Information during a swim on Charge 3

[RoCoJo]

I am considering the Charge 3 (as a replacement for my charge 2) cause of the possibility of swim tracking. 2 questions for now: 1. What does it show when you are swimming : will it show the number of tracks I swom so far. 2. Which data is accessible in the app. I read in the Ionic forum that the app didn’ t show information per track and that an update was expected by December 2018. Robert

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AlexandraRhea]

I’m considering buying the Charge 3, but I swim a lot. I would like it to show laps, but I really need it to show my heart rate. I have found 2 inconsistencies. On this forum one of the moderators said that it tracks HR, on another platform it is said it does not in real time. Which one is true ?

[OmuGuy]

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@AlexandraRhea wrote:

I’m considering buying the Charge 3, but I swim a lot. I would like it to show laps, but I really need it to show my heart rate. I have found 2 inconsistencies. On this forum one of the moderators said that it tracks HR, on another platform it is said it does not in real time. Which one is true ?

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In my experience, the Charge 3 records HR if you let it autodetect swimming. Today I went to the pool with my Charge 3 and with my Suunto Peak with SmartMonitor on a chest band. I swam 1700 m, which is accurately reflected by the Suunto data. The Charge 3 reckons 1,375 m. While the HR trace on the FitBit phone app shows a peak HR of 200 bpm, an aberration that also occurred independently at a different time in the Suunto data, the activities data on the FitBit website shows an max of 122 and an average of 111 bpm. Since today's Suunto data was abberant, I can only tell you that I usually average 135ish and max at about 153 bpm because I do intervals every 9th and 10th length. Today was certainly not a lax one: FitBit is underreporting effort in the pool. 
I also cycle and have concluded that FitBit produces rough-and-ready round-the-clock general FITNESS monitors. The data is good only for comparing with your own data, It is more relative than absolute. If you want reliable SPORTS data, look elsewhere, especially for swimming. Firmware upgrades may or may not improve the situation, but the company hasn't said that improvements are in the pipeline.

[AlexandraRhea]

Thank you so much for your input !
Is it possible to change the data in the Fitbit app afterwards ?

[jrimel]

I used my Charge 3 for the first time in the pool today. I confess I'm a bit disappointed with the results. On my watch I set it under the exercise screen to swim and set to swim an hour. I swam 38 laps or 76 lengths in a 25 yard pool, although it only 45 lengths and 1125 yards. In addition, if you look under heart rate, there's a blank area during the time I was I was in the pool. I know how far I swim, and how many laps (except when I lose count occasionally) but I was really looking forward to an hopefully an accurate heart rate measurement. Sigh. . . . Frustrating. 

[OmuGuy]

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@jrimel wrote:

I used my Charge 3 for the first time in the pool today. I confess I'm a bit disappointed with the results. On my watch I set it under the exercise screen to swim and set to swim an hour. I swam 38 laps or 76 lengths in a 25 yard pool, although it only 45 lengths and 1125 yards. In addition, if you look under heart rate, there's a blank area during the time I was I was in the pool. I know how far I swim, and how many laps (except when I lose count occasionally) but I was really looking forward to an hopefully an accurate heart rate measurement. Sigh. . . . Frustrating. 

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I sympathize with your frustration, we don't yet live in a world with Star Trek technology. 
the underrecording with your Charge 3 is quite severe.
I've been using Suunto for several years now. It's appreciably more expensive and quite often misrecords, especially the HRM. Since Bluetooth can't travel far underwater, the SmartSensor records HR and syncs when the watch and monitor are in the air. For some reason, it has often been acting up.
Since the pace is clearly shown on a graph, it's easy to see when a length has been misrecorded. This doesn't happen very often, typically it will be out if you have to stop midlength (crowded lane) or do not push off strongly enough from the wall. An algorithm detects strong acceleration from the sensor(s).
As I mentioned before, fitness monitoring and sports measurement are two different categories. I had to pay USD 200 to find this out, but education is expensive. 
I don't understand why the Charge 3 cannot provide more swim data. Arm strokes would be very useful for gauging actual distance. Since the Suunto can be taught to recognize different strokes, presumably there are data filters that can detect distinctive arm strokes. If FitBit would make this data available, it would be useful to us swimmers who lose count. 
I got the Suunto so I wouldn't have to count. These days, I'm counting again, but only up to eight, because the ninth and tenth lengths are all out efforts. It makes swimming long distances less boring and, perhaps, improves or maintains fitness better.

