Charge 5 has died after swimming

[Jczich]

Hi all

my 8 month old charge 5 has just died after a shallow sea swim. I’ve tried a restart with no success and it now just has a red light on the back.  Had previous problems resolved really quickly with a chat session but now I just get ‘starting a chat session’ I’ve just tried again and it says there is an active case but I didn’t get as far as the actual chat. I’m currently on holiday so can’t contact by phone - has anyone else had this and got it resolved?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Jczich , first an 8 month old Fitbit, as long as you bought it from an authorised retailer, will be covered by warranty, so you should be confident that your issues will be resolved, although it may take some time as you are on holiday.

Second, sea swimming does provide more challenges to the Fitbit than fresh water swimming.  If the water resistance has been breached - and that can happen due to age, exposure to skin oils and added skin creams, sunlight, etc, then a breech from sea water is more problematic than a fresh water breech, as salt is an added hazard.

In this case I would recommend a thorough rinsing, in fresh water, of your Fitbit.  I know it is counter intuitive to add water to a device suspected of dying because wet, but I would recommend doing it even so.  Salt is a worse enemy!  Once you have given your device a good rinse, please pop it into a bag of uncooked rice for 48-72 hours and then try to re-charge it and sync to your app.

If that works, super!  If not please do log a warranty case by contacting Contact.fitbit.com