Optical heart rate technology

[indianwin2001]

As A the title suggests, I feel OHR technology is not accurate at all when working outoin any fashion. Maybe  it will get better in the future but for now it plain does not work. I powerlift and Cycle and tbe OHR is horrendous. For resting HR and for simple steps it is fine, but once you elevate your heart rate it is not close to accurate. I have used fitbits for 5 years but recently switched to Garmin so I can use an external HR strap for working out. If fitbitf ever allows external straps with their products I may return but in my opinion fitbits are worthless without the chest straps and when pushing oneself can be downright dangerous 

Moderator edit: format

[USAF-Larry]

I am not sure why you are posting about the inaccuracy of the Fitbit HR monitor if you do not use one, @indianwin2001.   But, fortunately, my Ionic gives very accurate HR readings.  Yesterday, for example, I used the Polar chest strap with the Bowflex Elliptical to monitor the HR during the workout. On a regular basis, I compared  the HR displayed on the Bowflex with the one displayed on the Ionic, and the readings were always within 7 points of each other - the Ionic was always higher than the Polar chest strap, but it was never more than 7 points higher.  When operating in the Peak HR range, I don't worry about 7 points.

[bbarrera]

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@USAF-Larrywrote:

I am not sure why you are posting about the inaccuracy of the Fitbit HR monitor if you do not use one

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@USAF-Larry umm, read this post

and reread post above:

@indianwin2001 wrote:

I have used fitbits for 5 years but recently switched to Garmin so I can use an external HR strap for working out. If fitbitf ever allows external straps with their products I may return

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I haven't tried the Ionic yet, but do have experience with Surge and Blaze. I've also had extreme HR accuracy issues when lifting, Fitbit will have HR at 80-100 while chest strap has 120-160bpm. Cycling its all over the place, sometimes accurate and sometimes not. DCRainmaker review of Ionic had similar issues cycling. One thing holding me back from buying another Fitbit tracker is the same thing - lack of support for external HR strap (either chest or arm band).

p.s. my personal opinion is that posting on forums, and twitter feed, is only way to make an impression on Fitbit. Voting in Feature Suggestion forum is a waste of effort, in my ~4 years experience on these forums. Fitbit product management marches to its own beat, and priorities handed down from above.

[SunsetRunner]

I tend to agree that any exercise that uses your arms in the primary effort renders wrist based optical heart rate monitors ineffective. This from personal experience, in comparison with chest straps. That said, on cold, dry days when cycling I’ve also had problems with chest straps and fallen back on wrist optical monitors. However, in the ideal world Fitbit would allow Ant+ from external monitors to supplement/replace their figures. Here’s hoping.

[bbarrera]

Everyone is different... I average 4-6 days a week riding outside from Dec-March on cold/dry days. For me, chest straps work all year except for 1 to 4 days. When starting a ride I check bike computer and if strap is obviously wrong, I stop for 30 seconds, lick my finger and wet the strap. That fixes it immediately. 

Agree, Fitbit should support BT external monitors at a minimum. ANT+ and BT would be better, but I'd settle for BT.