Charge 5 HR Accuracy When Exercising

[GSB1]

When exercising, my Charge 5 tracks my HR relatively accurately up to about 170.  But then the Charge 5 would start reading lower and lower HRs (all the way down to 80)...while I was still exercising intensely.  I tried repositioning the band while exercising (and HR read 80) with no effect (I was also wearing a HR strap to confirm my HR was actually still in the 170s).

I have tried the recommendations from the forum moderator:  band is positioned properly two fingers from my wrist bone, sensor is clean, band is relatively tight (but not too tight) and I have tried the three pulse restart.  I just purchased the Charge 5 a few days ago so, thus far, have not been able to get a (sustained) accurate exercise reading.   Resting reading seems fine.

Appreciate any other suggestions...or do I need to RMA the unit?

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, it's good to see you visiting the Fitbit Community forums for the first time, @GSB1. 

I appreciate all the information that you've shared so far about this inconvenience with the heart rate on Charge 5 and for confirming that you already tried all the recommended steps in the forums. 

I've sent your information to the Customer Support team for further assistance with this, but it seems that you already got in touch with them and they've shared some instructions with you. In this case, they will let you know about the options available for you. 

[GSB1]

Thanks for the reply.  I tried calling Customer Support but got a woman on the line who could barely speak English (I had to spell my e-mail address five times slowly letter by letter and she managed to get it wrong each time)...after trying to communicate with her for about 10 minutes, I gave up and thought I'd try posting here instead.   Very frustrating.

[DavideFitbit · Accepted solution]

@GSB1 Thank you for your response and for confirming that you already got in touch with Support. 

To ensure that your device is tracking information as accurately as possible, please try adjusting the position of the device on your wrist following the recommendations listed here. You can find some additional steps and recommendations about factors that can affect your heart rate data here. 

In addition and as a first steps, I would also try restarting your Charge 5 using the charging cable and then check if you continue to experience any abnormal behavior. Let me know how it goes.