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My Ionic heart rate monitor is inaccurate

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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?

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Hi everyone, 

 

Thank you for the detailed information shared and the troubleshooting performed prior to posting. 

 

As with all heart-rate tracking technology, accuracy is affected by personal physiology, device location on your arm, and type of movement. 

 

For a more accurate heart-rate reading:

  • Wear your Fitbit device on top of your wrist, and make sure the back of the device is in contact with your skin.
  • When you’re not exercising, wear your device a finger’s width above your wrist bone.
  • During exercise, wear your device a bit tighter and higher for an improved fit. The band should be snug but not constricting (a tight band restricts blood flow, potentially affecting the heart-rate signal). Many exercises such as bike riding or weight lifting cause you to bend your wrist frequently, which could interfere with the heart-rate signal if the watch is lower on your wrist.

Check out this article for more information on the factors that can affect your heart-rate reading on your Fitbit device.

 

As of now, this thread will be closed. If you experience difficulties with your heart rate after checking the information above, feel free to contact our Support team or start a new thread.

 

Hope this helps. 

Want to get more active? Visit Get Moving in the Lifestyle Discussion Forum.


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110 REPLIES 110

Are you wearing it tight enough that it doesn’t dangle off your wrist?

“Just keep swimming,Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”- Dory
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Ionic | Charge 2 | iPad 2017 running iOS 12.1.2 Beta
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Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Mike2222! I'm sorry to hear about the heart rate issues you've been having with your Fitbit Ionic. I was wondering the same than @supersmart01234, are you wearing it that way?

 

As you may know, your heart rate may be affected by any a number of factors at any given moment. Movement, temperature, humidity, stress level, physical body position, caffeine intake, and medication use are just a few things that can affect your heart rate. Different medical conditions and medications can impact your heart rate as well.

 

When your heart beats, your capillaries expand and contract based on blood volume changes. PurePulse LED lights on your device reflect onto the skin to detect blood volume changes and finely tuned algorithms are applied to measure heart rate automatically and continuously. The heart-rate icon you see on the display tells you if you're in 1 of 3 heart-rate zones.

 

Resting heart rate refers to the heart rate measured when you’re awake, calm, comfortable, and have not recently exerted yourself. We use your heart rate data from when you’re awake and asleep to estimate your resting heart rate. For best accuracy, wear your device to sleep. 

Your resting heart rate is usually higher than your heart rate while you are asleep, so don’t be surprised if your resting heart rate is higher than the lowest number that you see in your heart rate graphs.

 

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

 

Note that on Fitbit Ionic, the heart-rate value appears gray if your watch is searching for a stronger reading.
 

User-added image
 
 
Occasionally your device may have difficulty getting a strong signal. If you don't see your heart rate on your device, first make sure you are wearing it correctly. After a short wait, you should see your correct heart rate again. On Ionic, make sure the Heart Rate setting is On. For additional troubleshooting, see Why don't I see my heart rate on my Fitbit device?

 

Try the recommendations and let me know the outcome! 

Maria | Community Moderator, Fitbit


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I had the same problem when running. MY hr was pretty similar with the charge 2, the surge, and a garmin 235. The ionic was all over the place. I sent it back.

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Yeah same thing is happening to me, as soon as I start running shoots up to 170bpm to 181bpm when its actually 140bpm or lower.

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Same here buddy, at first it was working good then couple months in it started with the same problem as yours. SMH

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the same thing is happening with mine. my friend works at fitbit & he doesn’t know why this is happening. it’s irritating. do the garmins work better? i might buy a garmin. 

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Yes, mine too. As soon as I start running, I get a peak reading at around 180 (my max is around 160 and I know what that feels like.). I have been logging elsewhere on this forum the anachronisms of wrist-based readings. I am a fairly new user (3 weeks) and very unimpressed.

 

Tom

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please check all messages below. everyone is having the same problem. fitment is good, soon as you start exercising heart rate goes out the window 

 

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Thanks for stopping by guys!

 

I would like you to confirm that you have checked Marre's recommendations. If after that this behavior persist I would recommend you to restart your Ionic. To do so please follow this steps: 

  1. Press and hold the back (left) and bottom buttons until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take less than 10 seconds.
  2. Let go of the buttons.
  3. If your Fitbit Ionic, doesn't work normally, use the instructions in How do I turn off my Fitbit device? to turn your watch off and on again.

Give it a shot and let me know if that works! Cat Very Happy

GraceG | French and English Community Moderator, Fitbit


On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ♥

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@tomp2 wrote:

Yes, mine too. As soon as I start running, I get a peak reading at around 180 (my max is around 160 and I know what that feels like.). I have been logging elsewhere on this forum the anachronisms of wrist-based readings. I am a fairly new user (3 weeks) and very unimpressed.

 

Tom



I’ve had the Ionic for 2 months and am now having same issue. I swim 5 miles a week, mile at a time for 5 days. Normal average beats per minute is 130 with peak around 140. Today my first lap hit 180 and average over 30 minutes was 170. Been happening more frequently in past 2 weeks. Not cool. 

