Ionic Heart Rate Problems

[BillSarasota]

I have been using the Ionic for 3-4 weeks now and have noticed inaccurate heart rate readings for the first 5-10 minutes of a run. It has both been way too high and quite low for workouts of consistent speed over time. I've hit 197bpm at 10:00 per mile and had it settle down to 135 after a few minutes, and this morning's 5k (7:05 per mile) started at 217bpm and leveled off between 170-175bpm. With the Blaze, my highest recorded heart rate was 196 and I never saw the spikes at the beginning of a run, and I used the Blaze for 18 months. Is it possible that this device is defective or that the software needs some tweaking? I track peak and average heart rates associated with my training and I was hoping for the same accuracy level from the Ionic. Any thoughts? Thank you.

[Venkats]

You are unfortunately late to the party that has been complaining. I assumed the device is broken by design and returned since it was my hard earned money to begin with and loyalty doesn't mean put up with a sub-par device. You can wait for a fix to come in and by definition you then can be potentially waiting forever. 

When it becomes clear issues have been fixed there is nothing that prevents from buying back.

[SantiR]

@BillSarasota Welcome to the Fitbit family! Thanks for sharing this with us. How are you wearing your watch? When doing high intensity workouts it is recommended to wear the watch high up your wrist. From 2 to 3 fingers from your wrist bone should be fine. Also, it is needed for the tracker to be loose on your wrist. If it is too tight, there may be inaccuracies. Please check this article for more details.

Keep me posted! 

[RSB75]

Should i be holding this watch from one hand to keep it in the right position while running/walking/swimming ? Its a crap product and realising it in my 4th day of ownership; so it will go back tomorrow for refund. 

I lost 600 plus calories today by walking at 4 kms/hour speed as my heart rate was astonishing 150-167  and at this rate i will lose a stone in couple of weeks. Joke.

Anyone who own this can understand my pain and anyone researching before buying it should not waste their time and money on this pathetic product from Fitbit. I am missing my Fitbit 2 as it was an amazing product. 

[BillSarasota]

Thanks for the response, but I don't see the way I'm wearing the watch as an issue since it corrects itself after a few minutes. I wear it the same way (slightly loose) as I have the Blaze for a year and a half and there were no issues with the Blaze. 2-3 fingers from the wrist bone is larger around than just above the wrist bone so the watch will slide back to where it is now. From the responses here it seems that this is a common problem. Other than holding the watch somehow where it doesn't naturally sit, what solutions are available?

[Andy-fbit]

---

@SantiR wrote:

How are you wearing your watch?

Not too tight, above the bone.

My results/problems are the same as reported by Bill. 

See below - same track, few days difference. 

Fitbit Ionic first shown 170 bmp after like 30 sec of running and then dropped to 120 bmp which for me is normal heart rate for walk but not run!

Fitbit team, please take action as soon as possible

Moto 360 2ndFitbit Ionic

[SunsetRunner]

Many of us have complained about this @SantiR. It isn't a new issue with the Ionic, and it is not how we're wearing the device, but how it is measuring heart rate for the first 5 minutes or so.

Seriously, man, if it were an issue wearing the device incorrectly, the measurement would be wrong ALL the time, not just in the beginning.

See this? This happens no matter HOW or WHERE I wear the fitbit. It clears up and then is fine.

So, please, just report this to your developers. Please.

[SantiR]

@RSB75 @BillSarasota @Andy-fbit @SunsetRunner I hope you are all doing great today! Thanks for your reports and recommendations. I found this on the help article, perhaps you would like to try that to if that will work:

"With high-intensity interval training, P90X, boxing, or other activities where your wrist is moving vigorously and non-rhythmically, the movement may prevent the sensor from finding an accurate heart rate. Similarly, with exercises such as weight lifting or rowing, your wrist muscles may flex in such a way that the band tightens and loosens during exercise. Try relaxing your wrist and staying still briefly (about 10 seconds), after which you should see an accurate heart-rate reading. Note that your device will still provide accurate calorie burn readings during these types of exercise by analyzing your heart rate trends over the course of the workout."

