Inaccurate Heart Rate

[josephwallace24]

I am very displeased with the heart rate tracking. I will be panting during cardio with the aerobic sensors in the 180-190 range and my Fitbit Sense registers around 130, sometimes much lower. It has been incredibly unreliable to track anything beyond resting heart rate. I used the troubleshooting such as wearing it higher and tighter on my wrist and even switching to my dominant wrist. I expected so much more with a health tracker with “fit” in the name. I would return but I am past my 30 day window. It also stopped tracking my sleep and other nighttime measurements. I’d generously score this “top” product at 2/5.

[Murray67]

You're treading down a very well-worn path. The PurePulse 2.0 devices (Sense and Versa 3) have had notoriously bad heart-rate tracking since release, and Fitbit doesn't seem inclined to fix it. There are many threads on this forum complaining about this issue. The Sense's HRM is fine for just sitting around or low-intensity activity, but just craps out entirely during any significant exertion.

I upgraded from a Versa 1 to a Sense, and immediately noticed the difference during walking and weightlifting. While the Versa didn't do well at high heart rates, it at least recognized that something was going on. The Sense just completely failed to read anything out of the ordinary at all. At one point, having completed a set of heavy bench presses, the Sense told me my heart rate was 60 bpm. But most of the time it would go into the low 100s, and rarely anything above that, even if my heart was racing.

That 60 bpm reading was the final straw. I returned the Sense, and went back to the old failing Versa, which was an immediate improvement. Then this past weekend, the Versa's HRM finally gave up the ghost, and I went looking for a non-Fitbit alternative. I ended up buying a watch from Fitbit's biggest competitor. This watch is only $50 MSRP more than the Sense, but the difference is just night and day. The HRM is far more accurate than any Fitbit I've used (Charge 2, Versa, Sense), it offers far more functions (and actually explains them), and the amount of customizable data it provides is just astonishing.

Which raises the obvious question: Why is Fitbit allowing its competitors to eat its lunch? They spend years developing a new HRM technology, put it into their two flagship watches, charge a premium price for it, then just sit around for over a year when it doesn't work properly and long-term users depart for a competitor's ecosystem. And all Fitbit Customer Service will do is offer useless advice to move it further up your arm (where the capacitive button will constantly be triggered by your skin) or something to a similar level of ineffectiveness. It's almost as if they're just waiting for Google to take over, fire most of the management, and right the ship.