Ionic track swim workouts?

[bbnan401]

I've been waiting for a fitbit tracker that is similar to the apple watch that will track swim workouts.  Will the Ionic be that tracker?  I understand it's water resistant but does that mean I can actually track a swim workout on the tracker? 

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[tribri]

I have been swimming with the Ionic for several weeks now and at best in is intermittent for accuracy tracking in the pool (25 yards) and completely useless in open water.  In the pool it will seem to count "lengths" fairly close, i.e. in a 1500 yard swim it will count 60 lengths correctly but report some odd yardage, like 1400 or 1700. Not sure the math here. The big issue for me is the majority of my swimming is open water. My Ionic can not report this accurately at all. It will provide an accurate timing, such as 25 minutes, but the yardage is never close, showing 25 yards, 50 yards, 100 yards. And this equates to a odd ball result like 14 minutes per 100 yards. (actual distance is approximately 1800 yards). I have sent several screen shots to Support and so far I am not impressed with the level of ability to comprehend the issue or provide a fix or resolution. I will continue to work with Fitbit if they are interested in resolving this failure, but if they can not resolve, then the Ionic is not the tracker I would suggest for swimming.

[nicola13]

I agree. According to the manual, neither the heart rate monitor or GPS work in the “Swim” setting.....so can’t see much hope for it working for open water swimming (which I also do a bit of).  But even if it’s only useful for pool swimming, it doesn’t seem to be able to count laps/metres very well either and is often inconsistent between the two of them (eg 82 laps = 2,025 metres in a 25m pool).  I’m taking mine back and investing in a watch that can come with swimming.....I believe Garmin are pretty good.

[tribri]

I am hoping to see changes and this work. I have been using a Fitbit (Flex, Charge, Surge) for 5 years, when the Ionic finally was announced for swimming I was excited, now I am disappointed. If this doesn't work I will be forced off Fitbit platform for all tracking (not interested in different device for different activity).

[Jimmacf]

The Ionic HR monitor will work while swimming. However when you set up the watch to track your swim the HR monitor is switched off but if you just start swimming and use the auto tracking it will track your swim and record you hear rate. It seems to give pretty good results. I wear it a little tighter than normal. Auto tracking doesn't give such an accurate time for the swim so if that's important for a particular swim then wear a cheapo waterproof stopwatch on your other wrist. 

[Hoofheart]

I sent the Ionic back and bought a Garmin Vivioactive 3. Much happier with it for tracking distance and time. It has been 100% accurate. The screen stays on while you are swimming so it's perfect for intervals etc.

it doesn't track heart rate while swimming but distance and time are more important to me.

[Susanlewis4005]

That has not been my experience. I have only used the auto track feature
during water aerobic activity and it has not recorded HR on any of those
occasions. So do I need to go in and turn HR on?

[willis642]

Did you get an answer on this?  I swam this morning 800 M which recorded on the watch however, after several attempts to save the data it never registered.  hmmmmm..... 

[datalore]

My Swim Pro has been ported to Ionic. This app works very well on the Apple Watch and I'm anxious to know how well it works with the Ionic. It's free and something you might want to try. https://myswimpro.com/blog/2017/12/13/myswimpro-fitbit-ionic-app/

[Giampi71]

Although a very good app, as its present status it only gives indication how to perforrm a certain training, it doesn't record your HR, distance, strokes.

[baxjohnson]

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like you have an issue with syncing.  That should be an easy fix with the technical team.  You are much better off than I was initially.

[baxjohnson]

This looks great!  Thanks for sharing.

[AquaLug]

No, Neither the GPS or Heart Rate monitor work while swimming.  I am a little disappointed since I would love to know how many calories I actually burn and work within my target HR zones.  For me, it does seem to count my laps correctly.

[GilRiv]

He said Drill Instructor.  That makes it, “as you were, Marine” 😁

[LynnHC]

If anyone is looking for an improvement so that the ionic can export a useful file that contains swim data that can then be uploaded to other websites such as Fetcheveryone.com (and I guess maybe Strava), please go and vote on this improvement:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Generate-meaningful-TCX-for-swimming-data/idi-p/...

[hkhsu1010]

When the technical team says that it tracks my pool swim, it is only partially correct!  the app does NOT display the statistic comprehensively!  Here's what i meant!  After completing 30 laps in the 50m pool, the IONIC watch displayed the individual lap time from 1 to 10 and direct you to go to the phone app to view the rest of the lap time!  Lo and behold!  it is NOT available on the APP!  What the watch says and what the app displays are completely INCONGRUENT!  instead it shows individual calories burnt!  THIS IS FRUSTRATING!

also, the timing of my entire swim exercise on the app rounds up to the nearest minute without displaying the seconds! 

Though the watch is good to use, the app on the phone is the worst i have ever encountered!

[hkhsu1010]

When the technical team says that it tracks my swim in the pool, it is only partially correct!  the app on the phone does NOT display the statistic comprehensively!  Here's what i meant! 

After completing 30 laps in the 50m pool, the IONIC watch displayed the individual lap time from 1 to 10 and direct you to go to the phone app to view the rest of the lap time!  Lo and behold!  it is NOT available on the APP!  What the watch says and what the app displays are completely INCONGRUENT!  instead it shows individual calories burnt!  THIS IS FRUSTRATING!

also, the timing of my entire swim exercise on the app rounds up to the nearest minute without displaying the seconds! 

Though the watch is good to use, the app on the phone is the worst i have ever encountered!

[MattSwim]

I NEVER can find any swims on my iPhone FitBit application after I swim.  They don't exist.  I can find them on a PC web-based login of fitbit.com website.

My Ionic does NOT auto recognize swims.  I MUST tell the watch that I'm about to swim.  If I do that, most of the time, on a PC, I can review my swim.  All I see on the swim details is the average 100 yard swim time for the ENTIRE swim.  If I swim 1000 yards, I only see the four lap 100 yard average.  I thought I used to see every 100 yard interval time.  Not anymore.

I'm very disappointed with the Ionic.  Perhaps I have something set up wrong.

[LynnHC]

You don't have it set up wrong - it is just rubbish at swim data.  This and the fact that my fitbit fried from being in the water are what led be to give up on fitbit and go back to Garmin.

[MattSwim]

Thanks LynnHC.  I think mine is mostly "working" but I'm not happy with the data not being consistently recorded and non-existent on the iPhone FitBit app.  This is my second watch in less than a year.  The first one died and wouldn't charge anymore.  They did replace it under warranty.  It took almost three weeks to get the new watch which didn't seem reasonable.  Matt

[MattSwim]

Ian W. (from FitBit) states: "It may not be directly relevant to our runners and bikers, but it would be a great example for us to highlight how Fitbit is a malleable platform that responds to user needs".

Well that's an interesting statement.  The Fitbit has runner and biker data and capabilities not relevant to us swimmers.  Do I care?  Change the code to support swimmers please.  "Runners and bikers" can ignore swimming setup and display options, just like I ignore running and biking setup and options.

Thank you for your consideration.

MattSwim