Heart rate inaccurate on Fitbit Sense

[Cameronoates]

Hey 

is anyone else experiencing huge heart rate inaccuracy during exercise with the sense? 

During exercise with the sense it won’t ever get above 120bpm for me 

but if I use my charge 4 during the EXACT same exercise my heart rate is between 145-170bpm in the cardio zone 

It’s extremely disappointing and I don’t want to have to switch to my charge 4 everytime I exercise to ensure accurate heart rate 

defeats the purpose of having the sense 

seriously one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Tgisele]

@UnguruBulan I have been a loyal Fitbit user since 08 or 09, and right now pay for the premium service, which expires in June, unless this problem is fixed I will not continue after that and will switch to another brand.

Since posting earlier, I synced my Sense and while it was off my wrist I got 9 minutes of peak minutes. It must have been working hard while I was showering. 

[Guitarplayer]

Hello @SilviaFitbit can you please let us know how the investigation of the Fitbit team is going on as per your best answer dated nearly 3 months ago and after more than one year since the start of Sense (and versa 3) sales, that are however still being sold?

I thank in advance for your honest and transparent answer that your are going to provide.

[ykmks0921]

Hi, 

Considering this post was made in September of this year and I purchased my Sense in November that has this exact issue, when can I expect this to be resolved? I have yet to get my heart rate above 120 during a HIIT workout. 

Thank you 

[TommyIzzo]

Got it now. Never mind. Y'all want an update to the accepted solution. 

[whiskeytango]

Yes, @SilviaFitbit, please let us know. I went ahead and returned (unopened) the Sense I purchased as a gift from Fitbit's Amazon store because after reading this forum I feel I'm better off waiting until Fitbit gets its act together. The reported customer service and heart rate monitor problems are a huge dealbreaker. 

The honest and frustrated reviews in this thread as well as the milquetoast responses from you and other moderators lost you at least one sale from my household. And I'm really wondering where my Luxe keeps coming up with all the extra footsteps...

[ccor22]

Recently purchased December 2021 and this still seems to be an issue! I've reached out to Fitbit and no resolve as of yet that I am aware of 

[ccor22]

To my knowledge no resolve with inaccurate reading as of December 2021! Just crazy.

[ccor22]

Just curious if there are any updates to this heart rate not being accurate during excercise issue that Fitbit is obviously aware of since inception.... I've done all the things including a walk through with a Fitbit moderator which none have worked. Wildy unacceptable in my opinion.

[NazH]

I've reported this issue recently, I've only had my Sense Fitbit since 3rd December. And noticed the HR is not as accurate as my Alta HR, also very disappointed.

It might be best to make suggestions on https://community.fitbit.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/features - I've made a couple of suggestions, like making Active Minutes available for Sense. 

Better yet, complain on Twitter, it might draw to their attention. 

[LizaMc]

Hi.. I eventually returned it.. I'm using an old Versa that actually got
water damaged and terraced, but the replacement also had a heart rate
issue... They just seem to give you all the links to things you already
know and have tried... so I'm using a broken one that at least records my
workouts more accurately... Seems the newer ones have more problems..

[NazH]

Appears that way. Did you return yours to Fitbit or did you get it from somewhere else? 

[UnguruBulan]

@NazH just making sure, you're up to date with the software running on the device, yes? (the current version is 44.128.6.12). the reason I'm asking as I got my Sense just a week ago as well, and the heart rate reading seems alright.

[NazH]

Yes, it is up to date. The heart rate does not appear accurate as my Alta HR. 

[UnguruBulan]

@NazH thanks ... it's hard to reach to a conclusion in regards to this problem, it appears to me there are some decent and also not too good Sense devices out here, on people's wrists.

[opiatedsherpa]

I have had my Sense for well over a year, didn't give the heart rate issues a second thought, before I started to track it myself and I was shocked.  I spent some time with the Fitbit Support bot and it shared this link...

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186.htm

The early results have been positive, but it took a long time to get there.  I wish I knew about it sooner!

[SunsetRunner]

I think this is a software and not a hardware issue. Restarting did not work for me. Here are two examples of why I think this (I am a software developer/system analyst).

1. I start the exercise app>bike. I get on bike and ride for 40 minutes, same route I had ridden the day before (HR av was 142). I get off bike, stop the exercise (bike) check the stats, average HR 82 (lower than when I got on the bike, definitely incorrect). I exit the app and my normal clock face shows my HR at 136 and I immediately go into the fat burning range (0 zone minutes for the ride, but 6 for the cool down walk/put bike away).

