Elevation Inquiry

[Ngcyclist]

I just did trail MTB with my Surge for the 1st time. Need some clarification if anyone could help me...

1) i found the elevation gain shown on fitbit web dashboard is Not accurate. My friend's Garmin data shown an Elevation Gain of 599m and fitbit's Elevation Gain displayed in TEXT shown 180m but the little elevation fitbit chart seems like over 250m and below 500m. My floor registered as 69 floors which is 690 feets or 230m. Does it meant Fitbit only capture Max Elevation but not Total Elevation Gain?

2) does my cycling count into my steps data?

I found the watch is good just the elevation data is really way off....

Thanks friends

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[VivisFitbit]

Welcome to our Community @Ngcyclist! I'll be happy to help you with this. Your Surge can be used on high altitudes (up to 9,144m). And It can track your activities without  any issue. Your buddy has an altimeter that detects if you're going up and your Surge will register a floor for any 10ft. 

Your Surge only tracks the steps you go up since it wants to give you credit for the effort it requires.  Rest assured that it will give you steps for the floors you walk down. To be honest, I'm not sure about the way your friend's Garming tracks this information . 

Your biking activities doesn't count into your steps data since this activity provides Speed, Heart Rate, Heart rate and Calories burned. I'm sure you'll do fantastic!   

Have fun!  

[tinkster]

Hi NgCyclist,

I'm finding the same thing. The value for elevation (gain?) is completely

off when cycling; for me it's as bad as only 20% of the actually ridden track.

That's comparing the e.g. 30m FB gives me to 190m according to map (and

my Suunto's GPS).

[VivisFitbit]

Hey there @tinkster! I'll be happy to investigate a bit more about this. Please be so kind to provide a screenshot to check this discrepancy. I appreciate your time and patience. 

See you latter! 

[nunocosta75]

Hi All,

i just did a bike ride thi weekend and when i tried to see on the dashboard the elevation gain it showed me 3m which is almost nothing...in my endomondo app shows me 465m of elevation gain wich is the real elevation and it's correct.

I think that fitbit APP is doing something like Total Ascent - Total Descent wich gives you something near to 0 if start and end your workout in the same place.

Other thing that woul be great is to see the total ascent live in the watch during the bike ride.

I only use the watch for bike because is the only sport i do, but right now in my opinion it's not a great watch for bike.

[VivisFitbit]

Hello @nunocosta75 This is really interesting. Please be so kind to provide me with a screenshot of this issue. We'd also like to know if you're sitll having issues with these readings. 

See you soon! 

[bbarrera]

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@VivisFitbit wrote:

Hello @nunocosta75 This is really interesting. Please be so kind to provide me with a screenshot of this issue. We'd also like to know if you're sitll having issues with these readings. 

See you soon! 

---

@VivisFitbit this has been reported and discussed many times on this forum. As far as I know, its still broken.

Pics of the issue:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Elevation-Accuracy/m-p/726109/highlight/true#M14075

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Surge-Bike-Mode-let-us-know-your-thoughts/m-p/978882#M32146

Other reports:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Surge-Bike-Mode-let-us-know-your-thoughts/m-p/978266/highlight...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Inaccurate-elevation-gain-stats-with-Surge/m-p/980240

Simple search:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?filter=labels%2Clocation&location=foru...

[SunsetRunner]

Or, for that matter, why two identical runs can have vastly different elevation graphs, starting at different elevations, with different elevation gains (both of which should be 0, since out and back should cancel out)?

[Ngcyclist]

See the 2 files. 1st graph 51m elevation gain from fitbit dashboard (but
vertical Y axis shown between 200-400). 2nd graph 1874 feet (around 625
meter) from Strava where the data extract from fitbit data as i have link
my Strava to fitbit.

[nunocosta75]

As you can see in the pic the elevation gain was 3 m on 25KM bike run:

[VivisFitbit]

Hello  @SunsetRunner, @Ngcyclist and @nunocosta75. Thanks for reporting this. Rest assured that our team  is working to resolve this as soon as possible. 

Thank you @bbarrera! 

Let me know how it goes! 

[Ngcyclist]

Thanks. Is it possible to add in *auto paused* for speed calculation
function when we stop for a rest and *auto resume* when we start moving
again?

[VivisFitbit]

Welcome back @Ngcyclist!  You can find the "Lap" option on your Surge under running, but this is only when you run and currently this option is not available on biking mode. Feel free to voice this wonderful idea in our Feature Request board. Good luck on your biking activities. 

Hope this helps! 

[spenceridge]

I have a Fitbit Surge.

I hike the same exact 4 mile trail regularly....I use the hike/exercise mode.

Elevation Gain reported during 7 hikes in July are 1329, 1420, 1180, 1220, 1240, 1329, 1594.

The average "elevation gain" for the seven  is 1330 feet.

I threw out the 1594 and the average of six was 1286.

That is not pinpoint accuracy....but you could say the "elevation gain is around 1300 feet for the hike.

Update:  I just read that the Surge uses an altimeter to determine elevation...and not the GPS.  That explains the variance.

[spenceridge]

When I was at the highest point on the hike...discussed in my previous contribution, the Fitbit Surge showed 97 floors.  I walked down the hill...it showed 99 floors.  A little while later, it showed 104 floors.  There was no uphill...all downhill.  When I finished...again...mostly downhill, the Surge indicated 138 floors.  

Therefore the surge counts downhill as elevation gain.

Is that by design?   Is that correct?  I'm trying to understand how everything works.

Therefore #2....I would say that the Elevation gained would be half of the 138 floors/1380 feet or 690 feet; Elevation lost would be 690 feet.

I think that the Surge gives credit for UP and DOWN.

Is that correct?  Thanks again

Thanks!