My Ionic heart rate monitor is inaccurate

[Mike2222]

My Ionic heart rate monitor is waaaay off when I work out.  As soon as I start running, it immediately jumps to 160-180, when my actual heart rate (measured either manually or with another device like the treadmill heart rate monitor) is actually closer to 110.  This happens every single time I run.  

Aside from this it appears to work normally (though it reads about 10% higher than my manual reads).  The funny thing is that my old Surge developed exactly the same problem when it was about 18 months old (it had worked perfectly until then, but then started giving crazy heart rate readings when I exercised).  

Has anyone experienced a similar problem?

[Davidfernan85]

I had the same problem so I tightened my watch 1 notch tighter and it seems to work. Feels a lil tight but it goes away once you get a lil sweat under it.

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[Wilf18]

I've tried tightening it placing it on  the  inside  of my wrist , moving it higher and on my arm,  changing  it to my dominant wrist and none of them have remedied  the problem. I think the algorithm can't cope with the physiology of the small number of older people who exercise, so now I take note  of how I feel and  disregard the heart reading!Sent from Samsung tablet.

[GraceGFitbit]

Many thanks for getting back @Davidfernan85 and @Wilf18. 

We really appreciate your feedback. Our team is always looking to improve the Fitbit experience and is always working towards. 

I'll be around if you need anything else!

[RobIgoUK]

Is there any update on this?  Mine is the same.. for the first 5-10 mins of my 40 min run my heart reading is 190/192 then all of a sudden drops to 150-160 (though my pace is normally slower at the beginning).

[Trazj]

Mine was like that initially. I had to wear it about 5 cm back from the
wrist joint and tight so that it cant move at all. Its fine now.

[Wilf18]

No mine is  still the same and there appears to be no movement by Fitbit to resolve this! I now ignore my heart rate on the Ionic.  Incidentally I bought a cheap fitness tracker, 12$, that even includes blood pressure measurement that gives a more accurate heart rate and has  a longer  battery  life! Wilf LaidlerSent from Samsung tablet.

[Trazj]

The ionic is measuring blood vessel pulsing every few milliseconds so I
discovered when I started and was not fit that my heart rate was shooting
up sky high then coming down. Ive been running for a year now and my heart
behaves more like you would expect ie starts low at rest 52 and gradually
rises throughout a session settling at 150. It rises to 160 on hills and
comes back down on the flat. Ive che ked the ionic against the trad.method
and its spot on.

[RobIgoUK]

I've been running for 4 years and recently had a full check up and ecg etc.  I start running slowly and my ionic report 192bpm for 5 or so mins and then drops to 140 ish... I then increase my pace and it's up to 160 ish (which at the pace I'm running I'd probably expect).  The bug is at the start of the run... it does it everytime (I've tried resets, factory resets, wearing it higher on my arm/wrist etc.) nothing.  Not happy.. think a Garmin is going to be on my xmas wish list.

[Wilf18]

Yes I've  tried every 'fix' and  none  of them work, they are spending all of their  time  bringing forward  new  models  at the expense  of fixing  bugs in current models!Wilf Laidler Sent from Samsung tablet.

[Wilf18]

It is a problem that affects individual fitbits!Wilf LaidlerSent from Samsung tablet.

[RobIgoUK]

Hi @Wilf18 

so you're saying not all Ionics have this problem?  So if I contact support they should be able to replace it? (it's less than 12 months old)?

[RobIgoUK]

*UPDATE*

after reading many different things to try this morning I tried something different.

1. In settings (on my Ionic) I turned off Heart Rate monitoring

2. I reset my fitbit

3. I turned on my heart rate monitoring - but it wouldn't monitor.  so I turned it off, waited 60 sec and then turned it on again - after 60 secs it started picking up my heart rate.

Today on my run I wore it 5cm higher than my wrist bone (I have tried this many times before) but 1 extra notch tighter.... and.... IT WORKED.  My heart rate didn't jump to 192, but instead slowly rose to 155, 160, 162 on my run etc. 

I'm running again tomorrow so I'll keep you all posted hope this helps somebody!

[Wilf18]

Yes I would try that, they will probably offer you a pebble and no the full  unit!Wilf LaidlerSent from Samsung tablet.

[Trazj]

Yes this is what I found. If its slightly lose because its measuring every
few thousandths of a sec any disconnection seems to default it to a high
number

[Wilf18]

I tried your fix today and went for a 2 mile run, it worked for the first 20 minutes then shot up to 187, considering for me age the max should be 141, this is way out. But I think you might be right and I will keep trying.Wilf LaidlerSent from Samsung tablet.

[RobIgoUK]

I ran again today and it was fine!  I'm hoping has fixed it.  Did you try the "turning the heart monitoring off" etc. I mentioned?

[Wilf18]

Yes I followed your  instructions  to the letter.Wilf LaidlerSent from Samsung tablet.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi everybody thanks for keep sharing your thoughts about this topic. 

@RobIgoUK Thanks a million for sharing this amazing troubleshooting steps. Some users have reported good results with the steps suggested in this help article too.

We keep working on finding a solution for the rest of users reporting high heart rate while not performing high intensive activities.

I'll be around, let me know if you need anything else.

[Prnt007]

My heart rate monitor is hugely innacurate as soon as it starts on the running setting. It instantly jumps up to between 170 and 180 as soon as I start to run. However if I don’t enter the run mode and start to run it remains around 110. I’m very fit. I train every day and can’t understand what’s happening  I thought the watch was faulty so I exchanged it. The new one was fine for the first 3 runs and then it started to do the same thing as the first one. If I measure my HR in my phone during this episode it is reading around 110 bpm. Has anyone experienced the same problem. Can anyone advise me. I have tried the watch on both wrists at different part of the wrist. I can usually get it to read accurately but I might have to stop and start multiple times. And even then it might just randomly jump up in the middle without me realizing. 

Has anyone had a similar issue. 

[Davidfernan85]

Yes exact thing happened to me the only way it seemed to work normally was to wear it 1 notch tighter. I am 34 and couldn't get passed 53 for cardio fitness and now I am @ 58 Vo2. Feels a little tight in the beginning but as soon as you start sweating kind of goes away.

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