[cekay19]

@OmuGuy, I think that to get an accurate reading in the pool for stroke information, you will need more sensors.  I have a Moov Now tracker.  It does not display information in real time, but it records data and syncs up later.  It is a coaching-based tracker, very inexpensive because it does not have a HR monitor but it's useful for things like running, swimming & cycling.  Moov can detect several kinds of strokes (the 4 main ones: freestyle, breast, back & butterfly) and it gives you insight as to what you're doing wrong.  It knows that I breathe on one side, and that I don't have a really good kick.  The Moov has that luxury because it's got more gadgets for that on the inside.  It's not ideal in that you can't count your strokes or HR but it provides useful info nonetheless.  I think the Moov has 9 different sensors and its software is much more advanced than Fitbit's for sports tracking.

[OmuGuy]

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@AlexandraRhea wrote:
Thank you so much for your input !
Is it possible to change the data in the Fitbit app afterwards ?

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@AlexandraRhea, I can see no way to change any data recorded automatically by FitBit devices. 
If you look at @jrimel contribution, the device was set to manually record and the HR data was blank for the duration.
In theory, water prevents the optical pulse monitoring system from accurately ascertaining HR. This theoretical assumption is applied when you manually tell the device it's going to be submerged, but the device is too dumb to switch it off when it autodetects swimming.
Maybe the FitBit developers are being too techie? The Charge 3 is capable of detecting HRV (millisecond beat-to-beat variations in heart rate) which is employed when assessing sleep phases. Naturally, HRV would not be precise in the water, but for the user some kind of data is better than none.
Presumably a calorie consumption value is presented on a manually recorded swim? That would likely be reckoned from HR recording data that is not shared with user. The company should be much more upfront about the decisions it makes.

[OmuGuy]

@cekay19, thanks for confirming my suspicions about the lack of sensors in the Charge 3. 
Consumers are greedy and want it all. We assume, then find out...

[jenhen5]

It shows you the number of lengths you swam and the ellapsed duration of your swim.  For the length to be accurate, you need to set the length of the pool into your settings before you start (you only need to do this once assuming you swim the same length pools).  There is also a calorie spent graph, but it is laughably inaccurate (I swim for 30 min and it tells me I spent ~45 Cal).

Honestly, it is very disappointing.  I was expecting much more given the Charge 3 is advertised as a device to track your swim.  The Versa and Iconic have richer swim features due to it's compatibility with the My Swim Pro app (which has a monthly subscription fee).  That app will give you individual length times, type of stroke, SWOLF, and other information.

There is nothing native with the Fitbit software that gives you useful information for swimming.  I'm looking at the Garmin and Moov products, they appear to have better developed swim features in their products.

[BigfootMike]

I tried the swimming app while swimming breaststroke in an 8m long pool. I swam quite slowly and didn’t kick off from the end of the pool, completing 100 lengths in about 27 minutes. The charge 3 told me I had completed 1775m and used 48 calories. I haven’t bothered tracking swimming a second time.

[nemtrack]

although waterproof, I moved up from a flex 2 to charge 3 given the display notifications however , i have just returned charge 3 as after 5 calls to fitbit they could not get the device to auto record swimming. Disappointment but service for return good in 45 day guarantee, and swimming is my main form of exercise, flex 2 does it well and never had any trouble in the past 2 years wearing so will be using this again, glad i hadn't given it away which I was thinking of!

[elou2410]

no - laps isn't accessible while you're swimming or at least i haven't found it!)

It is not accurate for tracking laps.  It under-counts for me (by about 16 - 20 lengths per-session.

Data logged in the app - it tracks your heart rate while swimming and tracks the number of lengths and calories used (inaccurately though!   I compare data with a swimtag.)

Hope this helps. 

[BMW13]

My new charge 3 will not track swimming laps, which I do 3 times a week for one hour each time.  This is why I  bought this device so I will have to return

[elou2410]

It isn't possible to edit what the fitbit has recorded for your swim unfortunately - but if you know the information by other means, you can enter it manually and delete the fitbit swim.  I just overwrite it with data from a swimtag. You can record the swim via 'Log Activity'.

This means that all the fitbit is useful for when swimming is the heartrate - but as others have said, this might not be that accurate either.