Charge 3 not counting all stairs

[GrammaLynda]

I have a flight of stairs in my house and sometimes it counts them, and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t know why it only count them periodically.

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[BB47]

This is one of the aggravations of the Fitbit when it comes to counting floors in a house. My Fitbit One only counted stairs in my home every now and then. My new Charge 3 is the same. The thing is, a staircase in most homes is only 8 feet or so and the Fitbit needs 10 feet to register a floor.

I get enough extra floors when driving so I think, at least for me, it balances out!

BB47

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @GrammaLynda and @BB47 thanks for the input.

Your Charge 3 uses both an accelerometer and altimeter to track floors, and registers a floor when detecting continuous motion combined with an elevation gain of as mentioned about 10 feet. Because the device looks for continuous motion, pausing when you go up a flight of stairs can cause the device to not count the floor.

Your device may count less floors than you think it should for a variety of reasons. Not all flights are the same height or distance, so if the flight you climbed is less than 10 feet you may find that the device's floor count doesn't exactly match how many floors you climbed. Exposure to excess moisture can also cause result in fewer floors. Note: Please don't insert anything into the altimeter hole on your device.

I hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else. 

[KPJGPM]

I've also found if I'm carrying something like a laundry basket and I'm not moving my arm it doesn't count the flight.  I always try to move my arm a little when I walk up the stairs.

[GrammaLynda]

My confusion lies in the fact that it is the same flight of stairs. I live in a two story house and when I go up the stairs sometimes it counts them, and sometimes it doesn’t. When I go into my basement (another flight of stairs) it never counts that one as a flight. They both total the same amount of stairs so I long ago arrived at the conclusion that they weren’t the same amount of steepness. And that makes sense to me. But that the stairs leading from my living room to bedrooms and bathroom are sometimes counted, and sometimes not.

Lynda

[GrammaLynda]

I have come to the conclusion that I need to walk around for a few minutes before I start to climb the step.  It doesn’t seem to work if I just get off a chair and head upstairs.  When I make a couple of laps around the house first, then the stairs get counted.

[giftsat65]

I had problems with my new fitbit Charge3 not counting stairs.  As a new user I checked the forums to find an answer- no luck.  So experimenting revealed that I need to swing the arm with the fitbit while climbing stairs. No using the hand rail ever if I want the stairs to count.

[JFlo47]

Why would excessive moisture affect the elevation app? This product is supposed to be waterproof and I swim with it. Would that be considered excessive moisture?

[giggling]

Same here. Sometimes it counts them sometime not.

[giftsat65]

We have also discovered that if we swing the arm with the fitbit high in
the air at the top of the stairs it will count. So now we climb the stairs
without using the rail and give a high swing at the top...the fitbit salute.

[giggling]

Tried it, doesn't work.


Sent from Samsung Mobile

[JFlo47]

How this works is very frustrating. It records flights of stairs when I don't do them, but doesn't record them when I do. Yesterday I walked up a flight of stairs . . . nothing. Then I had a 50 min drive home and I accumulated 9 flights. Later that evening I was walking outside in a flat area (no changes in altitude) and accumulated 2 more.

[giftsat65]

I don't get the counting when driving, (unless your arm is swinging at the
time?) I've noticed the counting when walking. It seemed fairly flat, but
when I checked there was a bit of rise in elevation over the distance.
Hope you find a solution.
Giftsat65

[Lejf]

Previously I has a Microsoft Band. It counted all stairs and steps precisely. My fitbit does not count stairs at all and are counting steps with generosity - meaning counting too many. I am not impressed. in fact I regret that I didn't buy an other brand :-(. 

I miss that Fitbit is taking this issue seriously - 

[Snug]

I am having just the opposite problem. I often wake up in the morning to see  4-5 flights of stairs counted.  Some days I’ll show 40-50 flights of stairs when I may have been lucky to have done 2 flights. I have a Charge 3 and have finally worked through the “update nightmares”.  This stairs problem existed before the update and continues today. 

[GrammaLynda]

Now I have that problem! I bought this Fitbit for 2 reasons (while my Alta
was still working) - because I could wear it in the water, and to count
stairs. I went for a long time without going to the pool, and I think it
was finally counting stairs right. Then I wore it to my water aerobics
class and the next day I had 50 flights! I average between 10 and 14 so
that was definitely off. I reset it about 3 times but now it still
overcounts stairs, by a lot.

[JackieNCGirl]

Right?!!! I have had the same result. Is this also an industry issue? Has anyone had a product that worked?  I had a garmin that didn't count them either. : )

[Geekbearinggift]

Hmm! I just did my first hilly walk with my new Charge 3, and it didn’t register ANY floors climbed. I wonder if that’s because I was pushing a stroller and my arms were basically in one position the whole walk. My FitBit rarely registers all the times I climb stairs at home unless I am coming in from outside, so I’m guessing I’m either pausing too long to put things down at the top, or it’s less than 10’ from the bottom of the stairs.

[Timosabo]

Same with Charge 2 - strangely, never seems to count the first time I go up my stairs in the morning...

[kirei1]

I have the same problem with my Charge 3; sometimes it counts the flights of stairs and sometimes it doesn't count the very same flight of stairs.  I don't see any logical reason for this; seems to defeat the FitBit purpose.  It really makes me wonder if the Charge 3 is accurately counting any other activity like Miles Walked or Heart Rate/Cardio Fitness.