10-30-2023 02:58
10-30-2023 02:58
first swim with a charge 6 today, swim for an hour and do about 100 lengths of 25m pool. Charge 6 came up with 158! All setting are correct on device ie pool length. Rubbish
10-30-2023 03:19
10-30-2023 03:19
@Bagg3rs Unfortunately, Charge 6 swimming math isn't great 😉 Not much you can do about it. Not a single swim since I got Charge 6 came close to a real number of lengths I swam. In my case, it's usually several lengths short and that gets worse when I take a rest between intervals. This isn't a tracker for swimmers (in fact, no Fitbit is).
10-30-2023 05:51 - edited 10-30-2023 06:11
10-30-2023 05:51 - edited 10-30-2023 06:11
@Bagg3rs I came on here this morning to ask the same thing and find a solution. On Friday the measure was off by a small amount, so this morning I counted and swam exactly 42 lengths (1050 meters) at the 25m pool, making sure to touch the ends of the pool so there was a quick but definite pause each time. Fitbit app shows that I did 975 meters. It's a bit frustrating.
At the bottom of the Activities page, you can manually enter your Swim activity stats and then delete the Fitbit's log entry, but then the chart or graph just shows a flat line and the overall Pace is less accurate (slower because it's not accounting for the turns.)
10-30-2023 06:12
10-30-2023 06:12
@MattRoxx the pace isn't very accurate anyway considering the structure of the swim. What would be accurate is a moving pace. Fitbit shows elapsed pace only which is accurate only in one case - continuous swimming which I rarely do. Unless it's an endurance session, I avoid swimming empty miles and focus on a more quality approach with a structure. Logging swimming on Charge 6 makes sense only for the record as the tracker itself is no help during the session (doesn't count laps for you and doesn't show any metrics). What I do is track swim as auto-detected. This way Charge 6 keeps tracking HR during swim (and does it quite well). The app will not show you a count for lengths for auto-detected swimming but you may edit the distance (if you know it). Proper tracking is done for me by Fenix 7 watch so I don't have to count my laps myself. Later I edit Swim details in the Fitbit app entering the correct distance (which also doesn't matter because swim stats are not used for anything).
10-30-2023 06:45 - edited 10-30-2023 07:08
10-30-2023 06:45 - edited 10-30-2023 07:08
Thanks for the info, @Triletics. How do you "track swim as auto-detected"? Is that just like when you go for a walk, the Charge 6 auto-detects and gives the steps, distance, and HR? So don't select any activity and just start swimming? Will give that a try next time, it would be great to get heart rate during some swims.
10-30-2023 07:38
10-30-2023 07:38
@MattRoxx just make sure you have swimming detection turned on in the app. Go to your profile (right-top), Fitbit Settings, Activity & Wellness, Exercise. You'll see swimming. I changed the time of detection to 10+ minutes. Before you start swimming I suggest to turn the Water Lock on (otherwise water will interact with the screen) and then start swimming.
10-30-2023
10:24
- last edited on
11-08-2023
08:17
by
ManuFitbit
10-30-2023
10:24
- last edited on
11-08-2023
08:17
by
ManuFitbit
Thanks again, @Triletics, very helpful information!
----
For this morning's swim, I accidentally did NOT turn on the Water Lock - and the distance count was the most accurate it's ever been - shows 1075 meters for 42 lengths x 25m. The extra 25 might just be the walk from change room to pool lane. Will leave Water Lock off again on Monday's swim and see if the result is the same.
11-03-2023 09:04
11-03-2023 09:04
@MattRoxx this is very unlikely to make a difference. It sometimes happen that Charge 6 comes close to the real number of lengths. If you don't use Water Lock the risk is that watch will randomly navigate through UI tapping random things (put it ie. under shower water and see what screen will do without water lock 😉). For me, this morning Charge 6 came up with distance 1250m while the actual was 1600m. I noticed it's more likely to break counting when multiple rest intervals are involved but I don't see any pattern here looking at number of intervals and the result distance. Without being able to see breakdown of laps it's hard to tell what went wrong and when. It happens that Garmin counts my lengths wrong but I know exactly when and why (and I can edit that removing wrong lengths because I know which are wrong). Fitbit doesn't provide any metrics that can help identifying cause of miscounting. To be honest, it could be just guessing the count. After all, it hasn't been correct even once.
