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

[shipo]

Two comments:

• Making sure the band is tight on the wrist will dramatically reduce spurious readings
• The above said, there is a known and widely reported issue with the Ionic where the first few minutes of an exercise show a huge and unnatural spike in the heart rate.

[Rogue_Syst3m]

so true, should we be experiencing this for $300? also pretty poor watch faces? really? if it wasnt for the fitbark i wouldnt have bought it, which im regretting both of them, a waste imho. overpriced fitbark.

should be called fitwaste

[wzahid]

Ionic heart rate reading has a problem and need to be fixed.

It gives wrong reading and spikes after few minutes of my run. I use zephyr chest strap  for more than 5 years with charge hr and charge hr2 they used to give same reading for years. Now... Ionic is realy off by 20 to 30 beats and it spikes up for unknown  reason. Fix it please.

[widrig]

YUP I have had them all and the trackers are not accurate. I just bought the Ionic and went on a 5K run, within 2 min my HR spiked to 160 and was inconsistent the whole run. Very frustrating. I will try to wear it tighter with a wet wrist tomorrow. 

[widrig]

Mine does the same. Just got it and it spikes to 160 range and drops down by 10-20 bpm. Someone suggested wetting wrist and where it tighter, trying on next run. Frustrating.....

[shipo]

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@widrig wrote:

Mine does the same. Just got it and it spikes to 160 range and drops down by 10-20 bpm. Someone suggested wetting wrist and where it tighter, trying on next run. Frustrating.....

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I read the whole "wet your wrist" thing as well; didn't work.  It seems this issue will not get fixed until Fitbit puts out a new Firmware release.

[widrig]

Ya kinda useless then. I run, bike & hike everyday, got to know @ least within 5% accuracy. Simply can't have 20 bpm gaps/spikes with HR. I will try the wet wrist and change to right one tomorrow. Thx Shipo

[widrig]

I run, bike & hike everyday, got to know @ least within 5% accuracy. Simply can't have 20 bpm gaps/spikes with HR. I will try the wet wrist and change to right one tomorrow. Thx Shipo

[mrsethtaylor]

Mine is completely off, its consistently high when working out. Just got back from a treadmill run at the gym, my surge said 132, the treadmill said 130, my new ionic - 182. No way I was running an easy 10min pace at 182, wasn't even breathing hard. I've tried all the little tricks, tightening, loosening, wetting, drying - I think its just off.

Problem is it also messes up my calories by 2 calories a minute - over the coarse of a workout thats a couple of extra hundred calories - I can't manage my nutrition that way.

On a support chat with them now, I'll update if I learn anything.

[widrig]

Agree. It’s all over the board in every workout, spikes way up. Our calorie burn will be completely in accurate as well. I will also contact them again today, they must be fully aware of the issue now and before they put the ionic out.

Sent from my iPhone

[Kelsterr1]

They have to know by now. The comments are all over the community. Thanks for verifying and keeping updated! Appreciate it. I have called about floor tracking being in accurate as well. Still waiting to hear on that one.  Seems If you post on there FB page they answe much quicker. 

[Rob5496]

My ionic is also measuring heart rate wrong, both resting and active . I can wear a blaze and charge 2 and they are both about the same ( now showing 72 ) and the ionic is showing 99-110!

My strap is tight enough and I am not wetting my wrist for my £300 tracker to do its job, is it not about time fitbit answered this so we know what they are going to do about it.

[shipo]

@Rob5496, what do you call "tight enough"?

[widrig]

Snug. I tried this as well and put moisture underneath my watch and it seems to be accurate periodically.

Sent from my iPhone

[Kelsterr1]

I never had an issue with the Blaze being inaccurate.  It would actually match within 1-2 beats my doctor reading or me taking my HR manually- which is the most accurate. Not the Ionic it is all over the place and if the Blaze were water proof I would have never switched. 

[Rob5496]

Tight enough as in snug in my wrist but not cutting my circulation off! 

[mrsethtaylor]

So, after a few talks with support, they are aware of the issue, its common, and is being addressed by engineering. That being said, I'm stuck with a device that is incorrect until when/IF they figure out whats wrong with the firmware. My options are to wait until engineering has a fix, or if I prefer return the item from where I purchased it.....

Not really what I wanted to hear, I'm in love with this watch (but only if it tracks correctly. I'm not sure how I will proceed.

[wzahid]

Still no solution of HR spikes in ionics

[BerEri]

... same problem, hr spikes shortly above 200 than back to normal. My Ionic also restarts when chosing "Alarm", occured after trying to add a fourth alarm.

[Tim31415]

After reading this thread I also want to share my observations in this discussion:

I have also observed 'too high' heart rates, typically around the beginning of runs, or whenever doing some intervals. It gets (much) better when I wear my Ionic tighter, but whether the problem completely disappears is somewhat unclear to me.

I have the suspicion that the HR sensor locks onto the cadence, whenever it is worn too loosely. I do not exactly know my cadence (no sensor), but it is in the right range.The problem is that the cadence and HR can be almost the same (e.g. 180).

This makes perfect sense: while running and your Ionic is moving it sees a signal with a frequency the same as your cadence. This could e.g be moving hair on your arm (from the perspective of the Ionic) or variable stray light (which can enter if worn too loose).

If the hair on your arm is a problem, shaving it underneath the Ionic could help. I haven't personally tried this, but if someone want to try in the interest of science: please go ahead.

If it is the variable stray light there is not much you can do (except running in the dark). One could try a test with covering the Ionic with some kind of wrist band and see if this solves the problem.

Having said all this: I am very much impressed on how well the optical HR recognition system works and happily accept these minor shortcomings (compared to a chest band). And most of the problems can be fixed by wearing your Ionic tighter (and as another suggestions goes: somewhat higher on the wrist in order to be flatter against your wrist [which suggest a stray light contribution BTW]).

However, I do not think there is 100% solution for this problem. The design of the Ionic in terms of stray light seems fine. In terms of firmware an improvement might be possible: after all your Ionic knows your cadence (since it counts steps) and algorithmically it might disfavour frequencies close to your cadence; this would be a nice project for someone to work on.

Short summary: I think the optical HR system in general does a wonderful job!