Can the Fitbit Charge 3 be worn while scuba diving?

[BrianL1]

Can the Fitbit Charge 3 be worn while scuba diving?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity. 

[WendyB]

Welcome to the forums!

Per Website

Swimproof

Fitbit Charge 3 is water resistant to 50 meters, automatically tracks your swims and can be worn in the pool or shower.

Hope to see you around the forums! Join in on the discussions forums!

[Goonteka]

I'm confused because the website says it is waterproof up to 50 meters. That is much deeper than allowed by recreational scuba diving. Why would it not be ok to dive with?

[SunsetRunner]

It can, it is even advertised as beeing waterproof and the manual specify that it can go as deep as 50m

[SunsetRunner]

 Here you are, straight from the manual

Straight from the manual

[LZeeW]

@BrianL1@Goonteka@WendyB@SunsetRunner  Here is a link to a Scuba discussion board where the poster includes a chat between him/her and a Fitbit representative.  The Charge 3 is water resistant to 50 m.  Gabriela gives you permission to wear it while scuba diving under 50 m.

I unchecked the Accepted Solution.

[d_thomas02]

Notes from my SCUBA trip to Cozumel, Mexico, Feb. 2019.

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My Fitbit Charge HR 3 which is advertised as water resistant to 50 meters (150 ft) is not happy with me.

Did a shallow checkout dive Sunday, the day I arrived in Cosumel, with no issues. It recorded heatrate etc. I do wear a neoprene wrist brace over the tracker to protect it from knocks and transient high pressures from swimming. Then Monday did two dives; the first to 80 ft and the second at 40 ft, again it recorded heartrate etc. with no issues.

Some time over night the display died, but the tracker is still funtioning and syncing with my phone so OK, I can live without the display. Did four more dives on Tuesday. 90 ft, 40ft, and then a twilight dive at 80 ft and a 50 ft night dive. With the exception on the screen, the tracker did its job.

Then again some time over night, in the wee hours of morning, it decides to stop syncing with my phone. I can tell the tracker still has some life in it. Green laser that measures your pulse is active and when you press the touch sensitive "button" it gives the vibration response to show it registered the touch. But other than the seven steps I took some time in the early morning hours, its not giving me anything.

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Funny thing happened after the first leg of my flight back to the states on Saturday. Arrived in Atlanta, made it through customs and still had time to get something to eat before starting my second leg. Logged my meal and noticed I had additional calories due to exercise. What?!?

My Fitbit linked once I had turned airplane mode off. Linked and downloaded ALL the info it had accumulated over the last week as I had continued to wear it 24/7 during the rest of the diving. Display is still not functional as of this morning (made it back home before the snows started, yay!) but I can live with that until the roads clear.

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Another funny thing happened today (Tuesday). Went to the big box electronics store where I bought my Fitbit to see about a replacement. Guy I talked to said that a lot of the HR3s were having issues with the display going black just like mine had, but since I was past the return with no questions date (30 days? 60 days? I didn't ask) I'd have to deal with Fitbit's customer service directly.

So I call the number the guy had given me, expecting the hurry up and wait game to start, but was answered quickly. Went through the normal handshake routine; name, phone number, what's the issue, repeats it all back to me, yes, good, OK, does green light on bottom work, yes, does it vibrate when I hit the button, yes, Ok, let's try a hard reset. OK, plug it into the charger and hold the button until the smiley face appears, 10 seconds or so... OK, sure, why not....

WHOA!!! The smiley face came one, and now I can see the display,... wait, there's a couple of pixels in the upper left that look out of place, OK, do the hard reset again, OK, why not. Yup, smiley is back and...

Yup, that did it. Display looks like it should. No need for a replacement at all.

Weird. Guess the pressure of the water at 90 ft caused the touch/display screen to hiccup. Still not sure what the deal was with the sync issue for a week but doesn't look like it was caused by water leaking into it. All of our phones were acting up strangely requiring us to restart them almost daily to reset some issue. Who knows? Just glad the Fitbit is working apparantly no worse for the wear of seventeen dives as deep as 90ish ft.

[TargetDriver]

My Versa never had a problem even at depths to 90+ ft. almost a year ago. About a month back, it blacked out. I figured it had hit ESL and that I'd gotten my use out of it so I ordered a Versa 2. After I transferred the watchband and unpaired it, the old Versa decided to start working again. That's a head-scratcher.

[Tesswater]

Just curious if your still using the charge 3?

[BrianL1]

I bought the Inspire HR and have dived many times with it, maximum of 40m.  Still works well

[Brookelin]

I would say no. Mine was fine to 30ft and died quickly at 60ft two separate occasions. It charges and turns on still but I question the specs 

[Goonteka]

I dove with my Charge 3 numerous times at depths up to 118 feet. However, it did eventually die. During a trip to Bonaire, on a relatively shallow dive, it started vibrating like crazy, then the screen went black and it would not power on. I dried it out then plugged it in to charge, and it melted the charger, so probably wasn't completely dry inside! I'll note that this was after several days of multiple dives per day followed by relaxing in the pool. I think the total in-water time is what probably killed it. I think you can probably wear it diving, but not for an entire dive trip. Mine was getting old and out of warranty anyways, so I replaced with a Sense and will probably not dive with it. 🙂

[Brookelin]

It died after 4 - 30 min dives over 2 days. Not alot of time. 60ft max last
2 dives. Mine is pretty new as my last one also died from the effects of
water they claim doesn't damage them.