Fitbit Surge watch has red LED light on faceplate

[OGN]

After three years of use, a red LED light came on the faceplate of my Fitbit Surge watch. I followed every suggestion to rest it without results. I contacted Fitbit support and they told me that I've done everything they would suggest, could not help me turnoff the red LED light and can only offer me 25% discount on a new Fitbit watch.

So if you're in the market for a sport tracking device and don't plan on replacing it every three years Don't buy Fitbit products! I plan to wear my Surge with red LED shining brightly until the watch dies and when asked what's this explain that it's a glitch in Fitbit product and recommend to anyone who asks not to buy their product unless they're looking to replace it every few years!

[Rich_Laue]

This is usually a hardware failure of the blue/green led for the back light 

[OGN]

Thank you for your response. The blue/green LED light on back is functional and provides accurate heart rate count. I've examined Fitbit help site, talked to their technical support without much help. My point is don't buy Fitbit product unless you expect to replace it every three years and don't expect much support from Fitbit support! 

[Rich_Laue]

Both of my brothers have surge fitbits, one is one is 4 years old. the other is 4.5, both are still working strong. 

My one brother recently changed his band on the Surge. 

[OGN]

You're missing the point. My Surge is working but has a bright, red LED light shining on it's faceplate. That makes it impossible to wear. No one in the Fitbit community offered a workable solution, you indicated it's a hardware failure and Fitbit technical support can't help me. Fitbit wants me to buy another watch from them...and offered a 20% discount. Only an insane person would buy any of their products with that kind of support or solution unless they want to replace it every 3 or 4.5 years per your account!

[Rich_Laue]

Actually no the first Surge was received within a month of it being released so yes it has been 4.5 years and still going strong. The 2 month older Charge HR is also still going strong with only slight wear on the band. Only time will tell if and when it fails. Personally I feel the battery should be near the end of its life expectancy, I base this on the expected life span of a typical lithium battery. however the tracker still gets 4-5 days. 

As for the other one, my brother has not said anything about why the band got destroyed, maybe he dropped it in water, like his phone. to many times .

So yes in 4 years he spent $8USD to replace the band. The tracker itself is working perfectly and the damage would be considered cosmetic. 

Even my 6 year old Fitbit Ulta is still chugging away .

Yes Fitbit can not help because it is a hardware failure and your tracker is outsidevofoits warranty .This should be very easy to understand. 

You yourself mentioned that your tracker is outside of the warranty period. 25% is a pretty good deal considering almost every other company would say tough luck, you will need to replace at full retai cost.. I guess only an insane person would ever by any product of any type from any company, considering they all deal with customers worse than Fitbit does. When was the last time you got a car for free from the manufacturer after your warranty was up? Volvo did not replace my car with 600K on the odometer when a connecting rod broke. Yes I know the warranty was up 20 years ago, but that really should not matter. Once a warranty is up, it is up .

Yes electronic hardware does fail and most people expect failure with their computer. If they did not expect failure, backup software would not be needed. BTW the typical computer gets replaced every 3-4 years, and the Fitbit on your arm is simply a computer. Thecsame goes for that $1000 phone that gets replaced on average every 2.6 years. When my phone died in 17 months, the company said I could replace it at full retail price. Sorry the warranty was only 12 months.

Sorry I just dontdounderstand the mentality of saying that a company is expected to honor a warranty that has expired .

As for your bright light, I explained this in my first post, as a hardware malfunction. It is your Red Green Blue backlight LED with the Green and Blue not working.

A simple search of the forum would have given you your answer without even asking. Just look for solved threads. 

As for the community of Fitbit users able to give you a working solution, there might be a hardware hacker that might be able tell you how to take the Surge apart and replace the damaged hardware. This would be the simplest fix, but impossible without knowing how to desolder/solder SMD's, which I do have a little experiance with and still would not try. 

For the community suggestions for a fix see

Red LED lightsuddenly ON and can’t off it...

Red light onsurge

Surge showingred light