Charge 5 heart rate spikes

[mickpayton]

I bought a Charge 5 recently. Being 70 years old my only exercise is walking the dog, the Charge is to keep track of steps and heart rate. Where I walk the dog there's a few hundred yards of flat track then a steep hill. Along the flat my heart rate rises - according to the Charge 5 - to around 85bpm, just after starting up the hill there's a sudden spike to around 138bpm, then it drops back down to around 107bpm. This spike doesn't happen every time. Anyone experience the same or have an answer?

thanks

[Talahthas]

Welcome back to the Fitbit community, @mickpayton!

If your Blaze didn't behave the same way in terms of heart rate tracking, I'd suggest having a closer look here to hopefully get better results:

Charge 5 User Manual - Wear Charge 5 

I'd also like to point out that strong hair or tattoos on your forearm where you wear your device could have a negative impact on HR tracking.

[mickpayton]

Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate the directions to the manual and will take on board the advice, however, I would hardly call walking exercise as it's surely something we do all day and would call for the Charge 5 to be worn as per exercise instructions permanently?

Thanks

[mickpayton]

[Talahthas]

You're welcome, @mickpayton.

Obviously you're using what I remember as AutoTrack meaning whenever your're doing constant motions, you're device will automatically recognize those as a exercises after a given period of time. For Walking this is set for at least 10 Minutes in the app. During exercises sampling rate for HR tracking is increased which might lead to those pikes.

[mickpayton]

No, I'm not using AutoTrack, all those are set to ignore as they were annoying. All I use are steps counting and heart rate measuring, everything else is off wherever possible. So Walking Exercise doesn't operate and therefore the sampling rate doesn't change.

[Talahthas]

Thanks for reporting back, @mickpayton.

If you haven't done already, please check if restarting your Charge 5 will improve things. Before doing so you should make sure you've synced your device to not lose any data tracked so far. Also you should verify that the charging contacts on your device are clean and the charging pins on it's charging adapter are clean as well and can move flawlessly. In doubt, please have a look here:

How do I clean my Fitbit device?

Next please closely follow these instructions as timing is crucial for this procedure:

1.) Connect your Charge 5 to the charging cable which has to be connected to a reliable power source.
2.) Press the button located on the flat end of the charging cable 3 times within 8 seconds(!), holding each press for about 1 second(!).
3.) Wait around 10 seconds until the Fitbit logo appears on your device's display.

Sometimes it requires more than one attempt to restart Charge 5. So, before throwing the towel, please give it another try.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[mickpayton]

Hi,

I'm afraid that didn't solve the problem either,

[SunsetRunner]

I can make my Charge 5 spike on demand. All I have to do is roll my wrist as if I were conducting an orchestra. Seated I recorded 135 bpm when at the same time I had two fingers on my carotid counting the real score of 65 bpm. 

[mickpayton · Accepted solution]

Hi and thanks for your reply, I suspected as much so it's great to hear someone confirm my thinking. I can put it to bed now knowing it's an error.

Thanks again.