Utter disappointment at water performance

[MiniEmma]

Upgraded from the Blaze to the Ionic last week, purely for the swimming aspect.  Had a quick look at the forums this morning only to find that heart rate is not monitored during swimming - so what's the point?

Sure enough, just did aqua aerobics - using the Workout setting - and the heart rate stopped reading half way through.  I feel robbed, it's twice the price of the Blaze!

And now it's broken!  Keeps restarting, won't read heart rate and the green light is permanently on even when I have manually disabled heart rate.

EDIT : Green light still on even when I shutdown the Ionic from the Settings!!

Poor show Fitbit 😞

[Ramakin]

This is really interesting to read Emma. I emailed Fitbit support yesterday with a query about the Ionic heart rate and swim feature, as I want both - the Ionic is the only one that seems to offers this.

I currently use a Flex 2 which is great for swimming but lacks the HR and other things.

The reply from Fitbit support was:

"As of the moment, we have two Fitbit trackers that's water / swim proof. These are the Fitbit Flex 2 and our newest tracker Fitbit Ionic (with heart rate monitor and swim proof as the same time)."

That's the wording from Fitbit support themselves, so they have told me today that the heart rate and the swim monitoring should work at the same time as that was my question. I need a device that monitors my heart rate while swimming.

So the fact you're saying the opposite is disappointing.

[MiniEmma]

Hi Ramakin

I've actually just had another look at my Ionic now that the light has gone out and it's officially DEAD and I can see that it has condensation/water inside the heart rate monitor windows!!!!   So, it might be that I have a defective one.

It was other posts on these forums that lead me to believe that the HR wouldn't work in water:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-Swimming/m-p/2235593#M6759

Emma

[Ramakin]

Oh that does sound like you have a duff unit which isn't a great start for such a very highly priced item!

I also had read that post you liked in and this jumped out at me:

"I answered my own question on this. If you start swim tracking automatically then it tracks your heart rate. Track manually and the heart rate sensor seems to be disabled." posted by Jimmacf

I wonder if that's the issue when you first tried yours, did you select swimming from the menu before you did your swimming? I wonder if when you get a replacement device you could see what happens if you just do nothing with the device and start swimming, it should auto detect that activity and hopefully the heart rate will be monitored. But first you need to get a new device if yours has filled with water.

[WavyDavey]

I believe heart rate is disabled during swim because the optical reader gets problems from light refraction. If auto detect allows heart rate, not sure I would trust the numbers.

[Ramakin]

Hi Dave and thanks for the reply. First of all I am trying to find out if the heart rate and swimming are doable as Fitbit support have suggested to me. Secondly if they do then I would hope they are somewhat trust worthy because again Fitbit support have stated they work together and therefore you would hope they tested that.

Although from what I have read about photoplethysmography (blood absorbing green light) technology, water can prove to cause issues but then again so can sweat so it would need to be tight against the skin to work.

[SunsetRunner]

@Ramakin The available stats from a swimming exercise are Lengths, Distance and Elapsed Time, Pace and Calories Burned. HR is not available, although the light may still shine during the swim.

As you mention, sweat can cause issues with HR recording, as I’ve found during intensive rowing and cycling activities and why, during such activities, I tend to wear a chest strap if I want a more accurate record.

[WavyDavey]

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@Ramakin wrote:

Hi Dave and thanks for the reply. First of all I am trying to find out if the heart rate and swimming are doable as Fitbit support have suggested to me. Secondly if they do then I would hope they are somewhat trust worthy because again Fitbit support have stated they work together and therefore you would hope they tested that.

Although from what I have read about photoplethysmography (blood absorbing green light) technology, water can prove to cause issues but then again so can sweat so it would need to be tight against the skin to work.

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From what I've read, if you start a Swim from the Exercise app, it disables the heart rate automatically. If the swim is tracked by Smart Track (auto-recognition), then others have reported seeing their HR data afterwards. I don't swim so haven't been able to verify any of that.

[MiniEmma]

Hi all

Sorry for disappearing, just popped to John Lewis to get mine replaced.  They even gave me £60 back because the price had lowered to £239 from the £299 I paid on Friday! So I feel a little better 🙂

I think the conclusion we've all come to is that Fitbit have mislead Ramakin by mentioning swimming and HR in the same sentence.  And this also leads to the conclusion that I shouldn't have bothered upgrading from the Blaze just for the swimming.

And still leaves the question... what is the difference between the Blaze and the Ionic?

I'll try aqua aerobics again next week and see if my new one survives!  

Emma

[MiniEmma]

Managed to kill a second one in the pool today! Condensation showing through the sensors on the back, green light stuck on.

It has dried out and come back to life this evening but I'll be returning it for a refund tomorrow 😞