Heart rate monitor doesn't work on rowing machine

[smichael]

I know there are similar threads, but I have never seen a solution. 

While on a rowing machine, the Charge HR massively underestimates my heart rate. After 20 minutes of rowing, it says my heart rate is ~70-80bpm. Within 10-15 seconds of stopping, it jumps to ~135bpm (which is accurate). As a result, all my measurements for activity/cardio are wrong, which kind of defeats the purpose of tracking.  

I've tried it on both wrists, high on wrist, low on wrist, inside of arm, outside of arm. I cannot find any way that it will accurately measure HR. 

Please don't tell me "Fitbit is a step counter." Yeah, I know, but this one is also sold as a heart rate monitor. Reasonable to expect it to do so. 

[AndrewC1705]

So I've experimented with the fitbit on the inside of my wrist, upper forearm (outside and inside) and my ankle and can't get a reliable reading anywhere when using the rowing machine.  When doing intervals it isn't even recording the peaks and troughs and is pretty flat!  On the main session I did it was a 3 x 1000m 4r and the HR on the fitbit is mainly flatish around 130bpm, dropping lower occasionally but not matching the intervals.  As others have said the HR seems to go up more in the rest period than during interval.  On ErgData connection to Polar H9 belt for the 3 intervals I'm getting max HR's of 176bpm, 179bpm and 181bpm so my conclusion is that the fitbit is absolutely useless for measuring HR on the rower for some reason.  It seems to work OK on the treadmill, bit hit and miss on circuit like workouts although not too bad but it does make you lose confidence in it's abilities and accuracy for any HR stuff really.

Also wonder how the Polar ones compare and might make enquiries on their forums to see if anyone is using anything similar on the rower, I believe that you can link them to the belt at the very least even if the watches can't match on their own.

[Nicholdeaddis]

I agree, the only solution I've found (it does sound crazy), is to take the
wristband off, and then prop the HR monitoring laser on your forehead and
keep it in place with a headband (or whatever you can find).

It will still be not as accurate as a chest band from polar/garmin but it
is a quite close match on average.

Bear in mind that FitBit (but most smartwatches I would say) are pretty bad
at recording accurate HR during HIIT.

I hope it helps

[AndrewC1705]

Ha! that does sound a bit crazy but out of curiosity I'll give it a go and see what happens.  I suppose the only downside there is that you can't see the HR being recorded during the session (could look on the app I suppose but the app I use for rowing kind of takes over once you've started a session).  Will give it a go though and see what it's got to say for itself at the end of the session 😀

The only advantage with some of the other watches is that you can connect them to the HR belt I believe and then that takes over the HR readings whilst in use.  

[Nicholdeaddis]

Very true, that's why I believe FitBit should work on integrating the
straps as opposed as trying to get the HR monitor to work with Rowing, the
technology for accurate wrist HR measurements, especially on HIIT is still
not there, so it would be more than enough to just sync with a chest band
for the time being

[kmorgand]

This worked great for me! Thank you for the suggestion! 

[charleskn]

I have the same issue, despite trying various placements. The HR is just all over the place. I use a Polar optical armband as my dedicated workout HRM, and it does great, unless I bump the device on my knee while rowing.

[AndrewC1705]

Yeah I tried all sorts and never got it to be anywhere near the Polar H9 chest strap.  I returned the fitbit and bought a Polar Pacer which is much much better and usually matches to with in a couple of bpm of the chest strap.

[Hotspur2001]

same here with Versa 2........crushed 500m and 1000m pieces and heart rate shows around 85bpm, when I know I'm easily at 150 to 160bpm.  It doesn't seem to register until I walk around.  Had to split time on an indoor cycle to get it where it should be to register a good workout.  Only thing I can think of is that our arms/wrists are raised so it's not recording it properly.

[Tdavi28]

Not going to lie, picturing you trying to balance the Fitbit on your head while rowing FB was a very humorous image for me as I hadn’t read the strap with a head band part. 

I’ve noticed the same lack of recording as the rest of the community and too am frustrated that there hasn’t been either a solution or admission by Fitbit. While not ideal, I know the rower is a great exercise tool so I’ll keep doing it and rather gauge by meters traveled and how I feel. 

[doulos0]

To be fair, I think this is a wrist monitor, not a Fitbit issue. I had the same issue with my Wyze wrist monitor and I've heard same complaints from people with even higher-end wrist monitors. I moved to a Polar chest strap monitor and have had no accuracy issues with heart rate while rowing. Maybe the technology will change/improve and maybe there's an existing wrist monitor out there that works with rowing, but I don't know of one. 

[ALittleClarity]

Agreed. It would be nice if there was some way to transfer not only the rowing stats but the heart rate stats from another monitor in this case, but I understand that wouldn't be a priority.