Charge 6 Heart Rate inaccurate?

[alexajax]

I'm curious if theres anything I can do to fix this besides return this Charge 6 and buy a 5 again. My Charge 5 died suddenly so I grabbed a Charge 6. I'm working out just as hard but my daily cardio load dropped from over 40 to under 10. 

For instance I do a 45 min hard spin class where I'm drenched after. My Charge 5 would note my heart rate was up to 125 to 153. With the charge 6 its logging my heart rate at 110 for most of the ride and 1 minute at 135. My cardio load for the spin classes with the Charge 5 were about 19 they're usually about a cardio load of 4 with the Charge 6.

Yesterday I got 11k steps in, 11 hours of active zone minutes and started my day off with a 45 min spin class. My cardio load for the day came in as 9. 

I've tried loosening the band, tightening it, setting it higher on the wrist. Is there a setting I have to change or something? Has anyone else had this issue? This is the first time I've been unhappy with my Fitbit and I'm contemplating switching to a different tracker because of it.

[LZeeW]

Hello @alexajax and welcome to the Community.  Fitbit/Google updated the heart rate algorithm with the Charge 6.  It is supposed to be more accurate during exercise.  Comparing your Charge 5 and 6 is like comparing apples to oranges.  The only way to know which is more accurate is to compare it with a Polar chest strap.  A chest strap measures heart rate from your ECG, not an optical heart rate monitor.

[RiekoC]

Hello @alexajax 

To add to @LZeeW 's response, there's an issue on the Fitbit side which affects cardio load. Users who bike and/or spin have reported that they get very little cardio load points/credit for their workouts. As far as I know, the team is aware of this issue and has been working on fixing the problem. However, I haven't seen a timeline for the fix.

[Kreedknits]

My charge 6 heart rate zones have been very squirrely over the last several days.  I've been doing CrossFit for 6 months and everything was great. Until about a week ago and it's stopped detecting those workouts accurately. Sometimes I could straighten it out by deleting whatever it thought it was detecting and adding a CrossFit workout. But that's not working anymore. And today I went on a 4 mi hike and it didn't start detecting heart rates until I was halfway down the hill. And it said I did the whole thing in 27 minutes.  Rubbish.  What can I do?

[Jacquie812]

I am having a very similar issue! My Charge 6 data was pretty accurate until a couple of days ago. Now the heart rate and active zone minutes data is clearly off! My heart rate on daily treadmill hikes/climbs is typically around 125/130 but now it’s only 85/90which then reflects in very low active zone minutes. Very frustrating!

[MPish]

I’ve been having the same problem. Very disappointing… seems like over the last week or so it has been off. Wish I had just gotten another charge 5 to replace it 😐😐😐