2. I begin a ride (using the exercise app>bike) and don't feel the vibration indicating I have entered an HR zone... I stop the bike, check my HR it is 86 (incorrect). I end the ride, exit the app, once again clock face shows HR at 134 (fat burn starts at 131 for me), restart exercise app and complete the ride. I have two rides, one with av HR of 84 and the second 138.

I also do not use the app but wear the watch when I am on an indoor rowing machine and the HR is inline with what I would expect it to be.

Because FitBit has this problem as 'solved' (by restarting - not) I think we should start a new thread and ask for volunteers to check their HR  while exercising and using the app/not using the app and exiting the app/check clock face, restart app.

I suspect, from reading all these posts that it has something to do with a sudden increase in HR... the app, like many apps that track changes, flags changes which are >X% in Y seconds... fails the test and reverts to last HR (as is the case when watch is not being worn/recharging).

Any thoughts? I would like to see them address this but because this is 'solved' on this thread they won't. I started a thread the other day but all the traffic remains in this one.

I have the latest OS ... 6.12.

Thanks,

Mattie

[t.parker]

@SunsetRunner Sense sometimes gets it right, most of the time it doesn't. It's irrelevant whether it's an issue of software, hardware or both. If it hasn't been addressed until now then I highly doubt it will be ever fixed. Fitbit has no solution to it and most likely it won't have. I have posted here plenty of comparisons based on raw data. Here, two more:

Short spinning:

Blue - PolarH10, Orange - Fitbit Sense

Here Fitbit is almost right but not good enough as it's steady-state cardio. Sense shouldn't have any issues with tracking this kind of activity, yet it has (still, this is quite a good result compared to many other steady-state workouts I compared). On G....n I tracked it as indoor cycling, on Sense as Spin.

Bouldering (climbing):

Blue - PolarH10, Orange - Fitbit Sense

Each blue spike aligns with a single ascent (then rest and next climb and so on). Sense just recorded whatever it wanted 🙂 Both activities have been recorded last Friday.

There is no pattern here. It just doesn't work with some exceptions when it does. No rule, no special way of wearing a watch, not even a special type of activity. I had two Sense watches and both experienced the same problems with tracking HR. Personally, I don't think this will be solved at all (or it's even looked into by the company).

[UnguruBulan]

GPS takes too long (in my opinion) to connect on my Sense too. It sucks, because it makes me wait before I start my exercise.

As for the HR reading, so far I think it's accurate enough. I have this Sense for 1 week only so I'm guessing I shouldn't get too excited yet.
So far I've done a few walks (average bpm 110), an outdoor intensive run (avg bpm 159) and a few treadmill moderate runs (avg bpm 145).

I only used the app (on my old IPhone 6) to set it up, whenever I start/stop an exercise I use the device.

[IgorR11]

here since before this topic is marked as resolved, and of course we do not agree because the error persists. We are always active here, although we have already lost hope. But you can mark this new topic here so that we can increase the traffic needed to get the proper attention of the fitbit team.

I agree with you when you say it's a software bug, but I don't know what makes it so difficult to have a fix for this problem, lack of trained people?
But anyway, we just want a solution for a watch that will become obsolete, because the technology used is already lagging behind and an essential function that is not corrected.

[SunsetRunner]

t.parker, thanks for sharing two sources of data... in my youth when I lived in Colorado I bouldered and climbed frequently (no longer have the upper body strength to pull my now fat **ahem** up).

Today, for the first time I had my heart rate plummet during a ride (from `140 to 80 something). I tried restart, no luck and the clock face reading was inaccurate as well when I shut down the exercise app, but, rather quickly rose from the 80s to 128 no app. I ultimately finished the ride without using the exercise app and I believe the HR is accurate.

Interestingly, this occurred on a segment I normally push myself hard to get my HR above 150 (I'm 50 something, so that is about as high as I go) and I've done this segment several times in the two weeks I've had the watch and I normally enter the peak zone for a few minutes; not today: (end of ride, when I first shut the app down).

The line showing 133bpm is when I started pushing hard and there is no way my HR decreased, let alone into the lower 80s.

You are correct, it is irrelevant if it is hardware or software if it will not be fixed and due to the fact that they dropped the price below that of a Versa I'm guessing they've thrown in the towel on the fix and want to deplete inventory.

I bought mine on AMZN and my return window is still open.

Thanks,

Mattie