Class action lawsuit claims Fitbit's heart rate monitoring isn't accurate enough
A new class action lawsuit is accusing Fitbit of misleading shoppers about the heart rate sensors in two of its flagship fitness trackers, the Charge HR and the Surge.
The case was brought by customers in California, Colorado, and Wisconsin, according to The Verge. An official complaint states that the devices' heart rate sensors are inaccurate by a "significant margin," especially during serious exercise.
One plaintiff was said to have bought a Charge HR specifically to monitor her heart during exercise, but found it didn't work well. Fitbit allegedly refused a refund after she complained.
In a statement Fitbit said that it "strongly disagrees" with the lawsuit, claiming that its technology provides "provides better overall heart rate tracking than cardio machines at the gym" since it operates round-the-clock and not just during exercise. It side-stepped the actual accuracy issue, noting that its trackers "are not intended to be scientific or medical devices."
As a rule, wrist-based optical heart rate sensors -- including the one on the Apple Watch -- are not as accurate as alternatives like chest straps. They can potentially be disrupted by a number of factors, such as a loose fit or even darker skin tones.
In 2014 a lawsuit accused Fitbit of misleading advertising for its Force fitness tracker, since a number of owners complained about developing rashes. The Force was pulled and replaced with the Charge, to which the Charge HR is an upgraded sibling.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for injunctive relief, as well as damage payments to compensate dissatisfied customers.
Just this Tuesday Fitbit unveiled the Blaze, its first device with a color touchscreen. A mediocre public reception cause the company's stock price to drop several dollars.
The case was brought by customers in California, Colorado, and Wisconsin, according to The Verge. An official complaint states that the devices' heart rate sensors are inaccurate by a "significant margin," especially during serious exercise.
One plaintiff was said to have bought a Charge HR specifically to monitor her heart during exercise, but found it didn't work well. Fitbit allegedly refused a refund after she complained.
In a statement Fitbit said that it "strongly disagrees" with the lawsuit, claiming that its technology provides "provides better overall heart rate tracking than cardio machines at the gym" since it operates round-the-clock and not just during exercise. It side-stepped the actual accuracy issue, noting that its trackers "are not intended to be scientific or medical devices."
As a rule, wrist-based optical heart rate sensors -- including the one on the Apple Watch -- are not as accurate as alternatives like chest straps. They can potentially be disrupted by a number of factors, such as a loose fit or even darker skin tones.
In 2014 a lawsuit accused Fitbit of misleading advertising for its Force fitness tracker, since a number of owners complained about developing rashes. The Force was pulled and replaced with the Charge, to which the Charge HR is an upgraded sibling.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for injunctive relief, as well as damage payments to compensate dissatisfied customers.
Just this Tuesday Fitbit unveiled the Blaze, its first device with a color touchscreen. A mediocre public reception cause the company's stock price to drop several dollars.
Comments
Define how accurate it needs to be. These are not like a EKG machine and measure with scientific accuracy of each and every heart beat. These people are nuts or OCD. They are an average approximation at best. What I read was most of these devices tend to read a little high since higher is better so you not over work, and the calories burn is shown as lower so people do not expect to loose weight if is showed higher or eat more because they thought they burned more.
I have to say the Applewatch is pretty good, but from time to time it gets a bad reading, how do I know well saying my heart rate is 30 when on the treadmill running I know is wrong and also when it says it is 250 and I am not about to pass out.
Just this morning during my entire work out it said my heart was stuck at 76. I ended up blaming it on the watch not being tight on my wrist and the App I was using. I was not using the Apple app for heart rate as soon as I did and made sure the watch was tight against the skin it gave me a reading which appear correct for what I was doing.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/under-armour-ua-health-box,news-21941.html
Garmin's Vivosmart HR is a bit overdone IMO but with included GPS it does make a great and reasonably accurate tracker and notification features can't be beat.
Edit: The Vivoactive includes GPS. The Vivosmart does not. My bad.
But seriously, no one should expect absolute EKG precision from these things. But that also makes them sort of useless. I mean, if all you can count on is "I'm exercising, so my heart rate seems to be up" do you really need a costly device to tell you that? If the almost passing out isn't enough to make you think that, just rest your fingers gently against your neck and feel it racing away. Your estimate should be in the same ballpark as the device.
it will make sense when it will be, at least, close to EKG. Currently, devices with that chest strap thing seem to work much better.
My complaints with the Charge HR are its failures with syncing and incorrect time display. My wife's unit will never do the all-day sync and is very stubborn to sync when manually invoked -- most of the time it fails. Fitbit admits they have had a problem: http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/What-s-wrong-with-my-Charge-HR/?
This wrong. I train 6 days a week and use a Garmin forerunner 235- wrist based HR- It is as accurate as any strap I have used. In fact, DC Rainmaker.. I site that tests fitness products has actually done extensive comparisons of the wrist based and strap and sees very little difference. HR is just a tool. Is it spot on? likely not, but how can anyone say its not.. When I used a strap- I had lots of spikes and drops. On training rides or runs of 2 hrs or more- or in a race (Triathlon) the strap stops working when it gets soaked with sweat.. If you work with your device, it should be pretty accurate. If I see a spike or a drop.. I may re-position or tighten the watch and strap and this always fixes it.. I have no experience with the Apple watch.. cannot swim in it so its useless to me.. My wife has a fitbit and has never complained.
I use the Fenix 3 with a Mio Link. I own the Garmin HRM but really don't enjoy using it for riding the bike and it isn't even capable of being used for swimming. Like you note, I'm pretty good about knowing what represents an appropriate heart rate vs level of exertion and if something seems off, you just make a quick adjustment.
All tech gear has caveats. This lawsuit is ridiculous.
On a side note, how do you like the 24/7 monitoring of the 235? Do you use it at all and at what rate does it sample?
That is not accurate... Check this site out and read the reviews.. Read the review of the Garmin 235 and how he compares the wrist based to chest strap.. I have used both extensively and my HR numbers register the same with both..
http://www.dcrainmaker.com