Ionic Swimming

[Jimmacf]

I am having trouble getting my ionic to track my heart rate while swimming. So far 3 swims, only once has it tracked my heart rate.

Also counts laps correct but gets the distance out a little, it corrects this on the dashboard but not in thr iPhone App. 

I like fitbit products a lot so I am happy to work with the Ionic and figure the way to get the most out of it.

[SunsetRunner]

I don't care, i click reply.

[Lindywbl]

I have a better idea, TheGolden...don’t reply at all.  If it irritates you so much that you have to repeat yourself, why do you reply?  Did someone make you responsible for replying to every post?

[markeboyle]

Let's all go for a long swim.🤣

[SunsetRunner]

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@Lindywbl wrote:

I have a better idea, TheGolden...don’t reply at all.  If it irritates you so much that you have to repeat yourself, why do you reply?  Did someone make you responsible for replying to every post?

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Why shouldn't he? You seem irritated that people write in forums, or perhaps you have an ambition to censor, maybe have a cup of Coco?

[marwooj]

Hi, does ionic count strokes?

[MattyW]

Now that the weather is warm, I eventually got around to trying my open water GPS workaround--I went swimming in bike mode (not run mode - that won't work for other reasons) and then changed the activity to swimming using the app afterwards. I wore the strap fairly tight and I reckon the HR tracking was accurate, I was only splashing around so I was able to manually check my rate a few times and it tallied well.  The watch intermittently lost gps signal, I think it won't pick it up when the watch is right underwater, so it might not work at all for breaststroke, for example. It did get enough of a signal to broadly track my route, using straight lines on the map to attach parts where the gps was picked up. So I reckon it's kind of a reasonable workaround, if you're mainly going in straight lines, depending on your stroke, and whether or not you're lucky enough to be able to get a good HR reading. 

[Roadrunner6820]

While swimming I often get odd lengths. EG I will know I swam 500 yd and it will say 425 yd. Also when I reach 2000yd it will say 2001yd. Sometimes it will just stop tracking laps all together. My TomTom watch works great for open water swimming.

[multiverse]

Hi @Roadrunner6820, I think it detects laps by your push off the wall.  So if you have a weak push-off, as when doing arms-only, it may get confused.  (You'd think it would still figure it out by the strokes taken and the abnormally long time between detected push-offs.)

That assumes your watch actually stays in the mode you left it in.  My Ionic goes crazy underwater while I'm swimming, switching screens, changing modes, and I never know what I'm going to see when I stop to check my progress.  This is because water splashes can actually be detected like gestures, especially if the water is slightly warm.  Of course, put it in swim mode disables the touchscreen, but then you lose most of the watch's functionality.  

[SunsetRunner]

So it's nearly June 2019 and they still haven't fixed the bug 

1) Heart rate is monitored when swimming is automatically recognised.

2) Heart rate is not monitored when  swimming is triggered as an exercise by the user.

I can't think of a single reason why (1) + (2) would be different for heart rate monitoring.

[SunsetRunner]

So yeh, it's not a bug. You're gonna have a hard time finding any watch
that supports HR monitoring without the need of a pulsebelt around your
chest. It's too inconsistent and the water makes it so hard for the watch
to monitor it. The only bug i see here, is that it monitors while swimming
is auto started. Not a bug. Intentional

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner in my Suunto Spartan I can read OHR while swimming. However, the same as in the case of Fitbit, it's assumed to be less accurate. But at least there is such an option. If some people want to monitor the HR why not to give them an option? I agree it's not a bug but also there is a lack of features which competitors already have ( optional enable/disable OHR or connecting to the external sensor ).

[SunsetRunner]

I was just saying that you can't expect them to fix a bug that's not a bug.
I do agree that they should listen to the community more. Since there is a
lot of things i think the fitbit should have. Gps tracking for swimming.
Since the motion tracker is garbage for both people who dont swim fast and
for people who swim fast. Works mostly with moderate speed. If gps is too
much maybe a tracker on your foot to register the pushoff. And also a chest
HR monitor. But that is probably too much to ask for from an activity
tracker and not a pulse tracker. (Difference being what they focus most on,
you get what i'm saying)

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner I agree about that. In fact, tracking HR during swimming is rather tricky. Usually, belts have internal memory and allow to cache the HR on the device to upload it later. It's because BT doesn't work when the sensor is submerged. With Polar, I start tracking swimming but leave my phone ( I don't have any Polar watch ). HR is downloaded from the sensor memory later. The same strap paired with Suunto leaves a bunch of holes as it reads HR directly from the sensor and occasionally drops the connection ( when watch or sensor are under water ). I could use caching with Suunto if I used their branded strap but I don't need more chest straps 🙂 I get better results with PolarOH1 which is attached with a clip to my swimming goggles. The connection is a lot more stable this way. So one of the features I need is being able to override HR by providing data registered by another device. That would make me happy enough in the world of any watch and could permanently solve any HR related issues ( in fact, overriding HR of any registered activity ). Then turning off HR on Ionic wouldn't be an issue if I could supply HR readings from any chest strap later. 

[fjwagner]

wrist based heart rates are inherently inaccurate especially for swimming which is why they disable it.  I use a Polar OH1 memory heart rate monitor on the temple attached to my goggles. OH1 is also optical, but with 6 sensors and the temple is much more stable than a wrist.  If you are serious about heart rate for high intensity activities, Fitbit is not the answer.

[fjwagner]

You are using the wrong device and likely need to look to Garmin or Polar and their multi sport watches.

[ter426]

I tried the Garmin - unless you swing your arm in an unatural way it does not register steps and does not detect elevation changes indoors...didn't like the software interface as much...loved how it paired with my cadence meter on my bike though!!!  .my hubs is now wearing it as a watch!

[Dawnphin]

Your assuming everyone swims in a swimming pool 

[Dawnphin]

I even phoned before I bought this and was totally mislead into thinking it could track outdoor swimming 

[PKGW]

The only reason I bought the big gawky ionic was to track swimming. It was much more expensive and doesn't really track calories burned while swimming. Feel betrayed!

[PKGW]

Ads say you can use it to track the exercise you get while swimming. They don't explain what it doesn't do! Calories, where you went if not laps, that it doesn't even try to get a heart rate if you tell it you're swimming! I didn't want a giant watch on my small wrist, but got it anyway for the swim tracking which it doesn't do well. What an expensive ripoff!