I am super frustrated with Fitbit - especially Charge 6...I had a Charge 2 (lasted close to 4 years), I upgraded to Charge 4 just because I wanted "newer", that lasted 2-3 years. June 5, 2023 I upgraded to Charge 5...the 2nd week of June 2024 it died after I went into the pool (mind you, I had gotten it wet previously and also my Charge 4 with no problems.
As irritating as it was that Charge 5 only lasted 1 year, I went ahead and bought a Charge 6...it might very well be my last.
Not only does it not accurately count steps randomly - example: a 2 mile walk netted me roughly 2300 steps on fitbit.
Biggest issue I have is that it doesn't seem to be measuring my heart rate zones accurately. Workout routines that I have done for years are not even remotely close as far as zone minutes. Prior to Charge 6, A 30 to 35 minute workout would typically get me anywhere from 45 - 60 zone minutes. Now I'm lucky if it registers 15 zone minutes total. Today I played (singles) Pickleball for 65 minutes...zone minutes calculated 36, even though I can see I had 24 "moderate" and 20 "vigorous". It did reflect 4 minutes "light" In this case, I somehow lost 20 minutes of exercise time. In addition it only calculated 3600 steps. (I have compared this same activity to older ones...75 minutes of pickleball netted 20 peak, 50 vigorous and 2 moderate, 110 zone minutes and 4600 steps. Clearly there is an issue with capturing heart rate, adding zone minutes correctly and step accuracy.
I have noticed that a lot of times, my heart rate doesn't even reflect on my charge 6...it just shows the 2 dashes - no heart rate. It will stay that way for 5-10 minutes at a time.
I have reset my Charge 6 and I wipe off the sensors fairly frequently since it is summer in AZ and lots of sweat is happening 😉
For as long as the Charge product line has been on the market and given the emphasis on "active/zone" minutes, you would think the product would work and calculate correctly. My zone minutes have dropped from 850 to 900/week to 450 to 500/week still exercising the same amount of time.
I think I may have gotten a lemon with this one.
