Charge 4 Heart Rate Monitor Problems

[AZNancy]

Folks:

I have two issues with the Charge 4 Heart Rate Monitor - the first is that the monitor incorrectly shows an enormous increase in heart rate - today it went from a resting heart rate of 75 to 181 bpm for about five minutes (even the 75 was a little fast - I manually clocked my heart rate at 66 bpm during this period)!  The second is that the heart rate monitor totally cuts out for periods of up to five minutes when I've selected any sort of exercise.

This is annoying and is wreaking havoc with my stats.

Things I have done to correct the issue:  Cleaned my wrist and the back of the Charge 4 with an alcohol swab, put lotion on my wrist (I have severely dry skin), taken the Charge 4 off of my wrist for 10 seconds+.  None of these attempts to fix the problem have worked consistently.

Anyone else come across this problem and, more importantly, does anyone know how to fix it?

Thanks!

Moderator edit: format. 

[AndreaFitbit]

Thanks for getting back to us and for letting us know what you´ve tried to make your Charge 4 heart rate function properly @AZNancy. 

As with all heart-rate tracking technology, accuracy is affected by personal physiology, device location on your arm, and type of movement.

For a more accurate heart-rate reading:

• Wear your Fitbit device on top of your wrist, and make sure the back of the device is in contact with your skin.
• When you’re not exercising, wear your device a finger’s width above your wrist bone.
• During exercise, wear your device a bit tighter and higher for an improved fit. The band should be snug but not constricting (a tight band restricts blood flow, potentially affecting the heart-rate signal). Many exercises such as bike riding or weight lifting cause you to bend your wrist frequently, which could interfere with the heart-rate signal if the watch is lower on your wrist.

You can also check: What factors can affect my heart-rate reading on my Fitbit device?

Keep on visiting the forums. 

[AZNancy]

Hi, AndreaFitbit.

Thanks for responding to my post.

Unfortunately, I'm already doing all of the things you suggested, as follows:

• Regarding your first bullet point - SOMETIMES, if I wear the device on the UNDERSIDE of my wrist during exercise, it "wakes up" and begins to accurately reflect my heart rate (and whether I'm in "Fat Burn," "Cardio" or "Peak" activity).  This doesn't work all the time, however...
• Regarding your second bullet point - already doing that.
• Regarding your third bullet point - already doing that.

Additional information regarding my original post - when the heart rate monitor showed an erroneous 181 bpm, I was sitting in a chair, MEDITATING - no movement whatsoever, hadn't selected an exercise like "yoga," or done anything crazy like shake the heck out of my hands/wrists... I was just. sitting. there.

The device has given erroneous heart rate readings intermittently since a month after my purchase.  It has gotten worse over the past two weeks.

Any other suggestions?  For me, accurate tracking of my "zone minutes" is important because it affects at least two items in an online weight loss program to which I've subscribed (and have linked my Charge 4).  Also, I don't think it's fair that I erroneously racked up a boat-load of "zone minutes" during a recent Fitbit challenge - 300 minutes in just a few hours?  Nope; if I'm gonna be a "winner," I sure as heck want to do it honestly!!!  <grin>

Thanks again for your response - I appreciate your trying to help me out with this issue.

Regards,

Nancy

[AndreaFitbit · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to us and for your information @AZNancy.

The best way to get help for this problem is to chat with us online or give us a call. Click here to get connected.

Keep on visiting the forums. 

[eizb17]

I have issues too. It’s dramatically increased my resting heart rate (when taken manually to compare) and clocks large chunks of my runs as “peak” heart rate zone (meaning - it would be uncomfortable to talk, huffing and puffing and my RPE does not match with that). Both of these changes are out of character and relatively sudden, but it’s been going on for 2 to 3 weeks now. I’ve taken my own pulse and used a home blood pressure monitor many times, by now,  and each time the Fitbit has my heart rate up to 40 beats faster! 40! I would be sitting completely still and count a heart rate in the 40s (normal for me), I would look down at my Fitbit and it would be almost exactly 40 beats higher. I’ve gotten the same advice from Fitbit, all of that stuff that they already have in their FAQs. Even rebooted the watch and unpaired it from my app and started over again and it still didn’t fix it. Then I got a response that my resting heart rate was still in the normal range, the tech completely ignoring the fact that I said all of those differences. When my normal resting heart rate is in the 40s or 50s and suddenly it’s registering 15 to 20 beats higher, that’s a significant increase in giving me near panic attacks every day.

[AZNancy]

Hey, there.

I'm still having the same problems, but I've found a temporary solution:  I take off the device, open up the band completely (so that nothing is blocking the sensor), lay the thing face down on a flat surface and wait for a minute or two before putting it back on.  That seems to jog it out of its weirdness.  (The key is to leave the sensor unobstructed for a couple of minutes.)

Not a great solution, I know, but I'm not shelling out any more money for a new tracker until I'm relatively certain that Fitbit's latest and greatest devices are functioning with fewer inaccuracies than this one is!

Best regards,

Nancy

[eizb17]

Thank you for your quick response! ☺️

Sent from my iPhone

[AndreaFitbit]

Thanks for getting back to us and for your advise @AZNancy. I'm sure @eizb17 could find these steps very useful.

Keep on visiting the forums.