Water resistance up to 50m so they say..

[Hobbzy64]

If the Fitbit Versa 2 is water resistant up to 50m, how come the last 2 I have had can’t even survive in less the 1 meter of water…

The 2nd Fitbit I had ,I used on and off  in sea water for about 3-4 months before it gave up.

The last one I had lasted less than 2 hours before that gave up too…..

Question is do I even bother buying another Fitbit or go to a different brand…?????

[t.parker]

@Hobbzy64 There was always some indication of poor quality testing of Fitbit devices (some users with more than one replacement device within a year or two are reasonably good evidence of that). I had many swim sessions with my Sense 2, which hasn't failed (not hardware, its swim tracking ability is a different story). I showered with it, too. I got rid of Sense 2, went back to Sense, and had a couple of swims with it already; it works so far. The only Fitbit that has been damaged by water was my old Ionic (which was advertised with its swim tracking feature). It was damaged in the shower (the display got corrupted but after drying out it continued working and I managed to revive it to claim a refund during the recall). So it's a lottery, I guess. When I take Sense or Sense 2 into my hands, they feel like cheap plastic toys. And indeed, the quality isn't great (easily scratched so I had to stop using my devices for rock climbing, not made for extreme sports). When I get into the pool with my Garmin watch, all I think about is the execution of the training plan. I know it's unlikely it will have a hardware failure. When I take my Sense, I look whether it still works 😄 (although, after many swims with Sense 2 I built some trust for it, eventually; I need probably more swimming with Sense to start trusting it can handle it).

[Talahthas]

Welcome to the Fibit community, @Hobbzy64!

Sad to hear about your experiences with your Fitbit devices.
Being a watch nerd, I've learned about the differences between "water resistant" and "water proof" at the very beginning.
Wearing a device being claimed to be water resistant means you have to take care about some things if you wear it in water and especially after having worn it in water. Please have a look here for details on Fitbit's advices:

Can I swim or shower with my Fitbit device? 

Following these advices is even more important if you're swimming in open water with your device as water pressure might vary a lot. Also do not press any of your device's buttons if it is wet.

And keep in mind that a device which is rated "water resistant for 50 meters" is by no means capable to be used as a diver's watch for this depth.

[Hobbzy64]

With the Last one, I never got to the "After" bit.

The problem I had was when I was in the water.I wanted to know the time, But the watch was somehow showing me the Weather. 

And I tried to get it back to showing me the time....... So pressing the side button, might not of been the answer.... 

[t.parker · Accepted solution]

@Hobbzy64 there are two issues. It seems like you didn't use Swim activity while in the water. The Swim is the only activity on Sense 2 that has a water lock (which simply locks the touch screen). The reason why you saw Weather was that water produces "ghost" touches and randomly navigated through UI. I recorded once a video in this thread about moist and touch screens. In other words, you should always use Swim activities if you get into the water to avoid such behaviour of the watch. Fitbit doesn't seem to acknowledge the need for a system-wide touch lock so using Swim is the only option.

The second issue has been pointed out by @Talahthas . It seems like you pressed the button in the water and that might have caused getting the water inside. Unlike sports-dedicated watches, Fitbit doesn't require pressing a button while swimming (the button serves no other purpose than unlocking the watch at the end which can be done after drying hands/watch) so the protection of that button against water pressure may be weaker (as it's an event unlikely to happen)..

[DramaQueenDiva]

First of all, you should never ever wear your devices in salt water.  Salt water contains salt, which is a corrosive substance.  It's possible that the salt could get into the watch and cause corrosion, as has happened to some of my underwater cameras, even when sealed properly.  In my case, I didn't dry out my camera in time after the excursion and salt stayed under the buttons, making them malfunction.

Second, there's  difference between waterproof and water-resistant.  Water-resistance means that the device will be protected to a certain degree, but not entirely. Waterproof means that it will be protected entirely.  Washing your hands while wearing the watch is fine, it's when you start wearing it in the shower (due to the chemicals in the shampoo, soap, etc.) and swimming where things can get iffy.

I do agree with both @Talahthas and @t.parker that there seems to be two issues.  My understanding is that once the device is programed to "Swim Mode", like @t.parker pointed out, there will be a water lock that gets activated on the watch.  This has happened with my Inspire 2, and it will activate the protections around the side button and other open areas (such as charging ports) so that water doesn't seep in.  If it's not activated until you're in the water, then it may be too late, as water could have already gotten into the watch and is now trapped.

[Dopovo]

@DramaQueenDiva The water lock simply deactivates the touchscreen to avoid unwanted touches. To say that it activates sealing on the charging port and side buttons is pure science fiction.

[t.parker]

@Dopovo true and I don't think Fitbit would add any sophistication to the water lock while struggling with getting some basics right 😉 My wife's Galaxy Watch 5 has a system-wide water lock and additionally, when unlocking, it "spits out" moisture from the speakers 🙂 I think Apple Watch does the same. It sounds as if the watch was choking 😄 System-wide water lock would be handy on Fitbit devices but that seems unlikely to be implemented. That makes me think the Fitbit testing process is non-existent (do you remember the first Ionic which came with Swim without water-lock? As if nobody tried to use it in the pool before releasing to the market).