Charge 5 HR often wrong

[okoye11]

My Charge 5 has been giving me strange readings since the fall, and I was starting to wonder if I actually have heart problems. I just bought a chest-strap heart monitor and went for a walk wearing both, and sure enough my Fitbit said my heart rate kept spiking up to like 140 and staying there for minutes at a time, but the chest monitor read a pretty steady walking HR of between 95 and 105.

Anyone else had this issue? If so how did you fix it? I have long covid so it’s pretty important for me to be able to monitor my HR most of the time.

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, it's good to see you visiting the Community forums for the first time, @okoye11. 

Thanks for sharing all your experience and feedback with the heart rate feature on the Charge 5. 

Before considering other options, 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 who have experienced something similar.  

In addition, I recommend that you try restarting the device again 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, pausing for 1 second between presses. Then wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.