Ionic Heart Rate accuracy

[msg270]

i would like to know if the new Ionic will have the same or a better Hear Rate monitor than the fitbit Blaze. 

[SimonRJ]

I'd say the heart rate is hit or miss.

Hit - at rest, low-medium intensity exercise, and when cycling.  On my bike, the Ionic is almost always bang on compared to what my heart rate strap is reading to my cycling computer.

Miss - running.  Ionic shows upwards of 180-190bpm (I'm 41 yrs old).  My HR strap usually shows 150-160.

[MiamiKids1]

Well if u r honest and knowledgeable about tracking HR I would think your response would be altered

Sent from my iPhone

[wedzir]

Seeing the same... 

Even with plain walking the HR goes up to 170 (56 years old) Riding a bike is pretty much accurate..

Thing like running, lifting and so on are way to hight

[CaptainAdhoc]

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The heart rate is factually not very accurate for many exercises people who say other wise are fooling themselves or misleading others.

As I wrote I've compared the Ionic HR measurements to a Garmin chest strap, which must be one of the best methods for a non pro to measure HR. They give pretty much the same results for me both during light exercise (such as taking a walk) as well as more intense (intense for my age = 160-180 bpm). I've also used a Adidas Smart Run for years so I know my HR measurements pretty well (the Adidas is also quite accurate, on level with the Ionic).

I feel I am not fooling myself or misleading others.

Perhaps my veins are more visible than yours? 

If your Ionic, when properly secured to the wrist in a correct position, is 40 bpm off track I would've created a support ticket with Fitbit. Personally I wouldn't accept even 10% off, perhaps your device is broken in some way?

[Kev4fun]

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@CaptainAdhoc wrote:

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The heart rate is factually not very accurate for many exercises people who say other wise are fooling themselves or misleading others.

As I wrote I've compared the Ionic HR measurements to a Garmin chest strap, which must be one of the best methods for a non pro to measure HR. They give pretty much the same results for me both during light exercise (such as taking a walk) as well as more intense (intense for my age = 160-180 bpm). I've also used a Adidas Smart Run for years so I know my HR measurements pretty well (the Adidas is also quite accurate, on level with the Ionic).

I feel I am not fooling myself or misleading others.

Perhaps my veins are more visible than yours? 

If your Ionic, when properly secured to the wrist in a correct position, is 40 bpm off track I would've created a support ticket with Fitbit. Personally I wouldn't accept even 10% off, perhaps your device is broken in some way?

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I just experienced a discrepancy with the iconic heart accuracy. On a treadmill and after transitioning from a run to a walk (6.0 mph to 4.0 mph), I checked my heart rate and it was about 210 bpm, which is  way over my max heart rate. After about a minute, it dropped to 160 bpm. After completing the rest of my treadmill workout, I returned home and checked my heart rate on the iconic and it was in the mid 80's. Just for comparison, I checked my blood pressure, using an arm-cuff monitor (Verified accurate by my Doctor for the blood pressure reading and hear rate), and the blood pressure monitor had my heart rate at 115 bpm. I checked my iconic reading right away and it showed in the mid 80's. 

Changing the position of the iconic on my wrist (Left or right, above or below wrist bone) did not alter the reading.  I am going to continue checking the difference between the two devices. However, it doesn't look good for the iconic. Since I just purchased it, I will follow up with Fitbit support if there is an issue and request a replacement.

[Venkats]

Don't panic ionic's heart rate tracking algorithm is broken as designed. A future update will likely resolve the issue.

[Lukasz_W]

I've had ionic for about a month now. I'm very happy with it in general. The HRM accuracy is not great though I have to say. Today I did a test - I cycled 16km with both Jabra Elite Sport in-ear HRM coupled with strava app using my phone's gps (huawei mate 10) and fitbit ionic running on my wrist in parallel. Results weren't massively off, but  Jabra was better. You can check out the comparison on my strava page (2 plots, HRM vs. distance and speed vs. distance): 

https://www.strava.com/activities/1261680283

https://www.strava.com/activities/1261637764

Jabra measurement is more in line how I felt during the exercise and it is supported by the speed of my cycling - I was going with roughly steady pace when the significant mismatch happened (at around 8km point).

[wedzir]

So I was on the treadmill this morning and used the treadmille exercise mode on the Ionic Watch. I was on there for 10K in 1.22 mins (little less but started the watch early and stopped late) The watch was off by 3.06 kms. No way the avarage HR was 141, no way the peak was somewhere at 180 so noway the cals burned were 1107... The 2 - 3 km error on the treadmill is pretty constant... Have seen this over 3 events now.. Probably something with slow running/walking/faster running etc etc.. todo.. But that freaking HR is annoying the hell out of me.. Idea was to not need a chest strap anymore...

