Ionic Heart Rate Drops low during long run

[Albert71]

I ran 7 miles today at about 11 min per mile pace.  The heart rate on my Ionic dropped from 160-180 bpm to 82-90 bpm around 5.5 miles (about an hour into the run) and stayed there for about 5 min.  The Ionic strap was tight throughout the run, and thus it wasn't a loose sensor issue.  The sudden drop in HR happened after I took a deep breathe.  I did notice that I felt quite calm when the HR dropped.  I was able to get my HR up to peak levels after I sprinted a little.

Can anyone explain what happened (see green circle in the picture below)?  Is it due to malfunctioning of my Ionic, or is that a natural phenomenon during a long run?

Many thanks for your help.

[SilviaFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @Albert71! Thanks for the details that you've mentioned as well for the screenshot that you've attached. It sounds like the intensity of the exercise changed and that's why your heart rate dropped a bit, when you're running you may be going up and it takes more effort to do it, instead when you're running in a flat surface it will need less. 

I would like you to continue checking your runs and always make sure your Ionic is being wear not too loose and not too tight. 

Keep me posted! 

[MrChaos]

I don't agree that it is an issue with your actual heart rate lowering.  I am consistently having the same problem.  I now wear a chest strap heart rate monitor that reports my heart rate on my elliptical and it doesn't drop when my ionic says it dropped.  Last night it actually dropped to zero while my elliptical still said my heart rate was 153.  Since I'm not dead, I'd say the ionic was wrong and the strap was right.  I have tried everything to get it to work properly, including cleaning and drying the sensor and it still messes up.  My guess is it is a software bug.

[Nettuno]

you're lucky! .. I sent this result to the technical support and they told me that everything is regular (I do not think) ..
In my gym we have many optical and biometric reading systems to control cardiac stress, we noticed that the Ionic is not suitable for fitness and, according to some, even dangerous.
In this test we used Polar H10 and Fitbit Ionic (2 Optical readers) to measure 5 rounds of cardiac stress ... judge you!

[fluxx]

I've got the same problems. Here are my last to exercises on the elliptical. Both times the Ionic records at least one situation, where my heartbeat seems to go down but it is absolutely steady (same level of activity, Polar chest strap connected to the elliptical). I should mention, that I've used a Charge 2 for more than a year which delivered perfect results. The Ionic is loosing the heartbeat MUCH to often (almost every minute or so, which could be the reason for the decrease, as it starts to guess the hr when it tries to come back).

I fear this is a problem by design, but I hope they can fix it in an upcoming update, at least there are more and newer sensors than on the Charge 2, things surely shouldn't get worse!

(One note: It seems to me, the higher the level of activity gets, the worse the hr sensor gets. Perhaps due to sweating, motion, or anything else? But I don't care what it is, this is an activity tracker which should work DURING an activity and not only before and after.) 

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey there @Nettuno and @fluxx. I appreciate the extra details you've mentioned as well for the screenshots you've shared. I've shared this with my team and it seems that your watch may had trouble reading HR at some point during the exercise just as it shows in the screenshots you've attached. 

It's really difficult to confirm what exactly happened, so I would like you to once again double check you're properly wearing your Ionic as mentioned in this article. 

Also, the readings that Fitbit and other trackers will give you it's going to be different as each one tracks the data based in other algorithms. 

Hope this helps! 

[Nettuno]

---

wrote:

Hey there @Nettuno and @fluxx. I appreciate the extra details you've mentioned as well for the screenshots you've shared. I've shared this with my team and it seems that your watch may had trouble reading HR at some point during the exercise just as it shows in the screenshots you've attached. 

It's really difficult to confirm what exactly happened, so I would like you to once again double check you're properly wearing your Ionic as mentioned in this article. 

Also, the readings that Fitbit and other trackers will give you it's going to be different as each one tracks the data based in other algorithms. 

Hope this helps! 

---

are you kidding or are you kidding me?
The whole blog talks about cardio problems of this fake watch and you keep sending "how to wear it" ??
In Italy it has been voted as the worst technological device of the year 2017 !!
Search in Youtube:
FITBIT IONIC è il PEGGIORE del 2017 - Recensione ITA
or

FITBIT IONIC, CHE PECCATO! Fitbit Ionic ITA recensione • Ridble 

The Ionic fitbit has nothing to do with fitness ... and it is very dangerous for those struggling with extreme cardio.
One thing you said right, are different "the readings that Fitbit and other trackers" .. an optical LED reader can vary 3/5 bpm compared to other ... but, but but you see the graph ?? and the tests were done not only with Polar but also with Garmin, Suunto, Samsung .. which are certainly better, but vary slightly compared to the Ionic!

It is my opinion to think that the problem of Fitonic Ionic is the unreliable system of PurePulse managed by only 1 LED (unlike other trackers) and does not allow the correct measurement in excessively dynamic workouts such as Kickboxing and maybe more reliable in rhythmic movements or static.

In conclusion I think this watch is a rip-off worth € 90
P.S.
Better not to mention synchronization or that this toy does not even recognize a cardio belt ... !! ... Well, given this, it's worth less than € 90