11-06-2023 05:46 - edited 11-06-2023 06:07
11-06-2023 05:46 - edited 11-06-2023 06:07
Watched the Nyad movie last night and was inspired this morning. Using the Swim activity and Water Lock, today's swim came in at 1175 meters (47 lengths) and my best time and pace so far. I counted 50 lengths; it may have been 48 but it has to be an even number! LOL I think the Exercise Details chart on Dashboard shows each minute, rather than each length, so it's not much help in figuring out what's going on with the length counts.
You're right @Triletics, it's unlikely to ever be exact but I'll settle for consistency so will keep using the Activity and Water Lock settings for a while and see if the length count/distance are constantly off by the same amount each time; I can get by with that.
11-06-2023 06:03
11-06-2023 06:03
@MattRoxx spoiler alert... they are not off by the same number. It's totally random. One time it's getting close to the actual count, other times it's off by 1/3 of lengths.
11-08-2023 06:16 - edited 11-08-2023 06:35
11-08-2023 06:16 - edited 11-08-2023 06:35
1500 meters (60 lengths) this morning, Fitbit calls it 1425 (57 lengths). The good news is that now I've reached this endurance goal in target time, can stop counting lengths and work on other aspects like interval training and performance. @Triletics do you have any tips or advice on truning off the Water Lock? It says to "double tap" to turn it off but that doesn't always work so I have to get out of the pool and dry it off with a towel before it will let me stop the time. (Or maybe I should just learn to relax and not sweat the small stuff LOL)
11-08-2023 07:17
11-08-2023 07:17
@MattRoxx you need to get dry before you touch the screen. This is a big downside of touchscreens. That's why I prefer physical buttons over a touchscreen (on my Fenix 7, the first thing I permanently disabled was the touchscreen, there are 5 buttons, no need for a touchscreen for me). You'll find how primitive swim tracking is on Fitbit when you start doing intervals and most likely drills. Some drills won't be detected (like many leg drills) and those lengths won't be counted (other watches often have "drill mode" to compensate for it). Fitbit has no concept of rest between sets (for example, If I swim 10x(100m@very hard + 50m@recovery ), 60s/rest, repeat. I won't be able to tell what my pace was for the 'very hard' intervals and neither what my moving pace was. Fitbit always gives an elapsed pace which is utterly useless when you do a structured workout. I rarely swim continuously because I avoid swimming empty miles (mostly, I focus on quality not quantity). On top of that, counting continuous lengths is one thing, remembering each interval and counting all laps, timing rests, and seeing the pace of the last interval to know whether you should go faster/slower. On Charge 6 (or any Fitbit) you get no help during training. I like to focus on swimming, when I do hard intervals I don't want to count lengths, I want my watch to vibrate when the set is done and show me what is my next interval (or even better, connect to ie. FORM goggles and show me that while I swim on the screen of my goggles - btw. I recommend FORM, seeing all the data real-time with details of the workout while I swim it was a real game changer for me).
07-05-2024 08:09
07-05-2024 08:09
I bought the charge 6, took it for a swim and found there is no way for it to show lengths as you swim. Got out and it had counted ~ half as much distance as I would usually do in the same time.
I had a look online and found all these issues that have been raised with Swim tracking, some dating back to 2021, so it doesn't seem like it's a priority for resolving.
Without meaning to be rude, I returned it and got a Garmin. Fitbit, maybe it's worth giving this problem a bit of focus?
07-10-2024 17:48
07-10-2024 17:48
Charge 5 owner here. On my watch, Length seems to be the only accurate measurement. Heart rate is usually inaccurate. Swim Calories have been a known problem for nearly a decade! Not enough swimmers to warrant a fix I suppose. Other than swim tracking, it seems ok and I like the one week battery charge.
07-11-2024 01:53
07-11-2024 01:53
@hase98 swimmers pick different brands that take swim tracking seriously (pool and open water).