Charge 5 seems to be useless in a pool

[teddy0]

Today I went swimming and tried to use my Charge 5 to track the exercise. I set the size of the pool (25 meters) and set it to always on screen. It then locked the screen for water usage which seemed correct. I then had a minor and a major issue:

Minor: when locked it only showed elapsed time in the face. When running I always cycle it to show me heart rate in big numbers and elapsed time in small ones. Ideally I'd like it to always just start all exercise like that. But because during swimming the screen is locked there was no way to cycle it. If I unlocked it just paused the exercise.

Major: several times it just paused by itself and showed the Finish/Resume screen. It seems the water locking is broken and unlocked by itself. At the end when I synced with the phone it had captured an exercise of 10 pool lengths. I did 32 in total. This means the captured exercise is just completely wrong and it's useless to use this in the pool.

[Surfista]

The water lock shuts off some of the sensor readings. When swimming, it only shows elapsed time.

I have also experienced incorrect lap counts on a regular basis and it will not display a lap count during the swim. The charge 5 is not the ideal swim tracker.

[KathyJSD]

I'm a new fitbit user and a swimmer. I figured out after one use that it doesn't record anything you do on the kick board; probably because your arms aren't moving. I decided to try wearing it on my ankle, and it worked fine; all laps counted correctly. I even paused it to get in the jacuzzi after my swim and it handled that as well. Only slight problem was I got teased for wearing an ankle bracelet (like you get from jail!). I'm going to keep using it on my ankle because it's also less noticeable when sleeping. I just use it as an activity/calorie tracker, and wear my regular watch on my wrist.

[WestEnd1225]

Where is the water lock button?

[KathyJSD]

When you choose swimming, the water lock goes on automatically. After you’re done swimming, you unlock it by tapping twice, firmly, right in the middle of the display. With mine, sometimes it takes a couple of tries.

Sent from my iPad

[WestEnd1225]

Thank you so much x

Sent from my iPhone

[Sequimer]

Me too. Many times, the lap count and time elapsed is accurate. But several times it shows half or less of the laps. I know it doesn't count kick only. It doesn't seem to count breast stroke either. But my regular routine is freestyle, backstroke and hand paddle freestyle. Any suggestions?