Charge 6 still fails to accurately track HR during excercise.

[Sparky72]

I bought the new Charge 6 on release day and still not impressed with HR tracking during excercise. This is supposedly their best HR sensor yet. It fails miserably, and this is the 4th or 5th Fitbit device I have purchased. I give up! I'm returning it and moving on to another brand. I like the features of the Fitbit brand/products otherwise, but the HR tracking during excercise is the most critical metric to track in my opinion, and they fail with this metric more than anything else. 

[Triletics]

@Sparky72 Charge 6 fails very strange way. When I expect it to fail it actually does great job (HR when swimming is pretty much spot on compared to chest strap), then it fails on easy runs locking onto my cadence and reporting HR close to 200bpm for a significant duration, then when I run intense short intervals and expect it to fail it does a decent job 🤷 it's like an opposite to what was before. For me, locking onto my cadence is the worst problem. I'm wondering if there are here any Charge 6 users who run with high cadence and noticed similar problem (although unlikely people doing 180spm+ would be using Fitbit to track their runs). I think Fitbit modified algorithm to be able to capture spikes of high HR (common complain before) and now their algorithm is letting in more noise which is mistaken for HR. However, this problem appears on other brands but that's why they support external HRMs. Fitbit gives no alternative.

[RafRafRaf]

At the beginning I've had the same feeling that it counts HR rate badly in compare to my previous watches. Then I have start to compare results live with another HR tracker and... results were pretty similar, so my findings are that I've started to blame the watch without considering:

• Temperature outside has changed so it takes me a bit longer to go to cardio/peak
• I am in almost everyday training, so it's also harder for me to go to cardio during the jog. No issues during the fast run.
• Find proper tightness of the wrist band. I have realised that I have followed the advice which was presented on initial BT pairing and it was too loosy. Sometimes I have pushed the watch a bit higher during the run, what totally messed up the reading.
• Before, I quite often run after the coffee, now no need, so different HR graph.
• This one is theoretical and could be a bs - it needs a bit time to start displaying proper HR graphs considering some algorithm and data from previous devices.

[Triletics]

@RafRafRaf I exercise always with chest strap. As a rule, I don't trust wrist HR regardless what brand the watch is. I find Charge 6 generally better than predecessors but my problem is this when running:

I described it in this thread, yet no response from Fitbit. This happens to me very often and usually on easy steady runs. For a runner who observes HR this may be a deal breaker. However, it may be only the problem for runners who run with high cadence (I run with 195spm+). I would like to verify that but finding runner whose cadence is similar and using Fitbit is a challenging task.

[Sparky72]

Well I have a Polar H10 monitor and I'm not comparing perceived memory, I'm
comparing actual data. I would understand if it was off by 2 to five
points, but no, it's often off by 20 to 40 points, consistently. It just
this one, but all the Fitbit devices I have had over the past 8 - 10
years. Not sure exactly when I got the first one I think it was about a
year or 2 after they first hit the market. I've tried all the positioning
techniques they suggest to try. I understand a wrist based tracker is not
going to be as accurate as a chest strap, but other brands have recognized
this and made it possible to pair with a chest strap. Fitbit refuses to do
that. So I'm finally moving on. It's just a shame they are choosing this
position. Outside of the poor HR tracking during excercise, I think they do
have a better product for the price and many people are simply asking for
the ability to pair to a chest strap during excercise. A very doable
software upgrade.

[NewSuttonGirl]

You can’t rely on a wrist fitness tracker for heart rate anything according to every cardiologist I have seen since I had a heart attack.  This is why I have a chest strap — the polar H9 which was recommended to me when I finished Cardiac Rehabilitation.  Chest straps aren’t expensive and are worth the expense regarding your heart. 

[Rich_Laue]

A Polar H10 monitor looks at the electrical signals of the heart. 

Fitbit looks at the changes in blood density in the veins. Where and how you wear the tracker, as well as what exercises will affect the heart reading. 

• To tight
• To loose
• Exercises that flex the wrist, will also give problems. 
• Some people find moving it up the wrist helps. 

What factors can affect my heart-rate reading on my Fitbit device?