[shipo]

@wedzir, two comments:

• Treadmill distance is simply a calculation of your running stride length (which is set in your profile) times the number of steps you took; looking at your graphs it looks like your stride length is way off.  Assuming that's the case, simply recalculate the length and update your profile.  Given you ran ten kilometers in 12,569 steps on the treadmill, that means your stride length is about 80 centimeters.
• Regarding your heart rate, next time try wetting your skin under your Ionic before you get on the treadmill.  Lots of us have experienced a spike in our readings at the beginning of a run and it has been theorized the readings don't become more accurate until a little sweat builds up under the back of the tracker.

[SimonRJ]

Sweat should not be a factor.  The measurement is optically based.  It's not like traditional HRM that do in fact need moisture to work properly. 

[shipo]

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@SimonRJ wrote:

Sweat should not be a factor.  The measurement is optically based.  It's not like traditional HRM that do in fact need moisture to work properly. 

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We're not talking about "should", we're talking about what is actually happening.  The fact is, many-many folks have posted reports of a spike until they get a ways into a run, myself included, and other folks have started putting water on their wrist before a run and have reported the problem has stopped.

[MassiP]

Exactly. As I wrote many times, if you make sure that your wrist skin is a little wet, by rubbing some water on your skin before running and you put on your Ionic tight you won't see these high spikes anymore. Believe me. Just try it!

[SimonRJ]

Sorry, but to suggest that moisture will improve the accuracy is just wrong.  A quick review of several articles regarding optically based sensors, including one from the MIT weekly technical journal, suggests that sweat actually inhibits the accuracy of these sensors.   None of them equate the presence of sweat or water to improved accuracy.   The first few minutes of inaccuracies subside due to body temperature increases, not sweat or moisture. 

What the articles do say that seem concurrent to observations made here is that the accuracy improves as temperature increases, especially during exercise, due to blood vessels moving closer to the skin surface to aid in body cooling - hence the sensor being able to get a better reading.  

[shipo]

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@SimonRJ wrote:

Sorry, but to suggest that moisture will improve the accuracy is just wrong.  A quick review of several articles regarding optically based sensors, including one from the MIT weekly technical journal, suggests that sweat actually inhibits the accuracy of these sensors.   None of them equate the presence of sweat or water to improved accuracy.   The first few minutes of inaccuracies subside due to body temperature increases, not sweat or moisture. 

What the articles do say that seem concurrent to observations made here is that the accuracy improves as temperature increases, especially during exercise, due to blood vessels moving closer to the skin surface to aid in body cooling - hence the sensor being able to get a better reading.  

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Sorry, you can believe what you want to believe, but a thin layer of moisture does in fact improve accuracy during the initial stages of a workout.

[MassiP]

Thank you Shipo. In fact I often compare the readings on the treadmill built in hr reader and they match the ones on the watch.

[Martinefski]

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@SimonRJ wrote:

Sorry, but to suggest that moisture will improve the accuracy is just wrong.  A quick review of several articles regarding optically based sensors, including one from the MIT weekly technical journal, suggests that sweat actually inhibits the accuracy of these sensors.   None of them equate the presence of sweat or water to improved accuracy.   The first few minutes of inaccuracies subside due to body temperature increases, not sweat or moisture. 

What the articles do say that seem concurrent to observations made here is that the accuracy improves as temperature increases, especially during exercise, due to blood vessels moving closer to the skin surface to aid in body cooling - hence the sensor being able to get a better reading.  

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Please don't argue with these people, the Ionic is perfect and in now way fallible. 

Get with the program and start using water or whatever the next completely reasonable fix to get the results you want to see or believe. 

Sheesh!!!

[Hikingchick]

My ionic has just a green light but 3 sensors.  It ready my heartbeat inaccurately when I am lifting weights!  I was most upset as it registered 73 beats when My heart rate was actually 120!  This throws off all he calorie calculations!  

[Jil4e]

I had a Surge and it was very accurate on heart rate monitoring and now I have Ionic and heart rate is about 10% off on resting heart rate. Additional calories counting on certain exercises, so inaccurate heart rate or the algorithms on those specific workout activities are off.

[Jil4e]

I found that same experience with my Surge. Various data points vs medical equipment, but this Ionic is considerably higher.

[mbcastle]

This has been my experience so far as well.