Charge 2 Green Light Staying Solid and Bright

[nwroble]

I've owned a charge 2 for almost a year and just recently the green lights for measuring heart rate will not turn off. My battery has been draining faster than ever and I've tried (and failed) to fix it. I attempted to shut off heart rate monitoring and the lights are still in. I have also tried to restart it but I'm not sure i did it correctly. If anyone has any tips it would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

[NancyMartin]

After a few days the light went off but can’t even charge it now so throwing it out and just ordered a charge 3. Very disappointed that the issue could not be resolved.

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[Rutebemberwa]

I hot advice from a member here on the community to use a pin and pop the 2
green lights and damage the heartbeat sensor and it has worked for me now
without the heart rate option.
I am quite comfortable without the heart rate but when all the rest is
working fine. It is able to detect the steps, the distance and the rest.
Thanks Fitbit Community foe saving my 4 year old Charge 2.
Gilbert

[als1941]

my charge2 backlights glowing very bright, guess I reached the designed end of life? did as suggested put  pin into the LEDs, now hopefully it will carry on without the bit I wanted ie heartrate

[Clonshee]

Your post is 3-4 years old but I have the same problem and I Don’t want to wear my Fitbit because of the danger of a burn. The lights are not flashing and are so intensely bright that I could easily imagine  something dangerous  like that happening.  

I did the chat support and basically they just told me to wear it and observe it for a while and see if it synchs ok. I told them the problem is the bright green lights, but they don’t seem to care about it.  There are online reports of burns from Fitbits, in addition to the commentaries here.   If this does result in an injury, Fitbit will be responsible.   They need to step up. No pun intended.   Such a shame because it’s an extremely useful device.

[Garpops]

I would agree totally! I happened to find other Charge 2s on Amazon, and fairly cheap, as I suspect the inventory was dumped. (The seller had an extremely high number of them... all without the bands.) Who knows who that seller might have been. This Charge 2 is working well to this point... but I don’t see me ever buying a newer version... unless, somehow, the manufacturer acknowledges the problem is gone. And we both know, “That’s not gonna happen!”

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[NancyMartin]

Bought a new one because no help at all for tech support. Only wore it a month and my husband surprised me with an Apple Watch so I have a new charge 3 if interested

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[Garpops]

My daughter surprised me with the same!! Ha...(but I do wear my Fitbit because I like the sleep “report” each day.

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[NancyMartin]

I love my Apple Watch ❤️

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[Rutebemberwa]

There is no solution suggested by the manufacture except replacement. The only crazy option you have is to use a pin or sharp object to pierce and damage those lights and use the watch without heart rate feature. That is what I did with mine till I replaced it with a Fitbit Ionic last year. 

I hope my advice helps you at least to use your phone with the remaining features rill you are ready to replace it.

Gilbert 

[Clonshee]

I should clarify that  after posting I realized  these posts are  specifically about the Charge Fitbit.  Although  my experience is with an Alta HR, my concern is a general one:  lithium batteries  can be dangerous, and  it seems obvious to me that some type of unusual functioning of the battery is likely at the root of the  non-flashing, extremely  bright light problem.  Instead of just  telling a user to wear the watch and report  back to them, the company should acknowledge and  take care of a possible  safety issue with the watches. 

[guitarrckr]

I did ... Back when I posted this ... Buy an Ionic, loving it, So far! LOL
My Charger sat for this duration, recently my wife broke the screen on her
Charge2, I put my old one on the charger, it works now, go figer.
She been wearing it for a month now, under "close watch" (no pun intended)

[NancyMartin]

I bought a new one since no solution and then my husband surprised me with
an Apple Watch so I will probably just sell it on marketplace.
Thanks

[NancyMartin]

Totally agree, worst customer service ever 😡

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[Francisc018]

Gave up on Fitbit a long time ago because of their customer service. Once you buy their product and something goes wrong, they want nothing to do with it.

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[spuck20]

I've moved on to a Garmin as my daily wearer. I did get a Versa 2 just
before that on some crazy deal around Black Friday, (about $75) but it's
regular failure to sync and to push text notifications to the watch mean I
only use it now at night for the newer sleep metrics. That's the only
thing the Fitbit has on my Garmin Vivoactive 3. (A refurb that was actually
less than the Versa 2) With the Fitbit, I was having to do an app delete
and reinstall about every 3 weeks to keep the functionality going
previously. Just today, it wouldn't sync to download my sleep data from
last night. Fitbit customer service has been completely useless about it,
acting like having to setup the device every few weeks should just be
normal.

So done with Fitbit ever getting any money from me again and I'm happy to
give them negative reviews anytime any family or friend ask me about them.

[ed_mccarron]

I've now had 2 Charge 2's fail in this matter (bright LED, fast battery drain...) and decided to investigate.  Obvious at first was salt crystals inside the HR sensor window.

Opened the device and discovered quite a bit of salt and sweat gunk inside the lower compartment of the Charge  -- under the battery.  The lower board containing the HR LEDs, the sensor, and the connection to the charge port was covered in corrosion.

There's what seems to be a port to the outside (barometric sensor for stairs?) that goes from the small hole under the band to a device on this board.

The lower board is heat pressed in -- plastic studs are melted down over once it's installed.  Cheap to produce, tough to repair.

I flushed the entire assembly with alcohol, gently scrubbed away the salt, and allowed my FB to dry.

No luck.

In normal use, the LEDs are modulated by the microcontroller to reduce battery usage and control brightness.

My theory is that the electronic switch (transistor?  FET?) that controls the LEDs shorts via the salt buildup and turns the LEDs on until they burn out or the switch is toast -- and the current use skyrockets in the process.

My conclusion.  Poor sealing of the back half of the Charge 2 allows sweat in.  The salt is conductive and destroys the electronics.

Just switched to a Versa 2 (which is supposed to be 50M waterproof) in the hopes of it working better.

Avoid the Charge 2.

My original plan was to simply disconnect the rear board to disable the HR sensor -- but the charge ports are on the same connector.

This is an obvious (and known) design flaw.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[AltaHRuser000]

Is there someone from fitbit that can definitively explain why the solid, bright green light issue happens? 

Ed_mccarron went to a lot of trouble to triage the problem with the constant, solid bright green light and provided some very useful product knowledge because the prior advice from fitbit hasn't worked, telling us to reboot/restart the advice, and then call customer service, which is futile, as it neither addresses, nor resolve the issue (effectively telling us the device is no longer functioning so throw it away). Can you imagine Apple saying that!  (not a question). 

Fitbit, please tell us WHY the device emits a solid, bright, green light, and the correct steps to fix it (if possible).

Please stand behind your product!!

[lcynicl]

I have been told it is corrosion internal to the unit from perspiration
etc. no fix and Fitbit won’t admit it

[AltaHRuser000]

Btw - my Alta HR just started emitting a very bright green, solid, green light yesterday after charging. I tried turning off the hr monitor, resetting the device, then turning the hr monitor back on, but it still has a very bright, green light that doesn't turn off. 

[spuck20]

Mine started that on a hot day while I was working out, so sweating. Think
a combination of moisture and heat did it in. It was still working as a
watch but without any heartrate. I think posted it back then, but I tried
the reset in the charger thing and that actually fried it completely.
Dead. Called support and the story was "oh, sorry, and you're out of
warranty. Buy a new one.

I did. A Garmin.