Can I wear in the water

[lindastewart56]

Can I wear my fitbit in the water

[James291]

The watch has a swim mode in the exercise app, but personally I wouldn't risk it.

One of the most common complaints on this community board is "Versa 3 stopped working after a swim". Just have a look back through old posts.

[Julia_G]

@lindastewart56  The short answer is yes.  The Versa 3 is designed to be water resistant up to 50 meters of water pressure.  There are two important words here: the first is “resistant” and the second is “pressure”.

So no device is actually water “proof” and no companies producing stuff is allowed to say so.  Water is pretty strong stuff and it has ways of getting in…. Also when it says up to 59 meters it doesn’t mean you actually have to get 50 meters deep - you just have to put that amount of pressure - which could happen even by diving into much more shallow water.

So my advice is that if you want to use your Fitbit to track regular swimming laps in a pool, and you don’t dive, I would go for it.  I would (and do) also wear it in the shower or heavy rain.  But I would not wear it in the ocean (because if it does get in salt water is a much bigger problem) and for just messing around in the pool, jumping and playing, I also would not wear it, because I would not think it is worth the possible issues.

Finally, over time it is possible that the water resistance weakens, due to prolonged exposure to sun, creams and other cosmetics.

None of this is Fitbit official advice.  It is just my sense of how I would treat a fairly expensive device.  

Bottom line: if you want it for regular swim tracking, yes it is designed to do that, so go ahead.  If it is just for messing about, and especially for messing about at the beach, I would say not worth the chances, especially once the Fitbit is out of guarantee.

I don’t know if this will help.  Just my own personal views.

[Not_A_Bit_Fit]

Imo, you’d be better off buying a comparatively much cheaper waterproof watch. I have an old Casio, water resistant to 200m (which means it’s good for scuba diving up to 50m), bought in the 90s for a year’s dive school training in Turkey. Bought it from Argos. It’s still waterproof. Yes, it doesn’t have all the features of a FitBit, but it does have lap timers, stopwatch, day, date, alarms, etc. It’s waterproofing is down to a simple O ring and a thin coating of silicone sealant, it’s nothing more complicated than that. I’ve used my Casio on every dive I’ve ever done, which is hundreds, and all of them were in the sea, so salt water immersion under 40m of water pressure. No issues ever.

Am guessing the evident lack of waterproofness of FitBits is likely due to the contacts on the back of the device allowing water in. There are numerous posts here about FitBits not working after getting them wet. I even take mine off when I wash my hands! 

[Liddyjoy]

Yes, I use my Versa 3 in the pool for laps (and being shortsighted it is wonderful for seeing the time). It consistently works - I swim 300m three days a week so it is getting a good trial.