Fitbit Ionic HR very inaccurate

[murfpass]

I was wondering if anyone else's HR on the ionic is very inaccurate? I haven't even tried it working out yet. I'm talking about sitting down at my desk or walking around. Checked my pulse manually  and it was right at 60 BPM. Looked at my watch and it's showing anywhere from 70 to 80. My HR from yesterday looks insane because it's going up and down from 60 to 90 (all while basically sitting at a desk) and i know that my HR hadn't changed. It's like it's not even trying to be correct. I've tried moving the watch up or down. Nothing seems to work. It's accurate sometimes, but being off by 20 BPM when your HR is only at 60 is not even close. 

I've already done a factory reset because it wouldn't sync correctly and lost a good amount of my data from yesterday. I'm wondering if I have a defective device and should return it or if there will be a software update to fix this?

Is anyone else having this issue?

P.S. Tried to post a picture, but there doesn't seem to be a way to do it

[murfpass]

Most of this is sitting at my desk or maybe walking like 20 steps. My HR hasn't been over 70 the whole day and yet it's showing me as being in the "fat burn" 3 separate times. 

It also says I've climbed 10 flights of stairs today (I have climbed a single stair).

[NellyG]

Ive just been thinking how much more accurate the HR seems on my ionic than my Alta HR. Not that the AltaHR was innaccurate for evey day use - both are saying much the same. But when exercising I always felt the Alta HR didnt get the peaks right. So I was pleasantly surprised after my bike ride today to look at my heart rate graph which looks very similar to an Alta HR one, but with more realistic peaks and closer to what I measure manually.

[dsun]

I have to say I completely disagree. I used the have the Charge HR for 2 years and the heart rate data for anything other than resting was totally useless- it bore no relation to reality. Therefore, whenever I went out on bike rides, I always used a chest strap. Having always used the chest strap for my 12km commute to work (so I can get accurate Strava fitness/freshness info), I know very well what this looks like on an average commute. Now I use the Ionic for this instead and it's literally within a beat or 2 of a chest strap. I also tested it when using Zwift on a turbo, with a chest strap showing on screen...every time I checked it was essentially identical (all the way up to 176 bpm). I don't know what changes FitBit have made, but it must be a a hardware change, rather than software which has meant such a massive improvement. I do tighten the Ionic for a ride slightly more than when wearing not doing exercise, but I always did that with the Charge HR too. 

[murfpass]

Thanks for your reply. I had heard good things about the HR sensor and that's why I wanted to see if anyone else was having this issue. I might just have a defective watch maybe. I did try it during a workout (at the gym) and it seemed pretty accurate, but when I went for a run, again it was about 20 BPM higher than my actual HR. Not really sure what to do at this point.

[dsun]

It does sound like it might be defective. All my previous  experiences of fitbit have been that heart rate during  exercise is lower than it should be, hard to work out why it would be higher, except for defective hardware. 

[Justinkaram]

Mine is very inaccurate. Shows 100 bpm and I check manually and it’s around 65. I called Fitbit about it they said they are still resolving some issues and maybe an update will fix it 

[SunsetRunner]

?Quote

[Justinkaram]

You should be able to see it on the phone app. Click on the box that shows the resting heart rate and current heart rate

Sent from my iPhone

[alg0]

I'm experiencing the same inaccuracy. HR is erratic, all over the place even when sitting still. Today while lifting weights it got near 200, which is insane when my actual HR was ~100. My blaze was quite good at this. I hope next update will come with a fix. So far ionic has been a complete disappointment for me.

[Justinkaram]

My blaze was accurate. I loved it.

Sent from my iPhone

[GeneDoc]

With my comparison of a Polar chest strap, my Ionic is significantly inaccurate, particularly towards the beginning of the exercise.  For example, there are times when I am in the middle of the exercise and expect a heart rate in the 130-140bpm range, which the chest strap is reporting, but the Ionic reports 80-90bpm.  I have checked that the watch is tight.  I have confirmed the chest strap pulse by estimating the pulse at the carotid artery.  It seems as though there is some sort of lag in data collection, as the inaccuracy lessens later in the exercise.  Perhaps more sweat at the skin helps the Ionic function better?  I don't believe I would be able to make the watch tighter without being uncomfortable.

[wedzir]

Pretty much the same here.. Its quite accurate when sleeping, sitting and relaxing and with most activities its way off.. Bought the Ionic to finally get rid of a chest strap but its way to inaccurate right now. I had the same experience with the Charge 2 btw. 

Maybe readings will improve when the red lasers are also being activated after an update

The picture is a walk this morning. No running just a walk. Around 80 seems more accurate..

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you - I was looking on the web app and I didn't see it.  It's great to find it on the phone app!  Thanks for letting me know.

[murfpass]

I feel like that's what they are going to say every time. Obviously a product can't be perfect, but there are a lot of people that the HR works just fine. Unless they are just taking the watches word for it and not actually checking. 

It seems to be getting a little bit better, but there are times where I'll see it's way higher than it should be, take the watch off, wait like 20 seconds, put it back on, and the HR will come back down. Sometimes it does it on it's own, but it takes a long time of it staying too high.

[SunsetRunner]

My Blaze was awful at HR monitoring but my Ionic seems a lot more accurate 

[C0ltrain]

I was having very similar issues to the ones described on this thread until a few days ago. Recently it has been much more accurate during exercise. 

[lschmali]

My blaze HR was very accurate and I now have the ionic. For the last several days my Ionic HR has been reading that my HR is at 100+bpm all day. I had another person wear it and said the same thing. It worked properly when I first got it a couple weeks ago, so this is a new issue. Also my notifications do not come through even after I restart the watch or reset the bluetooth on my phone. 

[Skwiatek]

Mine is very inaccurate. It seemed to be so “off” that I put on my charge 2 on the same wrist and got wildly different readings. Two different random 10 minute “workouts” show my charge 2 at 69 and 77, but the ionic read 119 and 116-the second time with a peak of 122 vs 166.  Very disappointing.  

[Skwiatek]

Mine is very inaccurate. It seemed to be so “off” that I put on my charge 2 on the same wrist and got wildly different readings. Two different random 10 minute “workouts” show my charge 2 at 69 and 77, but the ionic read 119 and 116-the second time with a peak of 122 vs 166.  Very disappointing.