Issues with Ionic after/during swimming

[Glennsfit]

Hi all, I went for a swim with the Ionic for the first time today and found

1. heat rate not working

2. had to put pass code in every time after the screen would time out, 7 to 9 times till I took the watch off then it was ok.

3. when scrolling through the App pages it would jerk/freeze from page to page ( it also does this when listening to music and my music is breaking up at the time too)

4. some parts of the watch face will dim 50% and hold a few seconds/ or for ever when tapping the watch to scroll through steps..heartrate etc.

5. As a test I ran water over the watch and noticed when the clock face is turned on it blacks out as soon as the water hits it, but is fine afterwards. (this could be normal)

 Are these normal things for the Ionic? Love to hear from people who have swam with the Ionic. 

Cheers

Glenn

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @Glennsfit, thanks for stopping by! I'm sorry to hear about the inconveniences you've been experiencing with your Fitbit Ionic. I'll be more than glad to help. 

Let's start with the heart rate, your tracker can have difficulty finding a signal, typically due to the tracker's fit. For example, wearing your band tightly may constrict blood flow in your wrist and affect the signal. We recommend experimenting with how high you place the tracker on your wrist. When you're not exercising, wearing the tracker just above the wrist bone--as you would a watch--typically works fine. However, moving the tracker up a couple inches can be helpful during high-intensity exercises or exercises that cause you to bend your wrist frequently. If you haven't already done so, please review our recommendations for wear and other tips shared by @SantiFitbit. 

If you're wearing the tracker correctly and the heart rate setting isn't turned off, try changing the setting (either Auto to On or On to Auto) and then syncing your tracker. The change won't take affect until you sync. If heart rate still doesn't appear after the sync, try restarting your tracker and wait at least 60 seconds before checking heart rate again. The restart will also help to issue 3. and 4. 

With the password issue, have you checked if your Ionic is already running the latest firmware version? If so, try disabling the password PIN and then enable it again and test it out during the day.

If your music is not playing correctly, please try the suggestions what my friend @lostlogik has provided in this post. And with the inquiry 5., yup, it's normal. 

Give this a go and let me know how it goes! 

[Butterflywings]

Interesting answer to your question.  Makes me wonder if I should take a swim with my Ionic and see if I get the same answer.

I would contact support.

[N8teGee]

The Ionic doesn't track heart rate during swimming, so that part would be normal behaviour (something to do with it not being accurate).

As for the other problems, I can't help you as I've not swam with my Ionic. I do know water can interfere with the operation of touch screens, false touches etc. Maybe this is something similar? 

[NellyG]

From my experience with swimming with my ionic, if you use the swim workout mode, that will turn the HR function off (as @N8teGee says it is not accurate in water so it is turned off in swim mode). However, if you use Smart Track to track your swim the heart rate will read but wont be  true heard rate reading. Mine is very high (not accurate at all) when I leave smart track to track the swim. 

I have noticed the screen is a bit less responsive in water - I assume it is a film of water between your finger and the glass. I havent noticed any of your other points so cant really comment.

[datalore]

Optical heart sensors really don't work well under water. The touch screen is going to also be a bit hinky due to the water and the sensitivity. You would need a chest strap to get heart rate under water with any accuracy. 

[bbarrera]

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@datalore wrote:

You would need a chest strap to get heart rate under water with any accuracy. 

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important to note that Fitbit doesn't support chest straps, and its not possible to import HR (or GPS) into Fitbit. 

[Rich_Laue]

My experience with touch screens are that they never work right when wet. @Glennsfit so yes point 3 I would say is to be expected.. 

Point 4 and 5, this could simply because when light enters or leaves water the light bends at differently for each wavelength, and the reason why rainbows have their colors separated.

Point 2 with your passcode problem could be explained by the heart rate not being consistent. I find during times when heart trait isn't being detected properly the tracker thinks it has been removed from my arm and requires me to unlock it. 

[datalore]

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@bbarrera wrote:

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@datalore wrote:

You would need a chest strap to get heart rate under water with any accuracy. 

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important to note that Fitbit doesn't support chest straps, and its not possible to import HR (or GPS) into Fitbit. 

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A business decision I’ve never understood. If nothing else they should make their own chest straps. 

[Glennsfit]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

My experience with touch screens are that they never work right when wet. @Glennsfit so yes point 3 I would say is to be expected.. 

Point 4 and 5, this could simply because when light enters or leaves water the light bends at differently for each wavelength, and the reason why rainbows have their colors separated.

Point 2 with your passcode problem could be explained by the heart rate not being consistent. I find during times when heart trait isn't being detected properly the tracker thinks it has been removed from my arm and requires me to unlock it. 

@Thanks for your reply @Rich_Laue , your reply makes alot of sense. I have had more issues with salt water than fresh water too and the salt water was with a lot of seaweed and other stuff and wonder if made it worse. I think they are problems that could/ should be ironed out cheers

[Duke552]

On outdoor. The HR is ON, éven in the water. 

I tried to swim un Open water with running activity set. GPS signal is Noisy but HR is almost good.

You Can try