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.

[Cameronoates]

it’s not even close to accurate, possibly the most disappointing device I’ve ever experienced after having high hopes 

I don’t want to have to switch back to my charge 4 every time I exercise to get accurate heart rate measurements 

[Cameronoates]

Yep it’s massively off, really really frustrating and disappointing had high hopes for the sense 

I don’t want to have to switch to my charge 4 everytime I exercise so I can get accurate Heart Rate, massive waste of time. 

hope it gets fixed somehow. 

[Beezy1978]

Considering it is now working exactly as it is supposed to?

im keeping it!

[Beezy1978]

Mines fixed, here’s hoping all y’all’s get fixed too!

[Wassermann80]

How is yours fixed?

[Amanc1990]

Hi what did you do to yours to get it working? Have you tried it when going above 150bpm?

[roxyqueen01]

Hey yes, I've had my sense for almost a week now and its been bad ever since. I do HITT training and it was horrible during the whole work out. I go to f45 and we have a strap monitor that we use and our heart rate is on the TV screens so I could compare the two. WAY OFF.... not even close. Then this new button feature on the side made my work outs pause and just quit all together. I'm so frustrated with it. I called fitbit today to send me a return label...I cannot use this new fitbit if it turns off my work outs when Im working out!!!! VERY DISAPPOINTED 

[SunsetRunner]

@DavideFitbit sorry to loop you in, but can a Fitbit moderator please acknowledge this thread and let us know what Fitbit plans on doing about this?

Should we return our devices or will this issue be addressed via a software update ?

[SunsetRunner]

@Tanya2020 did restarting help?

[Tanya2020]

Unfortunately, it didn't help. 

I did my usual Body Pump Class yesterday evening and the watch keeps registering quite a low heart rate compared to my previous Ionic devise.

As I already restarted them several times, I texted to Customer support again and now they advised me to reset the watch.

Let's see if it will help, I will run another test during my yoga session tomorrow.

I've also noticed that I'm getting some active minutes during the walks, so I assume the heart rate is working ok during active walking or cardio workouts.

I'm also wondering if everyone else has this problem or it just affected a small group of people including myself...

[dmiles]

You have to pay shipping to return their defective product. Wow this company has done a 180 in terms of how they treat customers. So I paid to have them ship me a defective product, wasted way too much time being put on hold, and had to pay to ship it back. Never again Fitbit, never again.

[dmiles]

Thanks! I'll have a look. My Polar chest strap has been great!

[dmiles]

With my 4 year old Ionic:

With my brand new sense, after factory rest, and new software download:

This thing just gives up at higher heart rates. Not interested in paying $350 to be an alpha tester. 

The "peak" at 147 was after I gave up, and got off the machine. I went ahead and let it run, just to see if it would ever start accurately tracking again.

[dmiles]

The only way this thing gets "fixed" is to keep your heart rate below 110-120. I really liked the other features, but had to move on.

[enext]

I am returning Sense, this is unbelievable. Absolutely useless for me. 

[enext]

Hi, how did you get it fixed?

[dmiles]

I didn't. I sent mine back. Got a Tickwatch Pro3 on order. It's brand new on the market as well, hope I don't just end up doing the same thing all over again. time will tell I guess.

[caha460]

I have had a few Flexes and multiple Surges over the years - several purchases and myriad warranty replacements along the way due to the faulty bands on Surge. A couple months ago, I finally purchased an Ionic and immediately experienced the well-documented HR issue: HR fails to climb during strenuous activity, yet it skyrockets when walking or lifting weights, so it was time to contact Customer Support.

Unlike with my Surge issues, this time around, the customer support experience left much to be desired. Over and above the fact that some folks read off a script without any regard to what you are actually saying, I could not - under any circumstances, even after offering my CC number - get them to process a replacement without receiving my current Ionic. This was never an issue with prior warranty replacements, and I was frustrated with the situation, as I would've had to do without a tracker for at least two weeks - first world problems, I get it, but there is a reason we've all purchased some sort of Fitbit device.

Anyway, I was ready to purchase a different brand device when the Sense was announced, and I decided to go for it. Fast forward to this week. I've been using the Sense for several days and a good 8 or 10 workouts, and the HR problem is WORSE than with the Ionic (that I am about to exchange now, given that I am not tracker-less). I otherwise like the Sense OK, though am not in love with it by any means.

I love the Fitbit app and have years and years of data that I would hate to lose and/or have to transfer (assuming I can). However, I am, frankly, tired of troubleshooting crappy hardware from Fitbit, and at this time am dreading another interaction with some folks who've been less than helpful (including a manager I recently corresponded with). I will follow this thread and also try some resets, but chances are I will eventually return it and buy a different brand (eyeing Garmin, at the moment), as I feel like I've had enough. It is a real shame that this HR issue is happening yet again, sadly tarnishing all the other neat features and statistics that Sense aims to offer.

[Beezy1978]

Honestly I don’t know, but it’s fixed! 
i gave up on it after a frustrating bike bide, that didn’t record accurately at ALL. I re-linked my Versa to my account. Since my return window was closing, I decided to give it one last try, and voila! It works! I did restart it, but idk if that’s what fixed it or not. I’m just glad it’s working now! My exercise logs were SO sad while it was t working, but now everything is great. I hope you guys’ get fixed too, contact support perhaps. I did for stress score and heart rate inaccuracies during exercise. Mine’s now working, so don’t give up!

[Wassermann80]

For me there is no fix.

I tried factory reset and/or reconnect the sense to my account. Nothing helped.

Hoping there will be an update within the next two weeks. Otherwise i will have to return the sense. 😢