R.I.P.Charge 4 - how long did yours last?

[Gryllotalpa]

I am afraid that my Charge 4 is at the end of its life, after faithful and mostly reliable service of 27 months including quite a lot of runs, hikes, swims (open water), bike rides,etc. It also helped me tremendously to shed over 7 kg and keep most of it off, and I grew quite fond of it.

Today, the strap holder definitely broke (nothing fell apart, but it does not hold together and it feels like the spring gave up). Moreover, I have experienced some weird behavior lately, including:

• Intermittent loss of GPS during runs
• Random alerts "the device is not charging" during excercise (while it was half-charged)
• Intermittent loss of heart rate reading.
• Unreliable detection of activities that used to work, as well as spurious tracking of false signals (on Saturday it failed to recognize a rather epic XC ski trip of 5 hours but logged a random "sport" epizode of 10 mins while walking from the train station).
• Battery life down from the original week to 2-3 days.

I just took the plunge and ordered a Charge 6, but I am wondering if my lifetime is on par with others. How long did your Charge 4 last? And did anyone experience these symptoms?

[Leesstrong]

Mine is 2 years old and it only leaves my wrist for charging. I can get 4 days out of it if texting is slow but if a lot of activity then I charge it up every 3rd day. Since it gets beat up quite a bit at work, the face is scratched up, I was looking to replace it with a Charge 6. Let me know how you like the new 6. 

[Gryllotalpa]

So far, I am quite happy, still tweaking the settings. First battery charge lasted 5 days while I was playing with it quite a lot and using GPS. Not entirely sure if I like the silicone band, so I am considering upgrading that to something less plastický looking ( metal or leather).

[carbuff]

Our Charge 4 just stopped securing its strap, too. 😪 It is from 2021. Shame that the device itself is working but the straps will not keep it on my wrist.

Anybody tried repairing with glue? 👺

Our first Charge 4 quit after 5 days!  I had to wait THREE WEEKS for a replacement under warranty, despite the fact that I received the initial one from The Fitbit Store on Amazon in ONE DAY.

NOT HAPPY with the lifetime of new Fitbit products.  Our original Fitbit One lasted a LOT longer.

[Leah62]

Hi, mine is about 2 years old too and just stopped working. It won’t hold a charge for more than an hour or 2. 

[alexthecat]

@carbuff Amazon sells bands like this that work in situations where you can't reattach the original band to your Fitbit. Amazon has some other options as well, if you don't care for that particular style. 

[carbuff]

Thanks @alexthecat 

Upon close inspection of the broken Charge 4, it appears as if the mounting screws (tiny Philips-head) are fastened to the body of the watch, and those actually stripped out.

The strap you linked will do the job.

[Nightbird95]

I just had my Charge 4 three days ago. So that means I should be planning for its replacement before December 2025. 🙂