Charge 5 won’t respond

[Molcat]

I recently just went on holiday with my Fitbit charge 5. I went swimming with it on and it worked fine when I came out of the pool but after a little while it then shut itself down. I tried to put it on charge using the dock and it overheated. I read that I I needed to use the wire with the button and I did that yesterday when I came home. The Fitbit did vibrate when it was on charge the screen did flash on showed the home page and straight away shut down. I tried to reput it on charge and it hasn’t vibrated and nothing has happened since with either the wire or the dock. 
I’ve had this Fitbit for over 2 years and this is the first time that this has happened. 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Molcat it sounds like your Fitbit got water in it.  Although the Charge 5 is meant to be water resistant, the resistance can be compromised over time through exposure to skin oils, sunscreen etc.  Ideally if you suspect there is water in the Fitbit it is best to dry it out before charging it, and you should always stop charging if your Fitbit overheats when plugged in, so unfortunately you may have fried it by continuing to try charging while it still had moisture inside.

However, it is possible that it might recover.  I would recommend putting it in a bag of uncooked rice for 48 hours or so to give it a chance to try it out completely, then try charging it again.  As long as it does not get hot you can safely charge it for a couple of hours before trying the restart procedure again (the button press that you tried earlier).  If you are lucky this may bring it back to life.

If it does not recover it is worth getting in touch with Customer Support on Contact.fitbit.com .  Even though your Fitbit, which is more than two years old, will no longer be covered by warranty, I know that Fitbit is sometimes able to offer a significant discount to loyal customers looking to replace or upgrade their device.

Good luck! And welcome to the Community Forums.