Charge 6 HR locking onto the cadence when running

[Triletics]

This happened several times already and today it's been the worst when HR locked onto my cadence for 42 minutes. My usual cadence oscillates around 195 steps-per-minute. When doing occasional spot checks of HR a value near 195 (or exactly 195) was visible as my HR. This run was a base aerobic and a steady pace effort (zone 2) with HR <153bpm:

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Eventually, Charge 6 unlocks from cadence but today it took really long time. Now, I have a collection of more runs when this happened than runs when it didn't happen so there is a problem with the algorithm. I believe (just a theory) that to battle a known problem of not being able to capture higher HR the algorithm allows for more noise to get in and my cadence is more likely to be mistaken for a heartbeat. Most runners who run with lower cadence may not see such an issue. I'm curious whether runners running with 180spm+ encounter this problem on Charge 6. Despite my very optimistic first days with the device I started discovering its darker side. This issue makes HR tracking during runs kind of useless. Still something for Fitbit to work on.

[SunsetRunner]

My running cadance is quite below 195 spm, so, my solution might not work. But what I do is move the tracker at least 2 fingers above the wrist bone and tighten it as much as I still find comfortable. And I have been getting readings that are within + or - 2 beats within what I am getting from Polar Verity sense. Like for my 1 hour run today, the Polar Verity sense recorded HR max of 142 bpm and HR avg of 128 bpm. Charge 6 recorded HR max of 141 and HR avg of 127. So, pretty close readings. And this has been consistent since I started wearing Charge 6 as described above. Before that, what I was getting from Charge was often way off from what Polar Verity sense recorded. So, at least so far, I am quite pleased. But then, I still rely on Polar Verity sense when I am trying to keep within a particular heart rate zone also because Fitbit only works on 3 heart zones instead of the usual 5. It is just good to know that Charge 6 is able to keep up.

[Triletics]

@SunsetRunner positioning of Charge 6 doesn't work in this case because that does nothing to filter out cadence noise. I tried three Charge 6 and result is the same (wanted to exclude faulty device). I just don't bother anymore 🤷 I use chest strap anyway.