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How you doing @1209surf? Thanks for make us part of this situation. 

 

This kind of discrepancies in your heart-rate readings, can be caused by the type of exercise or the position of the device may be the cause. See our help article for more information: How do I track my heart rate with my Fitbit device?How close and high on the arm are you wearing your device? Is this happening only when you swim? Had you already restart your Ionic? 

 

If you have any further questions, please let me know!

 

 

GraceG | French and English Community Moderator, Fitbit


On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ♥

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I just called Fitbit customer service regarding this exactly, and I was told it is a "known issue" that they are working on.

 

I have the Aria scale and I've used the Surge on and off over the years. This Christmas my GF gave me an Ionic. I love the Fitbit interface and and I've had good experiences with customer service when I've needed help, so I am a bit of a fan of the company. I did go through 3 Surge trackers since they aren't the most durable thing, but I don't remember having this kind of inaccuracy with that model. My hope is that they get the issue sorted out. Has anyone else been told it is a known issue?

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Yes, I was told it was a known issue and the were working on it! I am a 78 year old runner who had a triple heart bypass in 2011 and I started running 30 months ago after receiving a Fitbit as a present. I had a fitbit chargeHR then a Blaze and now an Ionic. The Blaze started to be inaccurate and it was replaced by the Ionic. which has never been accurate, on today's run, 3.36 miles after 2 or 3 minutes it shot up to 191 and stayed above my maximum until the end of the run. Yesterday, a longer run, 6.37 miles it shot up to 18 virtually straight away stayed about 20 minutes then a straight line drop to 149-150 for about 40 minutes before going up to 185 for 15 minutes. I can give many more examples of the erratic heart rate recording and when I rang customer services about 3/4 weeks ago they told me it was a known issue, considering Fitbit advertise their accurate heart measurement if the don't sort the problem out the will lose a lot of customers. I like fitbit so now I ignore the heart rate measurements and take waht they are good at.

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@Wilf18 I'm inspired by your what you shared. I also like Fitbit and hope they do what it takes to get and keep customers. If they iron things out, I'd like to see them as the top choice for a smartwatch/tracker. It is still sad to me that Apple owned and shaped the portable music player market the way they did. So many good features and possibilities died when the world fell in love with the smooth and shiny ipod. So the Apple watch will not be a choice I make... But **ahem** it all Fitbit, just do a great job please!!
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Hi @Wilf18 and @jivehonky@Wilf18let me give you a warm Welcome to our Community Cat Happy.

 

Many thanks for stopping by, I greatly appreciate your feedback, it is always useful. I'm really sorry to hear that this inconvenient you're experiencing with the heart rate persist and I thank you for the time you took to share your thoughts with us. Fitbit is always reviewing your responses to provide feedback to our product development team. 

 

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions, comments, or concerns.

GraceG | French and English Community Moderator, Fitbit


On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ♥

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Dear Grace,Thank you for your response,  I really am a Fitbit supporter but I find it frustrating that customer service say there is a problem but don't say what it is! I'm sure you can understand that to people like me a reliable heart rate monitor is of great importance. I have become quite an expert in placement and multiple button pressing. I have 2 suggestions to make 1) at my age the skin is much thinner and 2) my running style, as an old man who has had heart problems, might affect the monitor.Take care, WilfSent from Samsung tablet. Q
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Thanks to you for your kind reply @Wilf18 and for reaching out providing your feedback. We deeply apologize for the disappointment of course I totally understand your frustration.

 

Feedback like yours helps us constantly improve our customer experiences by knowing what we are doing right and what we can work on. 

 

Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions, comments, or concerns.Cat Happy

GraceG | French and English Community Moderator, Fitbit


On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ♥

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I have the opposite problem. I was just at the gym on the treadmill walking on an incline. My Suunto Ambit peak heart rate via chest strap was showing my HR was 160 bpm, the treadmill grip HR sensor showed 160 bpm, but my fitbit ionic was showing 118-120 bpm. I tried moving it up and down my wrist, as well as swapping my left for my right with the same result. I was on the treadmill 20 minutes, and my Suunto and the treadmill were always both the same, but the fitbit never went above 122.

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@Shadymilkman33 I have been experiencing same issues for a long time. I exchange some emails with customer support ( a moderator opened a case for me, totally uncalled for ) and after giving me same instructions I have been getting here it got me nowhere so I ceased further communication ( another reason was that apparently, they didn't read the email I sent as they were asking about thing I already said ). I don't have time to waste on a wild goose chase. I also compared HR to the chest strap and had similar results. I have posted several posts with detailed analysis here. For workouts, I usually use Polar chest strap  paired with Suunto Spartan and it works great. Very accurate and it doesn't matter how I wear my watch. Pairing with thirdparty sensors would be a good alternative in Ionic but I don't think this will ever happen. Optical HR is too sensitive to environment ( motion, skin, placement, sweat and more ) to be reliable.

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