Heart rate on second Ionic

[Kight]

So Im on my second Ionic after returning the first one to Best Buy as defective after FitBit wanted me to send it to them for replacement.

The new Ionic is consistently 10 BPM higher than the first one.  I realize that this type of device cannot be spot on accurate, but how much of a range should we expect in the data?  Both seemed to settle into a specific range, they just happen to be about 10 BPM apart.  

I always thought the first one was a bit off, I dont think I have made it to a 50 BPM resting heart rate yet.

[Venkats]

A decent heart rate monitor should agree with a cuff blood pressure monitor or a chest strap at rest. When ambulatory it depends on the intensity because the algorithms kick in to remove outliers. In my comparisons, Blaze / Surge etc have always been in line with a chest based heart rate monitor or the treadmill's built in pulse sensor etc. As the intensity increases it is expected that optical sensors lose their accuracy. 

You should so similar comparisons. 

The IONIC I once owned never did.

[Kight]

That matches my experience using my Elliptical.  When the chest strap was reading 170 BPM the IONIC would max out at 155 BPM

[Venkats]

@Kight

Which elliptical model you have, The one with swinging arms or the ones with static hold for arms. If it is the former expect a loss of accuracy. If it is the later, accuracy should be spot on as it removes the arm swinging motion from influencing the measurement. Whenever I have used elliptical with a static arm rest or a stair stepper, in my gym Blaze and Surge will always be 100% accurate with my Polar H10. They will diverge as soon as I begin sprints which is comprehensible. I never got a chance to measure IONIC's accuracy on stair stepper and elliptical. I was avoiding its usage while waiting for a s/w update. After realizing that the update will be too late before I can return, I returned it.  

[SunsetRunner]

For what it's worth, I imported heart rate data from a Wahoo chest strap w/Endomondo and the Ionic into Excel and simply overlaid one on the other. Aside from that junk on the front end, the tracks were pretty consistent. Well within my tolerance as a non-professional runner.

Now, if we could just get that first bit fixed...

[Kight]

Its the Bowflex Max Trainer which has its own chest strap.  Most of the time the readings between it and the Ionic are pretty close +- 10 BPM, but at max intensity the Ionic falls behind sometimes more than 25 BPM.

I wasnt sure if that was just an accuracy issue between wrist sensors on the Ionic and the chest strap.

It did strike me as odd that my resting heard rate went up 10 BPM with the second IONIC.