Crazy high heart rates that are incorrect

[morningstar65]

My aspire 3 is recording absurd high heart rates once a day every day. Like from 135 to 198 when I'm relaxed and doing nothing.  I KNOW it's wrong. Thank God. I have actually caught it while it's happening.  It's only 2 years old. Thoughts? Help please.

[nms1]

Did this start after the latest software upgrade? A lot of us have been experiencing problems after that. 

I don't see the high rates very often but today when I was strolling to the gym, my heart rate was apparently 174!

[morningstar65]

No, actually it's been going on for months. I'm just finally asking about it.

[lmacmil]

I have occasionally gotten a message that I'm earning zone minutes when I'm in my car.  And periodically I'll see my heart rate drop dramatically while exercising even though my pace hasn't changed.  I think it's just the nature of the beast.

[morningstar65]

Yeah, that concerns me. Accurate data is important to me. Maybe fit bit is no longer for me. I was hoping it was a bug that there was a fix for.

[lmacmil]

I don't worry about the anomalies.  As long as the step count during exercise is accurate and the peak heart rate isn't too high and my resting heart rate is fairly consistent, I'm satisfied.  I don't think any wrist-based tracker except maybe an Apple watch, is going to be more accurate than the Fitbit.  I got mine free from my health insurance but if/when it dies, I'll go back to the $30 Amazon no-name tracker I used before.

[YachatsMike]

I get them, too, during exercise.  I'll shoot up to 180 bps, (way over HRmax for a 76 year-old), sometimes for several minutes, then go back to a rational number.

I attribute it to measurement error.  I find that cleaning the back of the watch and my wrist with clean water makes the problem go away for a while.  I also make sure to wear it a full two fingers above my wrist joint helps, too.

[lmacmil]

I am also 76.  I have never seen 180 bpm but I have seen a sustained 155 to 160 during a 2 mile run.  I have slowed my running pace so I stay under 140.  I get rates all over the place when I walk, sometimes only 90 and others 115 to 120.  I attribute that to it moving around on my wrist.  It's not perfect but it's good enough for me.

[morningstar65]

Thank you, I will try that.

[morningstar65]

I did try your suggestion.  Worked until today. It logged a 156 heart rate spike. Dang. 

[ResearchWalker]

Clearly the latest firmware update was corrupt. Google Fitbit need to fix this and release a revised update. Or re-release ( roll back ) to the previous firmware that worked and issue an update.

it’s been an issue for several months now. Not good enough Google

[Lesel77]

Hi. My heart rates drop. Ever since the update, my Fitbit keeps telling me my pulse dropped from 77 to 41 for 10 minutes at a time. This obviously is a glitch. I have other devices to take my pulse and it's right where it should be. What's going on?