Bad Heartrate monitoring on Fitbit Charge 5:

[Andreyyy]

Hi, I have a Fitbit Charge 5. And yesterday I was climbing on top of a mountain and my heartrate was not accurate at all am many times I have discpvered that my puse wasn't even detected at all by the charge 5.

When there was a pulse detection (which happened very rarely).. It was very low.. It showed me 100-110 when I fact  my pulse was above 180 bpm.

I thought that it was because I was sweating a lot... 

But the Fitbit is made for those that sweat a lot!! So I am a little bit confused here... 

During the night it the pulse is detected correctly... But when I work out, or when I climb a mountain the HR stops totally or becomes completely inaccurate... Is there any solution?!  I read that the Fitbit 3 had the same problem, so I'm very sad about the fact that mi charge 5 has the same identical problem...

Moderator edit: format

[DavideFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community forums, @Andreyyy.  

I appreciate all the information that provided about the inconvenience you've been experiencing with your Charge 5. 

There are a few general recommendations that are usually helpful with this type of issues. If you haven't done so already, please follow the instructions in this article to improve the accuracy of heart rate information and check the information mentioned here about other factors that could affect your heart rate reading, this has been useful to other users. 

In addition, I recommend that you try restarting the device using the three pulse restart method mentioned here below, instead of the restart option found on the Charge 5 itself: 

1. Connect your device to the charging cable. For instructions, see How do I charge my Fitbit device?
2. Press the button located on the flat end of the charger 3 times (end of the USB cable), pausing for 1 second between presses. Then wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.

Let me know if you continue to experience the same behavior afterwards. 

[Andreyyy]

Thank you for the answer. I have tried everything, the problem is that when there is a lot of sweat between the fitbit and my arm, the fitbit stops calculating the heartrate correctly: there is no heartrate most of the time and when there is, it is a totally wrong reading of my heartrate...

It is a limitation of the sensors.

But when my hand is not wet, everything is OK..

When I do an intense workout outdoors, when is very hot 35° C or 40°, under the sun, when I run and is very hot outside and I sweat a lot...  HR monitoring goes totally crazy... I think that it starts counting steps instead of HR in these occasions... 😂 

So I suppose that this is a limitation of optical hr sensors, and nothing can be done... The interference of sweat + hands movements makes the optical sensor go crazy.. 

I can't wipe the sweat off my hand every 5 minutes during a workout...

When I do weight lifting at the gym the HR is accurate... Because there is air conditioning in the room and I don't sweat as much... That's all...

I am happy with the fitbit anyway.. Everything has its limitations.. It can't be perfect... Optical sensors for HR have their limitations..

[DavideFitbit]

@Andreyyy Thank you for sharing all these updates and for confirming that you already tried the steps suggested. 

Even if this is only happening when there's a lot of sweat, I would still recommend that you get in touch with the Customer Support team so they can let you know if there are any other options available for you, since you already tried the restart and the other recommendations. They will let you know how to proceed. 

You can get in touch with them via chat or call them directly for a faster response. Please click here to get connected. 

Thanks again for sharing all your comments and feedback.