Charge 6 heart rate spikes to 212 while sitting and quickly drops. Happened twice.

[Swmae1]

Has anyone had an issue with the charge 6 spiking while sitting?  I wore a chest monitor for a week and the Fitbit was between 30 and 40 points higher than the chest monitor while walking briskly.  However the spike when sitting wasn’t being monitored while I had the chest monitor.

[Jonnsie]

I had the same thing this morning. Mine spiked at 144 while sitting down. First time its happened since getting c6 3 months ago

[Jjelmer]

Just received a replacement for a screen issue and the new one shows a 123 heart rate while my old charge 4 shows is showing a 76. I’ve restarted it multiple times and also toggled the heart rate on/off.  The charge 4 had no issues. Wish the 6 was as good 

[Swmae1]

I guess charge 6 is useless for tracking heart rate it seems. So disappointing.

[WittyKat]

I have the same issue. I have to run vigorously to get my heart rate above 90 and it rarely gets over 130. I have tried wearing it at different areas on my wrist and will sometimes see my HR go over 170. It is increasingly difficult to get my zone minutes and totally defeats the purpose in having a fitness tracker.

[Swmae1]

The first time I saw that 212, it made me anxious. Always between 140 and 150 when I walk. I actually went to a doctor and he ordered a heart chest monitor for a week. The Fitbit showed between 145 and 158 and the chest monitor was 122 at its highest.
Sent from my iPad

[Jonnsie]

Thats interesting. Ive just come back from the gym and the HR shown on the
running machine was considerably lower than the C6

[Swmae1]

Seems not to work well with activity also.  Not sure what else I could do to get the strap to fit better to calculate correctly.  I have tried everything, in addition to resets of the tracker.

[berkopath]

Same thing happened to me tonight. Heart rate spiked to 212 without even me realising. I was sitting at the dinner table and playing top trumps with kids. Just noticed it in dashboard later in the night and got anxious as I started using some antibiotics recently. Good to see this being a common problem. Charging Apple watch to compare results for a while. These devices should not end up being sources of new anxieties.

[Swmae1]

I agree.  As my husband recently had bypass surgery, this was extremely nerve wracking. I ended up seeing a cardiologist and going through numerous tests which indicated no issues.

[mesiva]

I noticed that I encounter this issue only in certain places and situations, but I haven't managed to rule out many factors.

Usually my heart rate is about 60, especially when I'm stationary. I would notice a heart rate of 150 or higher while I'm at the office, standing at my desk. During some of those events I measured my heart rate manually, and with different devices, and my measured heart rate was significantly less than what my Charge 6 reported. The high heart rate readings are pretty sporadic. Every single day I'm at the office, I would have about an hour of abnormally high heart rate through the day, while my heart rate is fine if I work from home.

Now, I have the same standing desk at the office, and at home, set to the same height. I have the same posture in both locations, so I closed out the possibility of my band being in an awkward position, etc. 

I also set up high heart rate alerts while not doing activity, but I never got an alert from those times at the office. I did get a single alert once, when I was indeed inactive, and I had elevated heart rate. So I guess the band doesn't even perceive me as being inactive when these false heart rate measurements happen.

[susan.t55]

Hi,I’ve been using c6 for 6 months now and today I had the same issue of heart rate spiking over 200b/m whilst stationery/ sitting down.

Normally about 55/60 when not working out so got a bit anxious but checking my pulse manually showed a normal 60b/m.I have restarted my watch using the charger and for now it seems to have settled down .

This is all very disconcerting as my other main compliant is that whilst doing even cardio heart rate can be difficult to get above 90 so feel like I flog myself to get a measly moderate heart rate score  or active minutes ,even more reason to worry about sudden spikes in heart rate! This is certainly the worst Fitbit I’ve had to date and it my fourth.

[Mar86]

Same thing happens on mine. Just received a replacement a few weeks ago and same issue. I'll be calling them again Monday to see if there's a fix.

[Noc57]

Happened twice in the last hour, just sitting reading. Got a notification that my heart rate was over 200, it went up to 212 and then quickly dropped to 72. Stayed at normal resting rate for a while. Checked it again and it read 212, down to normal within a minute or two. I’ve only had the Fitbit for a week, normal resting rate all the time up to tonight. Not very encouraging 😫

[WittyKat]

I have been back and forth with Fitbit on a similar heart rate issue. They
are okay with basic suggestions/fixes, but when it’s more complicated and
gets escalated, they are completely useless! They will email you some
useless suggestion and, when it doesn't work and you email them back to
tell them, it can be days before they get back to you and often you have to
email them again and again before that happens. They have told me to wear
it on my other wrist, to disable heartbeat, restart the Fitbit, then enable
heartbeat. They have also suggested deleting the Fitbit from the app and
reinstalling it. I sent them a photo of where I wear it on my wrist as they
asked about that. It is frustrating. I think my next exercise tracking
watch will be a Garmin as this is ridiculous.
Good luck with your issue.

[Swmae1]

I give up on my Fitbit tracking hr accurately. It spikes also when I walk routinely unless I wear it extremely tight, which someone suggested. I can be walking at a normal pace,not winded at all, and it will go to 160 just like that, and then down. My next tracker will not be Fitbit.
Sent from my iPad

[Swmae1]

I tried all the suggested fixes. If I wear the Fitbit extremely tight, too tight, I don’t seem to have issues, but that isn’t a solution. Will try a different tracker next time.
As I mentioned previously, I saw a cardiologist as I was nervous about it. I wore a heart monitor and the rates never matched Fitbit, nor did they spike.
Good luck!
Sent from my iPad

[bevclare222]

Yes same for me. Has Fit Bit done anything about this?

[Jjelmer]

I only had it happen to me once or twice in 4 years. 


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

[HannahElRe]

Same issue here. I had a charge 5 that started to do this after a year, but the battery was also failing and so I was recently sent a charge 6 as a replacement under warranty. A few days after receiving it I was lying in bed reading on a Saturday morning when it gave me a high heart rate alert of 165. Manually taking my pulse it was 74..... I turned off the alerts as I have anxiety and don't need to add to it. 

It did this several more times over the next week and never matched up to manual checking. Reported it and was asked to reset, reinstall etc etc.

It behaved for a while but has started spiking randomly again. The other day I was out for a brisk walk. Heart rate is usually 100 -120 when out walking, but I happened to look at my wrist for the time and actually saw it jump to 160 and then back down, and it repeatedly did this as I stood there and watched. Took it off, out it back on and then it was fine.

Sometimes I will spot it in the graph at the end of the day. This evening I am sat watching TV, looked at my wrist to check the time and it said 157 then jumped to 163, then down to 85, up to 150, down to 94. Did this for about 1 minute. I manually checked my pulse while watching it do this. Heartbeat was totally steady. A few minutes later it did it again. I have thrown it across the room. It's crap.