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

[Denodan]

None of tge fitness watches are good when you push them and all will give inacurate results.

Garmin will give better results due to you can use chest straps.

[SunsetRunner]

We were told a new firmware update would fix this, I installed it last night and was hopeful it would solve this issue.... this morning I put it on pilates mode and did my makeup, my actual heart rate was  around 79 whilst in pilates mode it rose to 120 fat burning! The watch was tight to my risk and I had long sleeve covering it so I know the sensors weren’t being interefered with. It seems when in exercise mode it just likes to make up a number of what it thinks your heartbeat would be rather than accurately monitoring it. I did a test with my Fitbit charge 2 and wore both watches, when not in exercise mode it displays correct readings, they were exactly the same, as soon as ionic is in exercise mode it starts raising my heartbeat and nearly doubling it! Where as charge 2 remains accurate.... 

[indianwin2001]

---

@fluxxwrote:

This was my Ionic sitting on a table overnight doing some heavy workout.

Really, what kind of a product is this? 

---

Wow--you are really in great shape---- So glad I swapped this garbage out for a Garmin especially since I can use an ACCURATE chest strap

[YFG]

I also wondered if the update I did in the last 12 hrs would help...it did not. I ran some steps after the update. HR readings were erratic. Higher in the first minute of stairs than in the last 5. The readings are simply unreliable when exercising. Before the update I had a HR reading of 205 on a mild 1mi run. I bought the ionic over the Apple because of battery and sleep tracking. However, I have a wearable for fitness. HR is at the heart of fitness tracking. Bottom line-I’m not sure when I’ve been more disappointed spending $300.

[Tim31415]

Above just a very nice example of what is wrong with the HR determination of the Ionic. Yesterday I did a short and fairly relaxed run. But not that relaxed that my HR was below 90 (and the pace better than 5'/km). As usual the Ionic is completely off in the first km or so, and after that it appears to be correct.

[ErikVerm]

What I would really like to see in the next update is a recalibration button in the menu. After recharging last week my heartrate is completely incorrect as well and nothing I can do to fix the problem.

---

[DougJacobson]

My Ionic, as well as the Charge I had previously, both fluctuate a great deal during exercise.  I hike a 1 mile long trail with 1,000 foot elevation gain. The slope is very constant.The peak rates seem to be correct, but suddenly it will drop from 125 bpm to 85, even though my heart is still pounding. 

This seems to be the reverse of most complaints.

I wear the Ionic very near my wrist bone. I wear it just tight enough not to move around.

[MaginB]

Hi everyone! 

Thanks for your patience to this matter and all the feedback that you have provided. I want to let you know that this has been forwarded to the appropriate teams, in the meantime I recommend following the troubleshoots that my friend @SantiR recently shared. 

Thanks for visiting the Forums! 

[mbcastle]

So, after updating the firmware I did an experiment and wore the band looser during a run like when I first got the watch. Again, the HR reading spiked way up and stayed there, so I'm not sure this firmware update did anything to address this issue. What seems to work for me is wearing the band as tight as possible without it being uncomfortable.

[SunsetRunner]

I found the same for the most part....after the last fw update...back to the 190 start then settle in about 10 minutes in

[MattJ71]

The Ionic's heart rate inaccuracy translates into a misleading daily calorie burn.  Ever since I got the Ionic, I have been gaining weight.  The reason for this is because a higher heart rate indicates more calorie burn.

With my previous Blaze, I would rarely burn over 3000 calories per day.  More like 2800.  Now, I burn 3000 by 9:00 PM and go as high as 3400 by midnight.  This lulls me into eating more, which results in weight gain.

I even have a 500 calories deficit set, and routinely stay 1000 calories in deficit (i.e. eat around 2000 - 2300 calories a day).  I still don't lose weight.

Also, I rack up active minutes during the day.... at work.  This never happened with the Blaze.

So, this is anecdotal evidence that the Ionic is WAY off on the heart rate and hence calorie burn.

I am very disappointed with this product.

[Denodan]

I have no issues with heartrate and is fairly accurate, within 2 to 3 bmp of my Samsung Gear Sport and with apple watch have pretty accurate heart rates.

You push any of these watch they all show inaccurate heart rates.

No optical heartrate monitor cab compete with a chest heart strap.

Optical is fine up till moderate activity, but not so good for hard out activty.

But Samsung and apple are known to be amoung the better optical hr monitors.

I do find my ionic has pretty good hr monitoring. Resting is fairly accurate. Doing an activty the graph ends up like a woodsaw graph.

My sansung has a smooth graph so reading hr activity much better.

But resting both are close.

[Jonathanbaker]

Hi Moderator

It is clear from the community experience that there is an issue with spikes in the HR readings. This is in spite of following your advice and trialling a number of ways to wear the watch etc.

As a solution, may I suggest that you program the device to disregard the top 5% of readings (or whatever the threshold is to remove the spike).

My experience is that, apart from the spike, the HR readings are good. I just don't want to see maximum HR readings of 200 when I haven't been anywhere near this reading for the rest of the activity. The graphs are difficult to see with any accuracy and so it is hard to ascertain MaxHR by manually removing the spike. I also want to see a quick summary of stats and not have to analyse the data to ascertain my results.   

Removing the outlier readings as a short term fix would I am sure, be very warmly welcomed.

Regards

Jonathan

[Twinz]

It seems that the HR part of the app does something like this. The watch itself and the "exercise" part of the app both show the spikes, but when I look at the HR section in the app the maximum heart rate shown for the day, it's no where near what the watch and exercise section show. 

[Piskins]

So what's the value of the Fitbit then.? People are more interested in their heartrate when exercising not resting. It's not suitable for sporting use and this should have been made clear when it was launched. Bet sales would have been much lower. 
Tap to get Yahoo Mail

[Denodan]

They work and for the average person to gaudge their fitness, not a serious person who really pushes to the limit or very hard.

For that you need a chest strap.

[climbbike]

You don't need a chest strap. You just need almost anything but an IONIC. And in response to the earlier comment about Fitbit would have sold less Ionics if people knew the hr monitoring sucked, they didn't sell many to start with and I can only imagine how horrible their returns have been: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/286176/fitbit-downgraded-on-weak-ionic-sales-shares-fall-762

A Fitness Smartwatch that doesn't work for Fitness and is not smart. hmmmm. Keep digging the  hole deeper Fitbit.

[67fit]

Having the same problem as other Ionic users with erratic hr readings. Seems worse since update last week. HR consistently higher in exercise mode than normal mode. Sometimes will peak at 2x manually taken pulse and above age calculated peak, other times stays unexpectedly low. Tried different tightness and wearing positions, does not help all the time. Any way to reset or update? Like other users, this erratic behavior is frustrating. Resting HR seems to be only reliable reading.

[Denodan]

No all have some issues and you push them hard any of them using an optical sensor monitor cannot keep up abd start dropping out and certian fitness watches are better than others depending on the type of activies.

What a more accurate hr monitor buy ether an apple watch or Sansung gear s3 or sport are among the more accuratw hr monitoring, which is why i got the Samsung Gear..

[YFG]

I can honestly say that if I had known how poorly the HR function was I wouldn’t have bought the Ionic. One other thing is the multiple posts that have said the HR function is worse after the latest Fitbit update.

So, the questions are—is Fitbit really paying attention?
Do they have a QC Dept?
Do they use their own products?
Is there an Ionic Product Mgr? If so, where
are you?