Charge 2 heart rate vs Ionic

[DeanoDeano1]

Hi everyone, 

massive fan of fitbit but abit annoyed at my situation.

I used the fit bit charge 2 for 7 months and it tracked my fitness and heart rate from average to excellent - got to 62 heart score and never seemed to hit cardio or peak in heart rate ... 

decided to upgrade to ionic and all of a sudden my score dropped to 59 and I’m spending all my time in cardio and peak yet nothing as changed? 

Im wearing the ionic as per fitbit etc wore both devices together and both took about 5 mins to get similar readings... 

Is my fitbit faulty or was my charge 2 at fault ... 

[WavyDavey]

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@DeanoDeano1wrote:

Hi everyone, 

massive fan of fitbit but abit annoyed at my situation.

I used the fit bit charge 2 for 7 months and it tracked my fitness and heart rate from average to excellent - got to 62 heart score and never seemed to hit cardio or peak in heart rate ... 

decided to upgrade to ionic and all of a sudden my score dropped to 59 and I’m spending all my time in cardio and peak yet nothing as changed? 

Im wearing the ionic as per fitbit etc wore both devices together and both took about 5 mins to get similar readings... 

Is my fitbit faulty or was my charge 2 at fault ... 

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Hi @DeanoDeano1,

Can you provide more specific information? When you say heart score, are you referring to resting heart rate or cardio fitness score?

I'm having trouble understanding how a person could spend spend 0 time in the cardio zone. What kind of exercise are you doing?

I'm also having trouble understanding that the Ionic is putting you in cardio zone for 24 hours a day? Again, specifics would be helpful.

[DeanoDeano1]

Hi , I mean cardio fitness score..

during jogs using my Charge 2 I was hitting mainly fat burn and cardio ( steady pace ) exact same using the ionic and I’m apparently hitting cardio and peak with readings of 203bpm... 

Thanks

[Khalaf]

I upgraded to an iconic and I'm facing the same problem + when I move around and sit iconic stays in higher heart rate and takes much longer time to recover to normal heart rate than the charge 2. I'll compare it with heart stap  heart monitor (while exercising) since its the most accurate and I'll post the results .

[Khalaf]

These readings where in the past 15 days (identical speed and time of workout،treadmill) :

Last 4 readings for cahrge2 

Avrg 135.139.138.141

Max 147.148.154.162

Last 4 readings for iconic

Avrg 158.165.158.155

Max 169.190.189.173

I only monitor my 15min of joging with out 10min warning up or 10min cooling down since the charge2  use to spikes in warm up.

Know I took readings of polar chest strap vs iconic every 30 seconds :

Iconic . Polar

141. 118

150 . 121

152 . 126

159 . 131

159 . 136

157 . 138

158 . 144

161 . 142

158 . 144

154 . 147

157 . 147

161 . 151

168 . 153

165 . 157

164 . 159

157 . 154

159 . 157

162 . 157

159 . 157

166 . 153

166 . 161

164 . 160

166 .166

169 . 163

160 . 161

157 . 162

158 . 160

159 . 163

156 . 161

Average 

159.37 Iconic

149.96 Polar

Max:

169 Iconic 

166 Polar

It looks like I did make mistakes calculating the avrg, I did miss one reading though. Don't know what to get out of this!

[Khalaf]

I did another comparison today charge2 vs polar chest strap vs iconic. 

Fixed speed, treadmill,  15 min,  every 30 seconds for charge2 and polar, fitbit app calculations for iconic, warm up and cooling down monitoring excluded .

Charge2 . Polar

113 . 117

119 . 122

126 .129

130 . 134

134 . 135

135 . 138

138 . 141

140 . 143

141 . 144

135 . 147

142 . 147

147 . 149

142 . 151

141 . 150

140 . 152

141 . 153

139 . 154

139 . 155

138 . 156

136 . 155

156 . 153

156 . 156

145 . 157

146 . 158

157 . 158

157 . 157

154 . 157

152 . 159

147 . 157

153 . 156

Average 

Charge2      142.3 

Polar             148

Iconic            165

Max 

Charge2          157

Polar                159

Iconic               191

This is messed up.  So for constent speed joging it looks like the charge2 is more accurate. I won't post more tests but I'll give the Iconic a week or two, if it continues to be soo inaccurate I'll go back to charge2. Very disappointed!

[DeanoDeano1]

@Khalaf Thanks for your help and also understand my issue.

I have gone from excellent fitness vo2 rating of 63 down to 54 since using my ionic , and I noticed when walking my heart rate is extremely high yet I have never felt fitter, I also noticed the charge 2 showing more realistic readings.. maybe a bug in the ionic but it is also putting me off wanting to use it... nothing more demotivating when you smash the record of your 7 mile run to it dropping another point in the fitness score !! 

[Khalaf]

Good news today, I placed the Iconic one finger away from my wrist instead of two fingers for the charge2 + one tighter (I thought it was too tight but tryed anyway). I got average 144 bpm and max 163bpm! Which is what am used to seeing . Know If it continues that way I'll be happy, I'll post again in a week, please share if this works with you too.

[DeanoDeano1]

Hi, thank you for the information, I tried this but still the same.

Today I got a 12 Lead ECG done from a friend who is a Cardiologist, my heart rate on 3 ECG readings were 42, 42 and 43bpm, and my Fitbit was showing 81bpm... 

I am willing to trust a £2500 device compared to the Fitbit. I adjusted the watch to check position, and it has still not improved.

My Fitbit Charge 2 always showed 40 - 50bpm which would tie in with my ECG Reading... 

Either a faulty Ionic device or a bug! when running I am not out of breath or totally exhausted, i feel at ease and enjoyable, yet my heart rate on the ionic says im peak 190 for more than 80% of the time... my charge 2 showed i never hit peak, just fat burn and may sometimes cardio...

May take this watch back...

[Khalaf]

It's been a week know and am prity back to normal heart rate numbers, 2 to 3 bpm higher than the charge2. I'm placing it less than a finger away from my wrist (like straight next to my wrist). I have a small wrist so I think the placment instructions don't apply for everyone 

[Khalaf]

Motivation level gets bad when that happens. I thought I was tricked by the charge2!

[sebastianshaw]

My friend had that experience too. We made some amateur kind of research and finally, got to the opinion that Ionic's HR is more accurate than Charge 2. Maybe your Charge 2 was lying back there.

[AndreaFitbit]

It's nice to see you in the community @sebastianshaw. Thank you for sharing your experience with us and that you got to the conclusion that Ionic's HR is more accurate than Charge 2.

You can check help article What should I know about my heart rate data?

Thank you for visiting the forums.