Try relaxing your wrist a bit before doing the exercise.

Thanks for your patience! In the meanwhile, please check the help article for more details.

Try that out and let me know how it goes! 

[Rhoyz]

 I find the HR to be close by a beat or 2 (high and low) with my Polar H10 HR with Polar Pro Strap. I do fast/slow pace interval on Elliptical and Uphill walk on the treadmill.  I included the screenshot of Fitbit and Polar Beat to show the comparison between the two. Btw, this is for Elliptical exercise. 

[SunsetRunner]

@SantiR

This isn't my first fitbit. I know how to wear it, and its limitations. I'm not doing P90x, or Crossfit, or other high motion activity. I'm simply running. Just running a 9 minute mile. No wrist flexion.  This is something wrong with the Ionic that is reading the heart rate incorrectly. 

So please, report this to your developers, and stop wasting our time making suggestions that have no bearing on the issue. All I want to hear is that you're passing this information on to whomever does the software development. 

[ems25]

I have recent been getting a similar issue. I got the Ionic at release and it worked properly until the past week or two. When i start my runs, the first 5 minutes is very low then kicks in and works as it should. I had this happen to my last 5 runs. I'm not wearing it any different than before. It definitely looks to be a flaw in the sensor.

[timpaul]

The same issue -- Took it to the gym for the first time today and was rather surprised by the inaccuracy when I selected "weightlifting" on the exercise tab and started working out.I got home and just ran a tiny experiment -- I was 55 bpm when I was just sitting around.  I turned on the "run" exercise and did not move a muscle, and the sensor immediately had me at 75bpm.

Send this to developers please or this thing will be seeing a return label on it.

[SylD]

I have axactly the same issue and already changed my fitbit but it did not solve the problem. Fitbit must update their software quiclkly before getting hundreds of customer complaints....

[SunsetRunner]

Interestingly, I returned to exercise after a Christmas/New Year/Just couldn't be bothered break of far too long and strapped on my Polar cheat strap for a 6k row. Ionic was consistently at least 30bpm too low. It never went above 120bpm and was never once anywhere in the same ball park as the Polar.

Now I know about high intensity workouts affecting wrist based monitors, I've been using Fitbits for a few years, but this seriously shocked me. Not even close, ever. I'm going to reboot / re-pair another Ionic I have and see if that one is any better.

[bbarrera]

@SunsetRunner anything involving your wrist flexing or under tension will impact the accuracy of wrist optical HRM. That includes rowing, weight lifting, cycling if you grip handlebars, crossfit, etc.

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you @bbarrera I'm not a complete numpty. I'm well aware, as I said. I took readings when not flexing.

[bbarrera]

"numpty" ha ha, I'll add that to my personal urban dictionary and drop that into a conversation with friends from UK 🙂

did I miss another post? You didn't say "took readings when not flexing" and thats why I mentioned wrist flexing. And personally I don't think high intensity workouts are synonymous with wrist flexing.

[SunsetRunner]

My apologies @bbarrera, for my poor choice of phraseology. Perhaps I shouldn't have used high intensity, or rather should have added in rowing. Either way, I would've thought, given our "conversations" in the past around the subject, you'd have given me some credit for understanding the mechanics of wrist based monitors and rowing/cycling etc.

Either way, I've switched Ionics and the second is tracking closer to my chest strap, so there might've been an issue with the first. I'm going to re-pair it again to check.

[bbarrera]

@SunsetRunner no worries, and I wasn't trying to be demeaning just helpful. Most of our conversations have been around cycling, and I thought you might find my recent Fitbit/Strava finding of interest. Since switching to cycling as primary cardio, I've struggled to get good calorie estimates from Fitbit. Weird.

[AnnieMarcon]

Can you explain to me why my heat rate readings are so high. Like 202, 212 when running a Pound group fitness class. 

Also, that the readings from the tracking app on Fitbit seems to record a higher heart rate than just normal tracking in same Fitbit. Eg. Readings from the end of tracked class differ from heart rate recordings overall.