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

[budomama82]

I've noticed that during my casual walks with my dog that heart rate goes from 80-90 down to 42 all of a sudden. It's as though I randomly fall asleep during the walk. Pretty dramatic failure of HR accuracy. Moving to WHOOP to compare 

[Brendån]

Next time you notice this, sync your device, then shut it down and restart it. 

I've started doing this every time now. It must be software slowing down over time, failing to accurately count. Needing a restart to free up resources again. A working theory anyway. I keep waiting for the fix patiently. 

[DeftClutz]

This has been an issue with all their watches for months now, and I've had my sense for literally 4 days.

Their marketing is simply misleading and they are willfully not correcting this.

[kamaya86]

Yep since January,. Blame google

Get Outlook for Android

[iWearKneeSocks]

I was also having issues w/ like registering 1-3 floors before I even got out of bed in the morning. Fitbit is doing a replacement, which will likely not fix the problem. I’ve been waiting for over a week and a half since sticking it in the mail and fedex still hasn’t delivered it to fitbit, and they won’t ship a replacement until after it’s received. I’m likely w/o my device for 3-4 weeks by the time the new one arrives... and will probably still be having issues. 

I have an aria 2 and have been using fitbit since 2012... until this point have I never been willing to break my relationship w/ fitbit and switch to an Apple Watch but I’m so frustrated when it comes time to upgrade devices I probably will switch.  

[DeftClutz]

I think our best bet at this point our best bet is to start reporting fitbit to consumer protection agencies. Misleading advertisements are illegal.

Of course, this will end up being deleted soon lol. 

Uts fine, I'm returning my device for refund today

[Pauli008]

Sharing my experience:

We thought my FIL had passed away, but couldn't be sure as we could not be certain he stopped breathing and still couldn't feel a pulse, so I strapped my Sense on him and it showed he's got a 112 HR (very high for a dead man) even though the Sense had been off my wrist for about 10min while I was doing CPR.

[iWearKneeSocks]

1 that’s awful, I’m sorry 

2 mine has been in a box for two weeks being shipped back on warranty and is still registering a HR 

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[kariley14]

I am having the same issue.  Very disappointing.

[SunsetRunner]

Sadly apple watch also has issues that started from series 3 of heart rate inaccuracy while exercising. If you go the subreddits on Reddit as well as the Apple community forums you will see people with issues. I came from Apple watch myself in hopes of something more accurate. Best thing is a chest strap still. 

[t.parker]

@SunsetRunner so Apple has that advantage - it can pair with BT chest straps.

[Giampi71]

@SunsetRunner one thing is to have a sensor that is slow to react to rapid changes and a different thing is to have a random number generator (even at rest)

[SunsetRunner]

I cry for the $300 for this Fitbit. So many problems reported all over the forum. The HR sensor is bad, end of story. I wonder if they learned their lesson for the next model. They can't keep disappointing like that every year.

[Mina99]

Was this issue ever resolved, or did you return or stop using the Fitbit Sense? I'm having this issue with a Fitbit Sense that I ordered last week 5/2021. It's so disappointing. My Charge 3 has a more accurate heart rate than the Sense when I'm wearing one on each wrist. I look like an idiot!

[iWearKneeSocks]

It’s been over 3 weeks since I sent my fitbit in for a replacement under warranty (mine was the HR but also floors were messed up) and I still haven’t gotten the replacement yet. Should be here next Monday... so a full month after sending mine in. No guarantee this will fix it since it seems to be a software issue. I’ve had mine too long to return it. But chances are when I’m ready to upgrade I’ll switch from using fitbit - which is sad... I’ve been w/ them since 2012 using different devices. I don’t know what I’ll switch to because someone else said they switched from Apple Watch because it was also super inaccurate. 

I feel like since most devices other than even sense started having issues after a firmware update... fitbit could at least address the issue and let us know if they care enough to try fixing it. But I dunno. 

[Mary_Westcliffe]

Returned mine. No issues other than I had to pay shipping to Fitbit. --
Sent from Gmail Mobile

[Itsmetara78]

I returned mine for a refund and got a Garmin, works like a charm and looks even nicer.

[Silverback007]

yesterday 
HR Fitbit 120 max

Apple Watch 142. 
consistently these differences. 
the fit bit platform is so good compared to apple. Why don’t they address this issue instead of just acknowledging it and doing nothing. They ve had plenty of time. A complaint might kick them into action. I’m based in EU so might try do the same. Best of luck. 

[t.parker]

@Silverback007 Fitbit never really acknowledged the issue and will never do so. Just because some people from customer support say one thing it doesn't mean anything (and very often they contradict each other). The HR reading on Sense is so bad that I would rather do what I've done with my old Suunto watch (which suffered the very same problem) - turn wrist HR entirely off and save some battery life. However, with Suunto, I had an alternative option to using an external HR sensor during exercise which was fine for me. Fitbit, with no alternative, cannot admit something is an issue as long as there is no fix on the horizon and so far it doesn't look like there is one (I even doubt anyone is looking into it, Fitbit usually is busier with releasing new models than fixing old ones).

[pjruggeri]

I had the opposite problem. My resting heart rate went up! I have hovered in the 50bpm range for years. Switched from the versa to sense now it counts my resting rate at 90 all the time. It’s not 90….it’s still in the 50s. Absolute garbage.

No they refuse to admit it’s an issue. 

Moderator edit: merged reply