Ionic - Inaccurate HR

[Jonathanbaker]

Hi community

I bought an ionic on release date and I am having a few issues with HR readings.

The heart rate readings are not in line with my old surge and given the readings I am inclined to say the surge was more accurate. Generally the readings on the ionic are higher both in terms of average and peak. On my surge my heart rate peaked at circa 190 bpm. I have had readings of 210bpm on my ionic which is unlikely!! I have used a number of HR devices over the years and never recorder a bpm reading above 200.

I would welcome any feedback and so I can ascertain if this is a general issue (which I assume will be corrected with an update) or if I have a faulty unit.

I live and run in London.

[DT10z]

Hi,

I don't run outside but on a Treadmill. Several times my HR would climb to 170 bpm running at 4mph which is crazy. Stopping and letting my HR drop to normal fixed the accuracy. When I started to run again, I didn't run into the crazy high HR running that slow.

[Jonathanbaker]

Thanks for your insight. On further review of my HR profile for runs with my ionic, it is as you have observed that the wild peak occurs right at the start of the activity and then it settles down. My averages are still higher than previously though!

Hopefully Fitbit will resolve with an update.

I really don't want to have to revert back to my Surge!

[MassiP]

Hi.

Try this trick. Wet your wrist with a little water and put on your watch before starting the workout. ( It must not be immediately before the workout ). This solved my problems with HR readings on my Surge. Maybe it should work also with the Ionic.

[johneric8]

My two cents is opposite..  My heart rate seemed lower,  I struggled to reach my max with the ionic where I could get there with my surge..  My rate has been lower with Ionic..

[Jonathanbaker]

Thanks MassiP. I will give that go!

[Jonathanbaker]

Thanks johneric8. It appears there is inconsistency in experience which isn't great!

[RiMaLo]

I have exactly the same. The ionic gives me much higher readings than fitbit charge 2, blaze and garmin vivoactive hr. If I move it to my wrist bone, it comes back down. But I need to keep checking, and if it stays too low, I have to move it a bit up in my wrist (I use the treadmill reading to adjust that, but it is really annoying, honestly).

Let's hope they fix it with a software update.

[johneric8]

Hey guys,  try something for me if you get a chance..  For grins I wore my Ionic facing inward with watch face inside of wrist and had very accurate readings.   It seems that even when my wrist was bent while cycling the readings where spot on and precise..   It doesn't seem ideal to wear the watch this way,  but honestly I have liked it better as far as being able to look at it easier honestly..      If heartrate is what concerns you,  like it does me,  then try this for me and see what results you guys get?  I'm actually quite amazed so far,  it may be the way I'm built,  but it would be helpful if someone else tried it for me.

[Nokomissy]

I am finding the same thing.  I've had mine for about 2 weeks and I will have random 190 beats per minute when I'm not even exercising.  My resting average is up and my peaks during runs are up too.

[Venkats]

@Nokomissy

IONIC design appears to be unique in the fact that its heart rate monitoring works for some users but not others and certainly not all users that bought IONIC. 

Attempts to raise this as an issue has fallen into deaf ears. You will hear contradicting statements.

If you believe you do wear the watch as recommended ( two finger width from wrist bone) there is probably nothing you could do.  Sorry to break this !.........

[amacdonnell]

same issue - abnormally high heart rate with ionic. i used surge for two years, everyday wear - rarely inaccurate on a run. 

[ErikVerm]

I had to reboot several times for several reasons and took the advice of tightening the band and must say that the heartrate now is extremely accurate. All in all the Ionic is growing on me despite the few obvious bugs that I'm sure will be taken care of by the developers.

---

[amacdonnell]

Erik

thanks. i will try some of things mentioned in the various posts.



Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7.

[Becki277]

I'm "happy" I'm not the only one to experience this! My HR with the Ionic has hit 204 at the beginning of a slow jog, which is definitely not accurate. The surge definitely was more accurate and far less likely to lose my HR, which the ionic does all the time 😐