[Sparky72]

Right. I consider accurate HR tracking important during excercise for many of us with medical conditions, and I get why these companies steer away from  claiming to provide that level of accuracy. I have COPD and if I dont keep a close watch on my HR it can get out of control, so I actually watch my polar sceen on the phone. I just wish i could have fitbit let me pair to it for more accurate tracking, not live monitoring. I have the Polar H10 and wear it for all my excercise. My issue is multifaceted but all related to HR tracking, which other brands have accommodated users like us through various methods, but Fitbit effectively refuses to do so. However, in my opinion Fitbit has the best overall metrics tracking, outside of HR during excercise. The simple solution other brands have done is allow users to pair their chest straps to the fitness trackers to input that data as an optional source during exercise or to import it after the excercise is finished. If I can't at least import the data to fitbit, the app is using highly inaccurate data to calculate many of my metrics. So I might as well.switch to another platform that let's me import the dat for more accurate analysis. Because when I compare my fitbit to my Polar for excercises it can be as much as 60% off. Consider that for 1 -2 hours a day, 5 days a week, that's a huge inaccuracy. I kept hoping for improved HR tracking r abilty to pair with my polar with each new release product I've tried and it has been nothing but repeated disappointments for several years. 

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Old news! Read the details of what I posted, not the headline. 

[Triletics]

@Sparky72 I disagree about other metrics. In fact, Fitbit nowadays falls behind competitors. The company lost a momentum. Most of the features the competitors already offer (for free, not under premium) and expand the functionality even further. Fitbit is my secondary watch because of that - it's too basic about pretty much everything. You may do yourself a favour just by getting a watch that does what you need 🤷 worked for me years ago when I realized I needed to pair a chest strap. This way Charge 6 isn't such a pain because it's just a "companion tracker". Fitbit may one day introduce pairing with external HRM but I don't expect much. Look at HR broadcasting, it's half baked feature working with maybe 1% of the equipment (not counting phones and PC). If Fitbit releases external HRM support it may also require Fitbit's chest strap that would be released about the same time. Just my guess based on the experience. Just get something that does 90% of what you need. Remaining 10% should be "nice to have" features that even when done not so well or not at all, you could live without. No device is perfect but using something that doesn't fit the bill is like self inflicted torture 😆 I went through several brands and models of watches this way over years trying to find something that fits best my requirements. It isn't Fitbit but I like gadgets and burning money on those so I buy them to test and have opinion.

[Candon · Accepted solution]

I'm not very happy with my results either. I had a heart attack in November and wanted the Fitbit mainly to monitor my heartrate while exercising. While it does a reasonable job with my restin BPM, as soon as I get on a treadmill or bike, it spikes to twice my actuall rate. (I'm working in a cardio-rehab program, and the team is verifying -- both with a finger measure and pulse count -- that the Fitbit figures are wildly inaccuate.) Not quite sure what to do. Is there a way to recalibrate?

[RiekoC]

Hello @Candon 

I take it that you had to use a Google account for your Fitbit app when you got your Charge 6. You might want to check your birth date information in your Google account. Several users have realized their Google account had "1900" selected as their birth year. Once they corrected their birth year, heart rate and zone minutes were more "normal".

[Sparky72]

@Candon For HR tracking during excercise, I recommend a chest strap. Personally I use a Polar H10, which seems to track more accurately than anything else I've used. But it would be uncomfortable and not practical for long term, all day tracking. I returned my Charge 6 and bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. The Garmin does appear to track better than what the charge 6 was doing and my Fitbit Sense(the first gen), which I still wear daily for a long term comparison with Garmin and other devices I use, for various metrics.

There are multiple pros and cons between the particular models of Garmin and Fitbit. Generally speaking I think fitbit is better for general overall tracking, as long as accuracy is not something you're keen on. Garmin, in my experience appears to ve a little more accurate, not hugely different, but also offers some other metrics not included in Fitbit. However Garmin is more  biased to highly athletic minded users and can be too pushy for someone who needs to be careful not to over do it. That's something I'm trying to recover from now. My favorite fearure of the Garmin is the ability to pair my Polar chest strap with the Garmin watch and it will automatically detect it and switch to that, whenever I put it on. So I don't have to bother with pairing and switching over what to monitor when I'm ready to go do a workout. That's something Fitbit could easily do, but so far has refused to include that technology, heck they could even do it through a phone app and save on hardware usage with the watch. Which makes their refusal even more obvious and a shun to its user base! So I have absolutely no intention to ever buy another Fitbit product in the future.