Fitbit Sense and Heart Rate

[mperry9701]

I just bought the Sense and noticed the heart rate monitoring is way too low.  My Ionic was much more accurate.  Has anyone else noticed this?  

[Mannbrad]

Any moderators gonna coment on this thread to assure their consumers there is a fix on the way??

[jh064]

Fitbit won't even acknowledge that there is a problem so good luck on that one.

[Mannbrad]

I know. I just got done chatting with them and the representative told me he knows nothing about it and does not know when the next firmware update is going to come out and if it will even fix it. This tracker Is going back

[hwally]

Did they offer a replacement ? Surely this can’t be affecting every single device !

[Mannbrad]

Its my second one. It is effecting a lot of them. If you search the Internet and this forum you will see the heart rate is not good. Versa 2 and charge 2 Were much more reliable and accurate. For $300 I expect it to be at least as accurate as the older models

[Giampi71]

As far as I can see the issue is not sporadic but affecting every device. It also appears to be software related rather than hardware so hopefully an eventual properly done update could solve it.

[MrQ50]

Same issue. My heart rate is way lower than what registers on my other devices during intense workouts. I have to stop moving then about a minute later, my heart rate stabalizes and become inline with my galaxy watch. I have a Charge 3 that is also much more accurate during intense workouts. I don't want to return the watch however I do intense heart rate training and I need accurate data.

[Mannbrad]

Mines fine at walking speed but jumps up to 140 at a lite jog where my polar h10 is reading 103. Please fix this fitbit!!!!

[sousbee]

 How could I get 38 zone minutes with a max HR of 68?  In 11 hours.  I must tell my ♡ doc it isn't helpful.  I hope the arrhythemia study Fitbit is doing illuminates some of our issues...

[Mannbrad]

Exactly what mine does. Fix it fitbit please!!

[Guy_]

A fun experiment I'm testing, for when the watch is not displaying a reasonable heart rate value.

To set it up, it requires temporarily setting the screen time out to 60 seconds and switching to the Today app to see heart rate.

Then when you have an incorrect reading slide a piece of paper between the watch and wrist to block heart rate detection.

The value quickly turns to  --.

Leave it there for a while then raise your wrist to start the screen viewing timeout and remove the piece of paper.

After around 10-15 seconds you get a reasonable heart rate value displayed, which may last for a short while if you don't move.

You might like to see your watch actually working correctly!!

Have not yet perfected the experiment.

[sousbee]

does anyone have any idea which highest hr recording is accurate? the
heart app during exercise or the exercise app on walk? yesterday during
yoga i registered 143 on exercise app and 114 on heart rate app. i guess
it could be a momentary spike but the numbers dont really ever match up and
its worrying me. i need a garmin. i need a finger pulse while moving
around. this lovely watch is stressing me and that makes my heart rate
worse.

[Mladen90]

@sousbee 

Activity's graph is showing heart rate every few seconds or every second while the daily graph is showing average heart rate with intervals of 5 minutes.

In the daily one you will not see spikes of 1-2 minutes or less.

[DangerDorsey]

[proxieme]

I found this thread via a Google search & I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one.

It seems to do fine when I'm not active, but falls all apart when I am. 

From today: 

There's just no way that my HR was higher during a my ten minute Yin yoga cool down than when I was crushing myself on the elliptical. 

(The elliptical's hand sensors - which I admittedly don't usually consider terribly accurate - consistently had my HR at between 145 and 160 and that seemed much more on point than what my new $200+ smart watch was saying.)

I'm pretty annoyed. 

I do about more searching before returning this, though - if it's a software issue, I'm willing to stick it out for a bit, but if the hardware's shot then I can just say that I'm glad that I got my Sense at Costco. 

[BCPacificRunner]

I traded it in for a Garmin Felix which was 500 on sale for 350 at Best Buy
and it’s amazing! The app is all in one place like Fitbit (I had an Apple
Watch and hated how you had to download a bunch of different apps to track
everything individually) and it is actually wayyyy more detailed + it
partners with this under armour app (“myfitnesspal”) that makes it super
easy to track calories cause you can literally scan the barcode of anything
(literally anything) and it will tell you your calories or just take a
picture of the meal on the plate and it will estimate it, and then compare
that with the amount of active + passive calories you’re burning that day,
and they stay in sync.
My Garmin has a ~8 day battery life - the only thing that took a day to get
used to is that it’s not touch screen, there are buttons on the side.

Honestly I was a Fitbit man but they really soured me by not even
acknowledging that the HR thing is an issue or reaching out to me when I
had questions - but now I would never go back even if they bought my Garmin
off me and gave me a free Fitbit.

If you make the switch you won’t regret it

[jh064]

After 6 years I traded in my fitbit for a Garmin Forerunner 945 and I love it.  It was more expensive but was it really?  I don't have to pay for a premium subscription and the thing actually works.

I may have hung in with Fitbit, but like yourself, their failure to acknowledge a problem is what chased me away.  The BS answers customer support gives is disheartening.

The fitbit sense was the greatest marketing device for Garmin I've ever seen.

[thatssoketo]

Has anyone received a replacement and the issue is now resolved? 

Basically having the same issue as everyone else, seems to track fine for jogging... but for weightlifting, crossfit, etc., it's way off. 

I've cross tested this with other HR monitors, and wore my gf's Versa as well. 

[Chrish612]

Got my sense 1 week ago. 4th workout lifting and I barely get over 100 bpm. Previously used the charge 3 and my max hb used to be 156 with average about 125-130. The sense is max 130 with average around 100 and a lot less cals burnt per workout. Disappointing- this is supposed to be their flagship product!

[DangerDorsey]

One can only assume that it must be a big problem if they won’t  even acknowledge that it’s a problem on their side. Once they admit it’s a problem then the clock starts ticking for how long it takes them to fix it. The longer they take to acknowledge the problem gives gives them more time to fix it without scrutiny. For me I went and bought an Apple Watch. I strongly dislike having to charge the Apple Watch every day but let me tell you something the data is legitimate.