Charge 5 Stopping Exercise Due to Long Sleeves?

[Cubs017]

I've been going for some longer runs lately and I feel like my Charge 5 stops tracking my exercise due to coming into contact with my long sleeves. 

It's winter. It's cold out. If I go for a run, I need to wear a sweatshirt and I usually throw a windbreaker on over it. I've noticed lately that my Charge 5 will randomly stop tracking my runs partway through sometimes, and I feel like it's because I pull my windbreaker sleeves down over it to cover it up and it must be rubbing on the sleeve and/or getting sweaty. It doesn't take much to activate the screen, and then it's just a quick pull down/press to get it to stop tracking the exercise. 

Is there any way to stop this? I can't just not wear long sleeves - it's winter. I can't leave my entire wrist exposed when it's 15 degrees outside. Can I use the water lock or something? I've already set my Fitbit so that the screen only turns on manually and I've turned off notifications for things like Heart Rate Zones too. 

Any ideas on how to make this work? I'm getting really tired of having to stop my runs to start a new one on my Fitbit and then ending up with 2 or 3 shorter runs logged instead of one long one. 

[kaja69]

I experience the same problem; my Charge 5 stops the exercise 2 out of 3 times when wearing (nessasary) long sleeves playing football or practicing cross-country / roller skiing. It is VERY enoying. I tried the same as you did. Did you find a way to prevent it?

[kaja69]

.. and by the way, my (lost) Charge 4 did not have that problem.

[Grinder_412]

This happens because double-tapping the screen activates the device, and the damp/wet sleeve essentially double-taps the screen and then taps all the buttons on the device. When there was a button required to activate the device this didn't happen for example with the Charge 4. I'm thinking of switching to a tracker with button activation again, so not the charge.

My current solution is to put a piece of cardboard over the screen and stick it there with scotch tape. It works well, unfortunately it makes it so that I can't look at the screen during exercise.

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Grinder_412 & @kaja69, I've not seen this as an issue before. You could try wearing a sweatband over the device or a top with tighter cuffs.

Cheers

[LiJaHi]

@Cubs017 I've had this same problem with one particular jacket - my gortex rain jacket which is made from quite stiff fabric. I wear other long sleeved tops and jackets, and also thick mittens, all the time in winter without this happening. Like someone else said, I think it's because the jacket is physically tapping the fitbit screen. I can only suggest trying some other jackets or just wear the sweatshirt without the windbreaker and get warm by exercising. If the windbreaker is stiff it's probably behaving the same way as my rain jacket. 

[kaja69]

Besides the long sleeves issue I also started getting skin burns from the Charge 5 (see other threads about this issue). I returned it and got my money back and bought a Charge 4 (again). It works under sleeves and it doesn't give me skin burns. I hope Fitbit will listen to these major issues and use it in the development of Charge 6.

[Grinder_412]

I have tried to wear a sweat band over it, the problem is that when the sweat band gets damp - either from rain or sweat - then it will start tapping the screen 🙂 I have also tried various different covers including a hockey wrist guard, but the problem remains. It happens whenever the material touching it gets wet and has enough weight to tap the screen.

This is also an issue with using it for hockey, and was also an issue with the Versa that I had before the charge 5. When my hockey gloves get damp, then whenever they touch the fitbit they act as a tap on the device. The only way I have found to deal with it is to put something thick like cardboard or plastic packaging between the screen and whatever might touch it.

Perhaps I'll follow Kaja69's lead and just buy a charge 4... or one of the other button-activated trackers.