Swimming with Versa....have you? Can you?

[CaptainsChairwo]

Has anyone used versa whilst swimming? Seeing some mixed and confusing messages online. The sales plus is water resitstant for up to 50meters but fitbit moderators saying this is water resistant not waterproof and not to use it whilst swimming?? I would love to use it and want to make sure i wont ruin it. Is it a marketing plug or has anyone tried and tested? No smart arse answers just helpful please thanks!

[geezer45]

I have never been concerned with the calorie tracker. Never really checked to try and verify if accurate.

[PinkyRabbit]

Psh64 :

Today I swam with both my Versa and my wife's Charge-3 strapped next to each other on my left wrist. My wife can never get the length count right. It always significantly over reads for her. It worked flawlessly for me. Technique? Both devices recorded same lengths and time. My Versa recorded 212 calories while the Charge 3 recorded 31! Go figure! It always records around 30 calories for my wife no matter how many lengths it indicates. 

[Fragolina77]

I have used it for swimming... from my research there is no smart watch on
the market that is waterproof, only water resistant.

I have had no problems so far, but I only have it on to do laps. I don't
dive and I take it off if i'm just doing recreational swim with my kids.
one out of the pool I dry it well with the towel before putting it back on.

[lenny4d]

@geezer45

>> It may track it but I never figured out how to see my heart rate while using the swim function. 

It does not track heart rate if you select swim exercise simply because the underwater HR is not very reliable due to water between skin and sensor/lens. As I wrote before, if you select any other exercise, or no exercise, it will track HR and produce something, but you cannot expect it to be accurate. Usually you don't care too much about HR when pool swimming (?), it laps and (lap)time that counts, no? 🙂

@Psh64

>> Does your calorie calculation appear accurate? On my charge 3 it appears to be around 1/3 of what my flex 2 would calculate.

I have seen more threads with big factors off, you may want to search around a bit. I am not really a pool swimming, and generally don't care too much for calories when swimming. Here is what seems a decent calorie calculator for pool swimming, there are probably many others

http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php

@PinkyRabbit

>> My Versa recorded 212 calories while the Charge 3 recorded 31! 

See above, there are more threads on this.

>> My wife can never get the length count right. It always significantly over reads for her. It worked flawlessly for me. Technique? Both devices recorded same lengths and time.

Lap tracking isn't very advanced, it just detects a momentary change in strokes as a change of direction. If you are swimming slow, interrupting, changing stroke type etc, it will get confused. If you are a steady lap-swimmer it will do well. So yes, probably technique 🙂

[Psh64]

@geezer45
If you want to improve cardiovascular health, it would be nice to know heart rate so you could push yourself harder if you’re not reaching the rate you want.
My main beef is that even though it tracks my laps quite accurately, my active minutes are recorded as very low. ( getting as low as 14 active minutes after swimming for an hour...80 laps, no stops).This is using charge 3 and auto detect. Maybe I will try swim mode tomorrow and see if that helps.

Sent from my iPad

[lenny4d]

@Psh64

>> If you want to improve cardiovascular health, it would be nice to know heart rate so you could push yourself harder if you’re not reaching the rate you want.

Yeah in the gym, but in the pool? I can be wrong, but would think in the pool you really care a lap stats and stroke stats. Obviously a reliable HR would be nice, but it simply is not possible with a fitbit as is...

(because of the water between skin and sensor, and maybe the motion filtering of the sensor data would not be good either...)

>> my active minutes are recorded as very low. This is using charge 3 and auto detect. 

Well, obviously... Per definition, active minutes is not a minutes of moving. If you took the time to look it up you would understand why it is so low. It doesn't need the HR for active minutes but it does need a reliable calorie estimate. Quote: "You need at least 10 minutes of continuous activity of at least 3 times your Sedentary/sleeping/BMR  calories for each 1 minute of Active Minutes (AM)" ... so if your calorie estimate is way off --- which it is for the Charge3 -- then you gain little (or none!) active minutes.

There are many threads on the swim-readyness of the Charge3/Versa/Ionic, both for pool and open-water.

[Psh64]

@lenny4d
No need to be rude with language like “obviously “ and “if you took the time”.
New question. Why are the calorie estimates so far off? They were decent with the flex2 and as I now know, thank you, that was why my active minutes goals were reached. Kinda disappointing when your exercise goals are for a certain number of days a week and you only hit half of them because the other days were swimming days.

