. 

[Chickenlover]

I’m glad that you are able to “see” your new Charge 5 you just won’t be seeing any stairs climbed.

[jonk123]

Well since it does not have a way to count stairs,

can we get a manual way to count them,  The Charge 3 & 4  do count so there is a place in the database for it

Under Logs / Activity / Common Activities you can manually put in a activity, could we get Stairs added to this item?

This way we can manually add stairs to our activity.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @jonk123  Fitbit never has allowed adding flights of stairs to their device dashboards. Some activities can be added, but not stairs.

[Chickenlover]

So if I understand your question correctly it would show up in the app for instance on my phone but not on my watch which is not acceptable.

[whmyersb]

Yes.  It shows on the Fitbit App on my phone,  Not on the Fitbit 5 Watch.

[Reid0]

People who have had Fitbit Charge models before and had been able to track stairs with every iteration of them so far had no reason to expect a basic feature to be removed. It’s like buying the latest model of your favourite car and finding out one of the doors is sealed shut and being told you should have read up on the removed door functionality. Why would anyone expect a basic feature to be deleted without it being mentioned anywhere?

I, like many others here, upgraded from an older charge expecting additional features, not to be missing an essential feature.

[whmyersb]

Agreed!  I think Fitbit pulled a fast one here so I am not sure I should trust their products in the future.

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If you want to count floors or run stadiums ... do not but the Fitbit 5.  I think they were "sneaky" in deleting this function with no mention of it.

[Cash11]

Actually, I did do my research. I read everything on the Fitbit website, Amazon and cnet and some other tech review at the time of purchase. I purchased it as a pre-order prior to its release date online. 

NOWHERE on any of the above mentioned sites did it say the altimeter was removed. All they listed was what was NEW. In fact, one of the tech reviews said it had ALL the previous features plus the new. 

[pcorp1]

I was about to get the charge 5.. thank god I found out about the missing altimeter! Shocked and disappointed.. Hopefully enough people complain that they add this back to the future model.. I'm not getting the charge 5 because of this.

[whmyersb]

I think if FITBIT would like to maintain their customer base, they should stop making bad decisions and do something to help those who now feel screwed by the FITBIT company!

[don100k]

I am also thinking about returning, if they are not going to add the altimeter function

[N8teGee]

@don100k The required hardware is missing, therefore it's impossible for them to add the feature through a software update. If you plan to return the device, I'd recommend you do so whilst you can as this feature isn't coming. 

[kitch_81]

Only just realised that the Charge 5 doesn't count stair. I'm really disappointed. As a regular mountain climber I use this feature (and the stairs badges) to track this specific activity. Think I might have to swap for a charge 4.

[Chickenlover]

I am really seriously bummed that Fitbit took the stair counter out of the new Charge 5 which I was going to purchase but not now. I seriously hope they correct this big mistake they’ve made and include it on the Charge 6. And if Fitbit does not add the stair counter back in I guess I’ll never buy another anything from them.

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I was all set to get the new Charge 5 as Costco is going to have it on sale until I did my research and if they don’t include the stair counter it in the next Charge 6 then I won’t be getting anything from Fitbit in the future.

[temesvar]

Did you ever have a stair counter that was actually accurate??
Albert

[Chickenlover]

To the best of my knowledge my Charge 3 seemed to work fine counting all the stairs I have in my home especially if I was working downstairs and was going up and down the stairs working on a project and I also have stairs at work.  That was why it really irked me that Fitbit removed the altimeter/stair counter without even bothering to ask anybody if we cared.  I think they might learn just how much those of us do care about not having the altimeter/stair counter in the Charge 5 and hopefully they bring it back with the Charge 6 otherwise I won’t be getting another Fitbit.

[fionac]

@temesvar, not me.  And I'm probably one of the perpetrators of the offence of its removal since I had at least two devices (both a 3 and a 4) replaced because of the lack of accuracy - one under-counted and the other massively over-counted; I guess it might work if you only use it for counting actual stairs, but a lot of my upward movement is outside in windy Britain.  I'd routinely end up with a great many more flights than I should have during a climb up a 50ft hill when it should have been 5.  I also achieved all the badges which made it less important as a goal.  I doubt it'll make a reappearance in the next iteration - they're not going to re-introduce something that a lot of people complained about the accuracy of.

[nihahi]

If people complaining about accuracy was a reason for removing the altimeter function, then what would explain the reason why they continue to include a highly inaccurate, unreliable, battery eating GPS???

[Chickenlover]

Excellent question and eat up that battery GPS definitely does.

[Craig]

Well after all these years me being a fitbit customer from day 1. Making a higher priced product and taking away feature is total garbage. Floors is a very important part.   Getting like cable tv companies charging more and take away from us.     @KateFitbit