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Comment by zzzeek | Hacker News Reader

this is kind of a trivial question but is the apple watch HR monitor known to be better than that of FitBit? I got a Charge 3 for Christmas and I barely even wear it anymore, as it would say things like "95 bpm" when I'm working out and I'm clearly at around 135 bpm. you can say things like "oh wear it higher / lower / tighter" whatever but if it's that prone to being 40 bpm off the mark, what use is it.

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In my experience, FitBit Charge HR 2 was useless. Same issue with you where it would 40 bpm off or provide no reading at all.

Apple Watch 3 was pretty bad too. It would give inaccurate often enough that I couldn't use it for training in a heart rate zone. For example, I'd be walking for warm up and it would give a reading of 160 at the beginning, then back down to 110, then 10 mins later back to 160. I can't imagine the Apple Watch being a medical device with lives depending on it.

Garmin 935 has been great. It has the most accurate HR and GPS readings.

this is the thing I wonder if the mechanism by which wrist-based HR monitors work (seems to be optical) is just not effective for some people, for some physiological reason.

An electrical engineering friend who did some hardware development work on these a few years back suggested that noise in the observations was a fairly significant challenge. Seems the devices use a lot of data smoothing to counteract this.

My cardiologist has looked at it when I'm hooked up to a full 12-lead EKG and has noted how pretty solid the measurements seem to be. If it's on a slightly looser setting, sometimes it initially catches only half the tempo for a second, but then locks in. This is on an Apple Watch 4.

my Apple Watch series 2 is quite accurate. I've hooked myself up to a cardiac monitor (I'm a paramedic, and sometimes do this as an equipment test anyway) and it was spot on.

My Apple 3 is dead on unless I'm very sweaty or wearing it loosely (it only needs to be snug). Confirmed with my BP monitor and my Garmin's chest strap (before I retired that system).

I'm a runner so it gets a bit upset when my resting heart rate gets below 50 but other than that ...

One-off comment, but the new band has really improved HR detection for me. I went from the rubber strap (with holes every centimeter or so) to the adjustable velcro strap and it's night & day. It went from being 100% useless on runs to _actually_ keeping accurate detection the entire run.

What do you mean by the velcro strap? Is it the "Sport loop" (https://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/4982/as-images.apple...)?

Exactly that.

Thanks for sharing. Just bought one :)

I haven’t had this experience. I can push my heart rate up to about 165 running uphill. Considering my age, that’s pretty close to what my maximum HR should be. Conversely, I can get it down to about 45 when sitting very still. Much lower and I’d be unconscious.

It’s possible yours was just faulty. Fitbit aren’t known for their quality control.

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