Sent from my iPhone

[Undies]

I have a versa and use it when lap swimming works fine. Unfortunately only give me  an average heart rate for the whole swim instead of each lap.

[lenny4d]

@Psh64  My take is it is more rude to go by beliefs and state them for the truth than to check the facts...  In addition the original thread was "Swimming with Versa" which you are turning into a "swimming kcals wrong for Charge 3" thread... As you "obviously" know there are Charge 3 forums... Here are some Charge-3 forum links that already discuss exactly this issue (google is your friend).  You may want to browse & use these first 🙂 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Charge-3-swim-calories-too-low/td-p/3066928

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Calories-not-counted-on-a-swimming-activity/td-p/3006505

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Exercise-calories-reduced-after-a-swimming-activity/td-p/29...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Counting-calories-if-swimming-is-not-correct/td-p/3003257

Also useful:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Versa/Swimming-calories-burned/td-p/2833459

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Flex-2/Inaccurate-calories-when-swimming/td-p/1835488

[Natalie01]

I know what your saying, I've used my versa to shower and didn't have any problems. I stilled haven't tried swimming. I am on a club swim team and swim five days a week not counting meets. I've had my versa for about two weeks now and still haven't tried it in the water. I'm super nervous also. I've just been taking mine off before getting in the water. But showers are fine. I do highly recommend drying it afterwards though, I skipped drying mine after a shower and it was uncomfortable for around four days before the weird soggy feeling went away. Other then that it's waterproof to my knowledge. 

[naavpr93]

If you use your fitbit for swimming, and you go swimming almost every day. Do you have any care before or after swimming? I am afraid that the clorox may deteriorate the watch.

Thank you

[Natalie01]

I have recently tried it with swimming and it worked fine. The color in the band has not lessened. If your worried about the band I’d suggest buying a sports one and switching them off. The only problem I’ve been having is how easy the screen scratches and cracks. I’ve had mine about a month now and by the scratches and cracks you wouldn’t be able to tell, more like a few years. I was more then willing to pay for a screen fixture, but Fitbit doesn’t offer any. The best you can get is a new one for 25% discount. So as far as swimming goes, versa is fine in the water as long as you put it on swim mode using exercise icon. It is like water lock for Apple. Just be careful not to hit it while swimming to avoid cracks and scratches.

[Undies]

Yes I have been using my watch for swimming, it has since died after the Firmware upgrade I am waiting for a new watch from Fitbit it is on it's way the lasttime I looked it was in Hong Kong. My watch was less than three months old, so it is being replaced at no cost. But it was working well before the upgrade.

[Undies]

I always make sue that the watch is cleaned after swimming, I dry it as soon as I get out of the pool and then when I get home I wash it under cold fresh water. Good luck and happy swimming

[naavpr93]

Thank you so much! When you say that you dry the watch after swimming, do you just take off an let it dry it by itself?

[Undies]

No I dry the watch with a towel

[wannabeslim2019]

I'm a swim teacher and have worn mine in the water every day now for 2.5 hours each day for 2 weeks  with no issues. I do, however, make sure I wash it with fresh water after each session as pool chemicals can corrode all sorts of materials. I've not been in the sea yet as it's a little fresh out there at the moment but I would expect the same and be sure to wash it after with fresh water.

[Natalie01]

I just use my towel to rub it off then set it out for about 5 minutes. It works well.

[ReeferPan]

Due to having a limit, it can't be called "waterproof". If you look at  professional diving watch, they are "water resistant" also, though to varying meters.  

[andrewgar]

Bought Versa a week ago and took it for a swim for the first time. Laps, distance and style detection are OK but sometimes i think it assigns Freestyle instead of Butterfly. 

What is totally disappointing is huge underestimation of HR (bpm) and due to that the amount of burnt calories. Imagine 40min swim by athletic bodybuilder with weight 230lbs doing each 2nd lap butterfly smim => 97 bpm, 327 Cal. Ridiculous!

And i just went here http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php put the numbers Fitbit has provided for distance and time, put Misc style and got 634 Cal.

And you know what? The only reason i am with Fitbit is the fact that its "mental model" is very close to Microsoft Band. Microsoft has declared total discontinuation of Services for Microsoft Band this month. I had a waterproof version and for 40 min of swimming, same style, it showed me exactly the numbers 650-700 Cal. The heart rate was around 150. Whatever way they used for HR calculation it was much more reasonable than Fitbit's. I guess i will start researching to find a more reasonable watch with swimming support. HR during other sports seems OK.