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how accurate is hr in charge hr?

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mylittleangel8910
mylittleangel8910 Posts: 2
in Social Groups
Does anyone know how accurate the charge hr is as far correctly giving hr reading?

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  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    It varies, and there is no way to know ahead of time how it will work for you.

    It's not EKG accurate, because it doesn't use electrical impulses to read HR, it uses light reflectivity off veins near surface of skin right under the watch.
    That may or may not work great for you.

    Most seem to see pretty good at lower HR's where the info is purely for curiosity, not used for calorie burn calc. So sleeping, walking around, daily stuff.

    Exercise seems to find several problems. Either not reading high enough as the HR is actually going, missing sections of time as activity causes it not to read well at all, or others where it reads lower level workouts fine.

    That's the part that just depends, and you'd have to have an actual HRM to compare with to discern.
  • Sherriediva1
    Sherriediva1 Posts: 345 Member
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    I have 14 days to take mine back so I will probably wear my chest strap for the next 5 days' worth of workouts to check....that info is somewhat disheartening...
  • abartraw3
    abartraw3 Posts: 6
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    I check mine against the fitness equipment at the gym and get similar readings. Again, its not EKG accurate but is a decent estimation, I think.
  • indianwin2001
    indianwin2001 Posts: 296 Member
    edited March 2015
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    abartraw3 wrote: »
    I check mine against the fitness equipment at the gym and get similar readings. Again, its not EKG accurate but is a decent estimation, I think.

    I agree with this statement--Its pretty accurate as compared to both my garmin forerunner 220 and my polar 60
  • Robbnva
    Robbnva Posts: 590 Member
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    Compared to my polar chest strap it was over by like 50/60 calories. But my strap is an older polar model so its possible the newer polars are more accurate? Its close enough for me to not deal with the strap anymore, especially since the strap always comes undone when I jog
  • kelfran1
    kelfran1 Posts: 1,213 Member
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    Ditto everything @Robbnva said. I checked my HR against my Polar when I first got it and they were both similar in heart rate and calories used so I don't bother with the Polar any more.
  • browneyedgirl7928
    browneyedgirl7928 Posts: 910 Member
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    At my appointment last week they did vitals and I had my Fitbit Charge on. Their machine had my HR at 107 and the FitBit had my HR at 106. I'd say that was pretty close and was quite pleased it was so close.
  • akdetweiler
    akdetweiler Posts: 38 Member
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    I just got a charge HR and started wearing it a week and a half ago. I love it and find the HR is accurate for me at all activity levels, even intense exercise. I have worn a HR monitor in the past, and the burn rate is right on target. The only time I have found it a little wonky is after exercise when I know my heart rate has come down, sometimes it still shows a higher rate, but this doesn't last long enough to worry about it throwing things off.
  • dannyoneillmfp
    dannyoneillmfp Posts: 11 Member
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    Pretty good. Ive been testing mine by manually taking my pulse and its spot on.

    It can loose it when working out hard but this is better by moving the FB higher up on your wrist. I then use a sweatband to keep it in place.

    Fitbit themselves say that this can happen and to stop, let it take a reading and it then uses some calculations to figure out your rate during those blips.

    Something to also note. Normally it takes a reading every 5 seconds but when the watch is in excercise mode (by holding down the button for 2 seconds) it changes to checking your pulse every 1 second for more accurate readings.

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