Charge 5 inaccurate low heart rate

[charleskn]

In general, I find my HR readings from the Charge 5 to be pretty good, especially when working out. However, today I was at my cardiologist and received the usual EKG. My Charge 5 indicated my HR to be 50 bpm, but my official EKG measured my HR at 38 bpm, which is a substantial difference. 

This makes me wonder if the algorithm that determines the HR from the optical data is skewed/biased against low HRs.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, thank you for sharing all these details about the inconvenience you've been having with your Charge 5 and your resting heart rate, @charleskn.  

I've been informed that you already contacted the Customer Support team for further assistance with this and it seems they've provided you with more information about this. In this case, they will let you know how to proceed. 

See you around. 

[charleskn]

@DavideFitbit  Wow, that is news to me. To my knowledge, I have not reached out to customer support about any issues in recent memory.

[Andybear]

Yes I have experienced this, I consistently see low heart rate readings on the fitbit, sometimes for long periods and they match what I get when taking my own pulse on the other wrist but in the App my resting heart rate is shown higher and the low heart rate readings don't show in the heart rate graph either. I think there is a bias against displaying the low HR readings in the App. I have noticed this more in the last month or two and I have a suspicion that an algorithm has been tweaked. I see that nobody from Fitbit has actually answered your question. The usefulness of the device for monitoring my heart health is questionable, I am unsure that it is worth continuing to pay for a premium subscription when the data is not accurate.