HR on Charge 3 not accurate DURING TREADMILL EXERCISE APP

[MrMarv]

First off, I am a big supporter of the Fitbit devices and their firmware programmers - not as much of a cheerleader sometimes for their app and web development teams (probably Project Leaders and Quality Insurance or maybe the people that push them to market too soon), but I still respect them.

And for the most part, the Charge 3 has been holding its own in the bpm area - when it says 108 and I count 27 beats in 15 seconds I smile. And it rarely disappoints me.

Until I put it into exercise mode, that is.

And I have held off until the latest firmware update came through last night so I could run another short test.

Last night and tonight I performed two treadmill exercises, 14 and 7 minutes in length at 2.2 and 2.5 mph.

For the first exercise last night, I did my normal 50 squat reps and crunches and by the time I took a short break and hit the treadmill at 2.2 mph my HR was up to 100 and increased to 137 (low to mid peak) by the 5 minute mark. All expected; I'm not a youngster, after all. At 6:10 it was at 100 and ten seconds later, at 63 bpm!!! Huh? It started a little climb but by 8:30 it was at 61 bpm. This is for a 66 year old male with a pacemaker/defibrillator with a resting heart rate of 68 to 72. I ended the exercise after 14 minutes at a recorded 111 bpm.

And the chart of the activity definitely shows those three minutes as being under fat burn zone of over 77 bpm.

This evening I performed no pre-walk exercises, unless you count helping clean up after dinner, and started my session at 86 bpm. At 2:00 into the walk I was down to 74 and at 1:59 I was at 71. Up to 84 at 2:20 and back down to 66 at 2:35. From there on, with me increasing the pace to 2.5 mph at 4:00 and 3.0 man at 6:00, it quickly made its way back to fluctuating between 101 and 114, finishing at 104 bpm at 7:00. 

What the heck? There is no way I'm going to drop lower than 90 bpm in those scenarios. I didn't stop to take my pulse manually during those two abnormalities, but trust me, I will tomorrow.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

Original poster edit - Moderator did not clarify, but rather muddied it up.

[Taroqi]

Yes on the charge 3

[jjfreeman2]

I have to agree with this post. This charge 3 is simply inaccurate, not by a small margin, but by an order of magnitude. If you are purchasing this to track and monitor your heart rate, don't, it is simply not functional or accurate.

After checking against other tracking devices, including a BP machine, it registers off by 40 BPM, or more, in most cases. 

Very disappointing. Will be returning it for something that is relatively close to reality.

[jjfreeman2]

For what it is worth, my own testing (and situation), is nearly identical to yours as far as the accuracy of the device. Not usable to track HR at all. 

[Nick28]

I’m a new Fitbit user- the hr monitor appears accurate at rest but not during intense workouts. Any advice?

[wollja]

I found mine works best if I use the 'Weights' activity, and if I make sure
its pretty tight. It's least accurate over 130bpm but it still gives me a
rough ball park. I just know when it gets over 130 to listen to my body
and not just blindly believe the watch or I might get my heart rate in a
danger zone. I think when I used the 'Treadmill' or 'Running' activity it
was more erratic, so I stick with the 'Weights' activity.

But, if you really want accuracy at high intensity, nothing beats a heart
rate strap. Several of the Garmin watches let you use the watch sensors
for light stuff, resting and daily use, but then you can also buy a chest
strap and connect it to your watch so you can get near 100% accuracy when
doing high intensity workouts. To me that's the best of both worlds, and
what I'll likely switch to when it's time to upgrade.

[Robin007]

I have a brand new Charge 3.

I'm just realizing tonight that it's grossly inaccurate, and NOT when exercising.  But just resting.


it's off by 30 beats (!)

(I have my old Charge HR on the other wrist.  It works just fine...)

[DustinTH]

I also have a brand new Charge 3. Sitting at the computer right now my pulse rate measured against a clock is 70bpm. My charge is saying 93. I've tried it up and down my wrist, top side of the wrist and underneath, strap tight and strap loose. If this is a known thing I'm going to return it. +/-5bpm I can take. 20+? ridiculous.

Edit: and to mark this issue as solved is misleading. It's clearly not, given the number of replies.

