During exercise sense reports highly inaccurate heart rates

[ShirazAhmadKhan]

I have been a Fitbit customer since last 6 years. I have used Charge HR, Charge HR 2 and Versa. All of these worked pretty fine. My versa died all of a sudden, few days back. I decided to go ahead with Sense because the product has been in the market for last 2 years. I was expecting that Fitbit would have sorted out all the bugs and issues by now. It was selling at significantly lower price than the launch price. The 6 days battery life is really an impressive feature.

Today I used the sense for the first time in the gym. I was surprised that during the whole workout, the sense was reporting heartbeat below the fat burning zone.

As can be seen in the graph below, the average bpm reported is104. This is ridiculous. I performed strength training and most of the time I could feel my heart beating hard. 

Then I worked for 13 minutes on elliptical bike. This is a cardio exercise and within couple of minutes, I reached cardio zone. But the sense has reported 8 minutes below zone. Fortunately the elliptical bike had the heart rate sensor. I could see my heart beat on the elliptical bike, hovering around 150 for the whole period, whereas on sense it was less than 110. Towards the end of the exercise, the sense reading jumped all of sudden from 110 to 150. 

I wore the watch tightly enough that it was not moving in my wrist.

After going through the community posts, I don't see any solution to inaccurate readings.

It has been just two days and I was enjoying the experience until I used the device for exercise. The inaccuracy is too large to ignore. It renders the device useless for me.

I am not sure if Fitbit can fix this issue via software update in future, because this has been reported since long. If it is a hardware issue I expect Fitbit to issue me a refund or give me a properly functioning device.

Please let me know the process for refund or replacement. I live in India.

[Guy_]

Hi @ShirazAhmadKhan  - if you look in the forums heart rate during exercise is a general issue so replacement won't help.

You can normally get a refund from the shop for 30 days or 45 days from Fitbit.

Once returned try a Versa 2 it will give you better heart monitoring during exercise as it uses the same technology as a Versa but with slightly better battery life.

[ShirazAhmadKhan]

Would still like to hear the official response from Fitbit. Do they have any update or they want us to keep waiting (i.e. switch to some other brand) ?

[ShirazAhmadKhan]

After this post, I received two messages from moderators:

- one saying that legal discussion is not allowed

- another saying that mentioning moderator actions is not allowed

The moderators are screening each post carefully. But they have not bothered to reply to my issue.

Dear Fitbit - I could have bought a smart watch at 5% of the cost of sense, with all the sense features. But when one buys a premium product like fitbit sense, there are some expectations. A basic expectation is that the device will be accurate. Another basic expectation is that proper support will be provided for the product. You guys have failed in both these basic expectations.

[LokeAa]

In my experience, I have to wear Sense higher on my wrist than I had to with Charge3 to get accurate heart readings.

[ShirazAhmadKhan]

I tried many approaches:

- Wearing on the inside of the arm

- Wearing higher on the arm

- Wearning on the different arm

No luck - same inaccurate HR (lower readings), below the zones

[Guy_]

@ShirazAhmadKhan  - doesn't really matter where you wear it, and shouldn't, it won't make much difference. See similar posts on inaccurate heart rate when moving. It's to do with the purepulse 2 sensor.

[LokeAa]

Where you wear it does matter. If you wear it too low, you risk losing contact between watch and your skin when you bend your wrist. Light slips in and disrupts the green led lights measuring changes in the bloodstream.

[SunsetRunner]

It’s a very well documented issue with the Sense. Wish they would fix it but doesn’t seem like it will ever happen. 

[Guy_]

You can try wearing it in different positions but the results will still be inaccurate.

Shouldn't a watch  be worn comfortably to the user's satisfaction rather than constraining the user to some unnatural wearing habit which in all likelihood is not maintainable for long.

[SunsetRunner]

Doesn’t matter where you wear it (I’ve tried every different position imaginable!) the HR Monitor is way off during workouts. The technology doesn’t work!!

[ShirazAhmadKhan]

Called up fitbit customer care (case number 46236608). She said they are aware of this issue. They will provide an update on the application. But she was not sure when. She asked me to wait for a month.

This issue has been reported by some of the customers. 

This issue has come from versa 2 onwards.

[SunsetRunner]

Hope and wish this is true that they are actually looking into this. Highly doubt it since it’s been going on for over a year….not keeping my hopes up.