Anyone else's heart rate WAY OFF during exercise?

[dmiles]

I have had an Ionic for years, and I've gone through many cycles of it failing, and getting a refurb, then that one failing, getting another refurb, etc. Obviously the product has some serious defects, but Fitbit has stood behind it in impressive fashion, in my opinion.

So I thought I would take a chance on the sense. I like the features, and consider it a good value for the features it has. However, I have found that while on my elliptical at nearly full resistance, the heart rate monitor is way off. 

With my Ionic, I would get readings in the 150's to 170, which tracked very well with my chest band. Even so well, that I quit wearing the chest band. 

With my Sense, while working out, it never goes above 110, then it falls back into the 80's. After I stop working out, the heart rate actually goes up, into the 130's, and then appears to track correctly. I have tried wearing it loose, and tight, and it makes no difference. Obviously, this makes the device unusable. I did contact support, and they had me do a reset, and re-download the firmware, but come on, we knew that wouldn't work, which it did not.

They gave me a reference number, and I will be getting back in touch with them on Monday.

So I'm just checking to see if anyone else has seen this with their new sense, as I have not seen anyone post this in this forum. Kind of hard to imagine what could be defective that would only cause this issue, only while exercising.

[softwareupdate]

Yeah I’m in the same boat too! 😞 I’ve been doing my at-home workouts these last few months with my Fitbit Charge and recently switched to the Sense. I’m tracking my exercise as Workout.

I am usually able to get up to cardio/fat burn levels, but today, I didn’t get any active minutes doing the same workout. 

[Sxraxis]

Ditto. It under reports mine, and it keeps freezing mid-workout... not to mention that placement on the side button is terrible. It triggers constantly while working out (probably why its freezing).

[SunsetRunner]

@Sxraxis  I deactivated it. It was activating Alexa the whole time while working out. It froze my watch several times. Now it gets triggered but it does nothing as I removed any function attached to the side button.

It's a hardware placement so they cannot do anything to fix it.

[Wassermann80]

Me, too.

The same in the german community:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Sense/Genauigkeit-Herzfrequenzmessung/td-p/4520289/page/3

[Chronoswiss]

Same problem here I rowed with my old Charge 2 always in the fat burning or Cardio but now it's half of the rowing time under the zone!

[Tanya2020]

I contacted the customer support yesterday with the same problem and they just advised me to restart the watch. 
I’ll keep tracking it but if it stays the same I have no choice but return it as for me heart rate tracking is essential. 

[girlWithaSense]

Lol, for me says heart rate over 120 even when i'm sitting on the couch doing nothing. Of course i compared that with a medical device and my pulse was (DOOOOH) 74. Fitbit Sense is just a HUUUGE disappointment for me.

[Dubbelsch]

Same problem.

[Jadeis]

Same for me. I've had a polar for a few years and it was right on track with heart rate. Now it is always much lower than any other device... It doesn't even record when it does go higher than 120... Didn't even record anything higher than 80 while at the hospital having a stress test ECG on the treadmill!... Very deceived... Yeah thinking of returning it too... Hasn't been able to read SpO2 for 2 nights now....

[Lazywalker]

I think you’ll find hundreds of posts on the sense forum describing the same issue

The sense seems to have major problems tracking heart rate

[Jmitchell10]

Same here. It tracks when I’m doing a spin class up to a 150 after that, it says it’s below zone. Super frustrating because el like to see when I’m in my peak zone.

[SunsetRunner]

Known issue. 

Lots of posts about this.

I cba to take the sense back (although still well within warranty time). I'll be going back to a Fitbit Inspire 😔 but for £300 and the ongoing reported issues i.e Spotify offline playback, restarting complaints and so on.. it's just not worth the price.

[Lansuper]

My Sense seems to be accurate with heartrates until 130-140 bpm. But at higher rates it doesn’t follow. At ECG confirmed heartrates of 170 and higher it won’t register higher than 150 bpm. Wearing it tighter around the wrist and higher helped to avoid gaps in tracking, so it would seem that the reading capability is ok.

[Beezy1978]

 

Guys, my Sense was the same, I was going to have to return it tomorrow, that’s when my 15 days was up! However, I restarted it, and it’s working FANTASTIC now! I’ll attach a pic if I can, then another of the exact same workout last Thursday, when I gave up on my Sense and put my Versa back on. Since I wanted to give it every possible chance, and return window closes tomorrow, I reinstalled the Sense to my account, and Restarted the watch. It is now more accurate than my Versa, and my Versa was DEAD ON.

Restart it, and try a workout! Good luck! 

[Beezy1978]

 

This is the EXACT same workout last Thursday, before I restarted it. 
Try it, you’ve nothing to lose, and everything to gain. 🙂

[Beezy1978]

The Restart fixed mine! How about you? I posted screenshots of my two identical workouts and the crazy difference between before I restarted it and how accurate it is now. Try it! 😎

[dmiles]

On the phone with Fitbit support, getting pushback about being able to return this thing. What a terrible way to treat customers! Unbelievable!

[dmiles]

If you read my original post, you will see where I stated that I did a factory reset, and downloaded new software. It's still as bad as it ever was, and I was put on hold several times trying to get a return authorization. 

Even with all the problems I had with my Ionic, I still was a fan of the company, but no more. I don't know if Google messed everything up after they bought them, but I will never consider another Fitbit product, ever again.

So, what is everyone switching to after this fiasco?

[Weishen17]

Go with the polar vantage, it's alittle more but it's the best heart rate tracking!