[Miguelito4]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one but super disappointed. You would think that after 3 iterations, this thing would actually work.

I do F45 interval classes and when I am at peak intensity, my Charge 3 will say I'm at 110bpm. Using pulse and clock, I was at 160+. 

What in the world is the point of this thing if it can't even track heart rate properly? 

[alvarval]

i have the same problem, bad heart rate monitoring, specially at high bpm. Brand new Charge 3....

[NapaBill]

I also returned my FB and found an Apple Watch 3 at Costco for $259.

[NapaBill]

---

@MrMarv wrote:

@Blackish and @MarreFitbit

As I stated in my first post and apparently did not reinforce in later posts - the device works FANTASTIC for heart rate tracking when NOT in exercise mode..

I finally got a little fed up with it last night and decided to just turn off exercise mode and kept on trekking. For the last 20 minutes everything was fine, although the 20 minutes was not auto-recognized as a walk as my Alta HR used to do when on the treadmill. And before anyone asks, I have it set to 10 minutes and my Charge 3 auto-recognizes walks around the parking lot at work just fine.

Hmmmm. Will have to try again tonight.

I will be starting another thread within the next two days documenting why I believe the exercise tracking app is possibly flawed.

---

How does this get marked as Accepted Solution? The only solution I know of is to not use a FB3.

[Jajlo]

Have had C3 for almost a week.. noticed wide swings in HR.. started to wear my reliable Blaze on left wrist.. C3 on right.. my Blaze at one point showed 77-79 HR while the C3 showed 123-94..( I took video)  I was sitting at the time watching TV.  Started to wear C3 and blaze side by side on my right wrist.. checking both for fit and sensors flush..C3 showed 75-79 while Blaze held steady at 69-70.       

Update: 1/21/19.  Have returned my Charge 3.

[TwinB10]

Yes, it's not the most accurate device for heartrate. I'm getting used to the fact that the slightest movement shows an increase in rate and when exercising it shows an accelerated hr but not the actual hr when compared to when I check my pulse with my stopwatch.
I'm learning to use it as a guage but not relying on it for accuracy. Other features seem to work fine, such as sleep graph and step counting.

[MrMarv]

@NapaBill - 

I marked my own post as the "solution" as I believe it explains why the heart rate calculation was flawed in the particular scenario I placed it in.

I documented one of my many tests showing that the treadmill app built into the device apparently has issues in this thread:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Heart-rate-during-treadmill-not-accurate-on-Charge-3/m-p/31...

I have also noticed that the workout app looks like it is overstating heart rate. I will attempt to document the issue, work permitting.

[DrPangloss]

My heart, at rest, runs at about 40 bpm. My Fitbit usually shows 55-70.

When I exercise and it goes to 75-80 Fitbit always shows just about double.

[Robin007]

Whoa!  Your resting rate is 40?  You must have a super healthy heart.   Bravo!! 🙂

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[rkzog]

Another frustrated user checking in with the same issue.

I splurged and pre-ordered a Charge 3 so that I could better track my bootcamp workouts.  For the first 2 months it worked awesome.  Now, no matter what I do, the stupid thing loses my HR during high-impact exercise (in bootcamp exercise mode).  Sometimes pausing the exercise mode and restarting works, but mostly not.  Repositioning doesn't work.  Tightening/loosening doesn't work.  Wiping sweat off doesn't work.  Last night, during a particularly intense HIIT circuit, it lost my HR.  I paused and resumed, and it was reading 111 BPM.  I didn't have a secondary measuring source, but there's no way that's anywhere near accurate.

Now I've had it too long to return, and super unhappy with a glorified step tracker.  I will not be spending money on another Fitbit product, given the lack of response to this issue.

[Nick28]

Two questions: 1)Given there are so many frustrated users with the HR monitor- why no recall? 2) why is there no ability to communicate directly with the company?

Nick Pagano
Sent from my iPhone

[DavidFl]

1. Probably no fix
2. This way we talk to each other for free!


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[DavidFl]

It wasn’t that expensive! It tracks your steps nicely, relatively accurate in tracking sleep although light sleep is over credited when one is probably actually awake some of the time.
And it looks good too.
I am disappointed too, but I just disregard running HR unless I presume I go into tachycardia every time I run.😂



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