Ionic Heart Rate Accuracy

[Kat_W]

Has anyone else noticed that the Heart Rate sensor is very inaccurate?  Currently my Ionic is showing that my heart rate is in excess of 120, while at the same time my pulse ox machine (a medical device) is saying it's 82.  The Samsung health app is inline with what the pulse ox is saying.  I'm not sure if I have a defective Ionic or if others are having the same issue. ( Note: Sorry if there are any spelling errors, I am tryping around my cat, who has decided to sit directly in front of the screen)

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[erikkai]

My ionic is nearly perfect. I would encourage those having issues to execute a warranty replacement or call support. You should not experience this many issues.

Sent from my iPhone

[lastonein]

I think most of us have called support and gotten nowhere. At least, that
is my experience which is why I wrote on the forum. But thanks for the
input.

[Denodan]

I have never had issues with my ionic and dint know why people here have, it would certianly be the minority and using both my garmin bike GPS, which I know is accurate out of 16km ride, my ionic was only .1 difference. Heart rate after a bike, using the old fashion and accurate method of counting and timing a pulse is within 3 bpm of the physical method.

Resting using the old method my ionic has always been spot on.

The only issues I have ever had with my ionic was syncing issues and used to take .any goes to get my ionic ro sync. Also forgot, weather updating was an issue as it never synced, watch faces that had weather never showed weather and the new York news app never sent news headlines to my ionic.

Now have the latest update and since the last update weather syncs and apps that did not sync before now sync.

Now with an s9 and further updates this is less of an issue and now think with recent updates syncing may have got a little quicker.

[Windman]

@Denodan Your reply speaks for itself and confirms my previous statement.
Using manual pulse estimation is absolutely useless as a reference in this
discussion as it requires a measurement time of a 1 minute to be accurate
within 2 bpm if your pulse is constant, which it never is immediately after
a training. If you do not have any reference (chest belt), and are happy
with manual estimation of pulse, I believe that you like many other Fibit
users are happy with almost anything on the market, as you do not know how
far off your tracker may be during training, why and how to use a fitness
tracker, and why accuracy matters (pulse zones).

[erikkai]

And does that mean you are a troll for Apple? Sounds like your issues with the Ionic could be false.

Sent from my iPhone

[BamIAm]

Switched to Garmin this weekend, found a lightly used Vivoactive HR on Ebay for $75.  Mainly just wanted to see how they compare to Fitbit.

End result, even the "low end" Garmin makes the newer Fitbit products look like toys (I've tried both the Versa and more recently the Ionic).  The Garmin GPS is much more accurate, HR monitoring is working fine, the device and web services are extremely configurable.

As a result I ordered a new Vivoactive 3, it's on the way!  Bye, Fitbit!

[lastonein]

Sorry. My ionic is far from perfect. I was the one writing that I had to
go to my physician for stress test and heart monitor because my ionic was
reading up to 193bpm on my runs. It was pretty scary. It was subsequently
shown that ionic was 50 points off from the heart monitor the physician
gave me. I am far from satisfied with this product and their customer
service. unfortunately I don't have my receipt and i purchased it back in
October. I think you have me confused with a different writer

[Nightfallstill]

That reply was for erikkai, sorry for the confusion. Doing this on my tablet...

[lastonein]

No worries and I totally agree with you

[erikkai]

I am sorry you had issues. That’s too bad. Why are you still on a forum for Fitbit users if you received a refund?

I believe that most ionic uses are happy with their purchase. Mine is as accurate as my heart rate monitor strap with limitations of course.

Sent from my iPhone

[Windman]

I have been following this thread for some time now. A relevant discussion about accuracy is not easy, especially in a forum like this with a mixture of relevant, not relevant and manipulated input.

Some customers get a refund and forget about Fitbit, others like Nightfallstill believe that what Fitbit is doing is wrong and would like other Ionic users to know, and then there are guys like me that hope that Fitbit at some point will listen, react and fix the problem instead of trying to convince us that the Ionic is ok by heavy manipulation. However, when manipulators like erikkai questions why Nightfallstill still is contributing to the forum I am losing hope as her contribution is more relevant than that of erikkai.

