Wildly Inaccurate Stairs Climbed

[JayDawg107]

My Charge 4 over counts stairs counted. I know it has something to do with changes in the weather and air pressure (or something). I did 10 yesterday and it counted 91 - this is ridiculous!

How much does stairs climbed affect your overall calories burned? If 81 extra flights of stairs inflates my calories burned, that's a problem. 

[poruatokin]

If you search this forum a little, you will find that a huge number of people have been having the same problem with the Charge 4 and earlier versions.  In my case, mine worked fine for about 7-8 months then went crazy in the same way you describe.  I and many others have had many posts deleted by the moderators because they don't like the negativity that has been caused by this issue.  Much of the user anger has been exacerbated by the ridiculous claims and "solutions" that the mods have proposed such as "protecting it from draughts"

See more information here https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-4/Charge-4-is-tracking-too-many-floors/td-p/4906132

There are (or at least were) numerous other topics on this over the last couple of years.

Also, I just noticed that for the Charge 5 they deleted this feature which for me is even more reason to expect no action to repair this defect.

[laygan]

Both Apple and Fitbit have similar issues. You can check some Apple/MacRumors/etc forums to read about them. The sensor detects change in elevation and count as a climb!

Based on what I read in Apple forums, there is no count as long as you don't move your hands in the elevator. If you start to move your hands, then the count begins 😂. 

[poruatokin]

I don't understand why this is so difficult.  I have owned a range of Casio and Citizen watches over the years that include very accurate barometric altimeters.  In particular my Citizen Promaster Aqualand Titanium is almost 20 years old, and has been used during many scuba dives in salt water down to 30 meters and is still capable of sensing 1-2 meters vertical ascent during mountain trekking.  True it doesn't have any connectivity or logging but that is just simple electronics.

[laygan]

There should be less issue in scuba diving as the environment is "stable" for the barometric altimeters. However it's a completely different story when out of the water.

I decided to hide the Floors info on mobile app after reading the article below. I realised something's wrong after receiving the "Spaceship" badge for 14,000 lifetime floors, from Fitbit Surge and Fitbit Charge 4 over five years!

https://www.correrunamaraton.com/en/gps-altimeter-barometer/ 

[poruatokin]

My point about the scuba diving is that the Aqualand has very robust hardware.  The depth sensor for diving and barometric sensor for altitude are different pieces of hardware, yet the sensitive altimeter still has to withstand exposure to 3 bar pressure at 30 meters in salt water, but still gives accurate barometric pressure to a resolution of 1-2 meters when on land.  And this is in a watch designed and built almost 20 years ago.  Just don't understand why the likes of Fitbit can't provide a robust solution?  As you've seen, it has been deleted from the Charge 5 - possibly because of all the unsolved issues with these models.