Different heart rates on new device

[DAVEMANNING]

I've just replace a Blaze with an Ionic as a warranty replacement.  When running with the Blaze, I would spend a small percentage of time in Peak on the hear rate tracking, maybe 2 mins or less on a 30 min run, most of the rest in Cardio.  On the Ionic I am spending more than half my time in Peak.  Yesterday I tried a run with the Blaze, which works fine apart from the battery lasting only a couple of hours, and my scores were normal.  I doubt I am in Cardio because I'm not out of breath and I did a marathon last year, so it seems more likely that the reading is inaccurate.  Any ideas?

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello @DAVEMANNING welcome to the Community Forums!

I appreciate all the details that were shared in your post regarding this heart rate accuracy situation with your new Fitbit Ionic. Let me share with you that Heart rate reading varies depending on several factors like movement, temperature, humidity, stress level, physical body position, caffeine intake, and medication. If you haven't already done so, please review our information and tips for heart rate accuracy at: How do I track my heart rate with my Fitbit device? 

Though we've found that PurePulse provides better overall heart rate tracking than cardio machines or chest straps since it tracks your heart rate day and night, wrist placement during certain vigorous exercise is important. Review the information on optimal wear closely and make sure you follow the recommendations.
 
If your heart rate monitor still seems inaccurate after taking the recommendations into account, please let me know the following:

1. What were you doing when you noticed the problem? If you were exercising, specifically which types of exercise?
2. Were you wearing the tracker particularly tight or loose?
3. What was the tracker's position on your wrist? Was it where people typically put a watch or was it higher up on your wrist?

Keep me posted.

[DAVEMANNING]

Hi Ricardo, thanks for getting back to me. This is my 4th FitBit so I’m
pretty sure I’m wearing it right, a little higher up the wrist than a watch
and not too tight. To test it out I ran (this is always when I’m jogging,
my resting heart rate is unaffected) with my old Blaze and everything was
fine, so the problem only occurs when I am wearing the Ionic. The run is
always more or less the same route and I’ve been doing it for years, there
is certainly nothing physical that indicates I’m running at peak.

[t.parker]

@RicardoFitbit "Though we've found that PurePulse provides better overall heart rate tracking than cardio machines or chest straps" - this isn't true at all. Who found? Who are "we"? I'm quite sure those are not the users 🙂 PurePulse is just a nice-sounding name but it's no better than any other wrist-based optical HR and suffers the same issues while chest straps use a lot more reliable technology when it comes to HR monitoring (and can work in water, unlike PurePulse!). Even optical OH1 is better than PurePulse as it uses more LEDs and is not positioned on the wrist that can bend. I wish I could see any reliable evidence of how PurePulse is superior to the ECG used by chest straps 😉 This is a very bold statement 😉 Is there any evidence comparing PurePulse with ECG tech? I'm not saying PurePulse is any worse than other optical wrist-based solutions. I just disagree that it's more accurate than ECG.