Charge 5 rapid changes in heart rate monitor

[Saeryne]

I have been watching my heart closely due to suddenly experiencing heart beat issues. Whilst I am waiting for tests, I am keeping a journal of what happens when and part of that is my heart rate whenever I feel anything not normal. My fitbit has been saying it is going upto 120+ on a night, though now I am unsure if it is even this high. I need more accuracy.

I am finding that the fitbit is potentially showing my HR as higher then it actually feels or showing it fluxuating wildly (when its not, not helping my stress)).

I have borrowed my mothers charge 5 and wearing them on the same wrist sometimes mine will sometime read 10 bpm higher. Or it will suddenly climb rapidly then comeback down whilst the other stays the same (not helping my worry!). I have swapped their positions on my arm to make sure this wasnt a cause.

Whilst sat down they will usually read within 1-2 bpm of each other which is fine, though it is making me stress worse not actually knowing just where my heart rate is at when I am relying on it to let me know how just how much higher it really is.

I have tried repositioning and restarting and it is still happening.

I bought it in April this year.

THanks.

[charleskn]

Obviously, folks here will encourage you to make sure the band is snugly fitting, etc. If you're going to wear both, use different arms. I highly encourage manually reading your pulse as a sanity check. If the Fitbits aren't accurate, and that is leading to additional stress, I would not wear them.

[Saeryne]

I had start to manually read, unfortunately that takes a longer time and not always viable (as I am dyslexic and not able to mentally add them up) I do have a blood pressure monitor that takes heart rate though your not meant to use them too often. Thanks.

I am sure on my charge 3 i was able to switch between taking the reading every second to a longer time (minute)? Is this possible on the charge 5?

[Saeryne]

OK. Nothing has improved.

I dont need it to be accurate to the beat, a few beats either way is fine.  It read correctly at low levels. I start doing stretches and it was saying my HR was at 140+! I check on my neck and it certainly wasnt doing that! My mothers fitbit was saying it was in the 80s. That a jump of over 50 bpm!

With my heart issue I need something more reliable as I am keeping a monitor of what my heart is doing (which I was using the fitbit for).

Any other suggestions? Maybe mine has a fault?

[charleskn]

@Saeryne I am sorry to hear this is such a pain. It sounds like you've done some good checks. I would suggest restarting your Fitbit tracker to see if that helps things. If that doesn't resolve the issue, you should probably to reach out to customer support.

How do I restart my Fitbit device?

[Saeryne]

I have tried all that. I will contact customer support, thanks.