[Nightfallstill]

Windman, thank you! I still have my Charge 2 and use it when I do things like push mowing because fitbit still gets step total better than any other device when arms are in a fixed position. I wanted to love the Ionic. I really did. I don't know a single person in 'real life' that bought one and was happy with it. I hope for your sake they either fix it or do a buy back. Unfortunately, I think if only some devices were defective, they'd have done exactly that. The fact that these issues are blatantly ignored and a recall hasn't been issued tells me that all devices are defective and they can't afford to call them all back. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and I WILL continue to monitor this because I believe both people and companies should be responsible for their mistakes. If my posting gets even one unhappy person a refund before it's too late, then it's time well spent.

[Nightfallstill]

Everyone else who is following, 2 of my posts were removed because they were inflammatory. Apparently stating that I don't own an apple, have been a customer for several years, owned 4 different fitbit devices, don't believe that one of the posters is an actual user, replaced my Ionic with a Garmin, and asked for proof of said poster's claims is inflammatory. But that user's troll accusation isn't inflammatory...interesting. Apparently now the truth isn't welcome on this forum.

[YFG]

Kat, that issue has existed with Ionic since it's launch. Fitbit has been unable (with multiple update releases) to resolve it.

[Denodan]

Well I am happy with mine. GPS is pretty close to my Garmin bike GPS and none of the optical sensor watches are as accurate as a heart strap, but my ionic does an ok just, but when all optical watches are push the all become inaccurate.

Lots of you tube videos show the failings of optical watches in different situation.

None are perfect and more a guide than have medical accuracy or used for proper fitness measurements.

You got to take them with a grain of salt.

[Sk00t]

For what its worth, i have found heart rate to be wildly erratic.  Sucks.  About ready to demand a refund and be done with it.  Realkt like the ionic, but thus sucks.

[Denodan]

Dont know why you guys are having so much issues. Read reviews, and videos claiming they are fine. Even the odd person here are saying they are not getting wild readings.

If it was that bad, they would not be in business.

[Windman]

@Nightfallstill thks for feedback. I believe that you are correct in that this is a problem that all Ionic has. Though, I do not believe that it is a hardware problem, but that the algorithms for filtering the signals probably are not well optimized for the Ionic. This may be fixed by an update.

I hope that Fitbit manage to solve this, although so far all that Fitbit does is to try to manipulate us to believe that the Ionic is ok and as god or better than other optical trackers like the Fitbit charge 2, or those from Garmin or the Polar. I find that arrogant and dishonest.

Most of us on this forum know that the Fitbit Ionic has accuracy issues compared some of the older Fitbit devices and other brands like the Garmin and Polar. The accuracy issues are complex, as the Ionic may be more accurate in some situations. However, for sports tracking they are real for sure. Arguments like recently from Denodan or erikkai are irrelevant, and due to the level of manipulation in this forum and lack of response from Fitbit I see no point in continuing to spend more time on it.

Despite that the Ionic is useless for sports tracking I will keep mine as it has some features that I like, but I have stopped recommending people to buy a Fitbit or shares in Fitbit (despite latest FDA support), as I cannot support companies manipulating their customers instead of listening to them.

[bmw54]

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@Windman wrote:

Most of us on this forum know that the Fitbit Ionic has accuracy issues compared some of the older Fitbit devices and other brands like the Garmin and Polar. The accuracy issues are complex, as the Ionic may be more accurate in some situations. However, for sports tracking they are real for sure. Arguments like recently from Denodan or erikkai are irrelevant, and due to the level of manipulation in this forum and lack of response from Fitbit I see no point in continuing to spend more time on it.

Despite that the Ionic is useless for sports tracking I will keep mine as it has some features that I like, but I have stopped recommending people to buy a Fitbit or shares in Fitbit (despite latest FDA support), as I cannot support companies manipulating their customers instead of listening to them.

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@Windman: yours is as good a summary as I've seen so far in any of these forums and could easily apply to the GPS issue and algorithms Fitbit has decided to use for distance and pace. I also will continue to wear my Ionic but only as a $300 watch that occasionally performs correctly;  but almost never when I'm really depending upon it for accurate feedback. 

[bbarrera]

@Windman thanks for telling it like it is.

However I do have one difference of opinion regarding hardware vs algorithm. Optical HRMs will get better, however they are indirectly attempting to estimate HR by using blood flow under the skin. Meanwhile chest straps are sensing the electrical impulses that cause the heart to beat. For that reason, no matter how good the algorithms get, its simply not possible to "fix" the HR accuracy issues. Its possible to use stronger LEDs and sensors, at the expense of battery life. So its a classic case of engineering tradeoffs, and Fitbit has optimized for all-day (mostly resting) HR at the expense of workout HR accuracy which they attempt to fix using undisclosed methods (that appear related to machine learning).