Fitbit Charge 3 and scuba diving
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Yes I know the GPS is only a dream for now I think garmin has a dive computer that does some tracking on the surface. But I'm wondering about the heartrate and altimeter sensors.
d_thomas02
New
Notes from my SCUBA trip to Cozumel, Mexico, Feb. 2019.
---
My Fitbit Charge HR 3 which is advertised as water resistant to 50 meters (150 ft) is not happy with me.
Did a shallow checkout dive Sunday, the day I arrived in Cosumel, with no issues. It recorded heatrate etc. I do wear a neoprene wrist brace over the tracker to protect it from knocks and transient high pressures from swimming. Then Monday did two dives; the first to 80 ft and the second at 40 ft, again it recorded heartrate etc. with no issues.
Some time over night the display died, but the tracker is still functioning and syncing with my phone so OK, I can live without the display. Did four more dives on Tuesday. 90 ft, 40ft, and then a twilight dive at 80 ft and a 50 ft night dive. With the exception on the screen, the tracker did its job.
Then again some time over night, in the wee hours of morning, it decides to stop syncing with my phone. I can tell the tracker still has some life in it. Green laser that measures your pulse is active and when you press the touch sensitive "button" it gives the vibration response to show it registered the touch. But other that the seven steps I took some time in the early morning hours, its not giving me anything.
---
Funny thing happened after the first leg of my flight back to the states on Saturday. Arrived in Atlanta, made it through customs and still had time to get something to eat before starting my second leg. Logged my meal and noticed I had additional calories due to exercise. What?!?
My Fitbit linked once I had turned airplane mode off. Linked and downloaded ALL the info it had accumulated over the last week as I had continued to wear it 24/7 during the rest of the diving. Display is still not functional as of this morning (made it back home before the snows started, yay!) but I can live with that until the roads clear.
---
Another funny thing happened today (Tuesday). Went to the big box electronics store where I bought my Fitbit to see about a replacement. Guy I talked to said that a lot of the HR3s were having issues with the display going black just like mine had, but since I was past the return with no questions date (30 days? 60 days? I didn't ask) I'd have to deal with Fitbit's customer service directly.
So I call the number the guy had given me, expecting the hurry up and wait game to start, but was answered quickly. Went through the normal handshake routine; name, phone number, what's the issue, repeats it all back to me, yes, good, OK, does green light on bottom work, yes, does it vibrate when I hit the button, yes, Ok, let's try a hard reset. OK, plug it into the charger and hold the button until the smiley face appears, 10 seconds or so... OK, sure, why not....
WHOA!!! The smiley face came one, and now I can see the display,... wait, there's a couple of pixels in the upper left that look out of place, OK, do the hard reset again, OK, why not. Yup, smiley is back and...
Yup, that did it. Display looks like it should. No need for a replacement at all.
Weird. Guess the pressure of the water at 90 ft caused the touch/display screen to hiccup. Still not sure what the deal was with the sync issue for a week but doesn't look like it was caused by water leaking into it. All of our phones were acting up strangely requiring us to restart them almost daily to reset some issue. Who knows? Just glad the Fitbit is working, apparently no worse for the wear of seventeen dives as deep as 90ish ft.
---
My Fitbit Charge HR 3 which is advertised as water resistant to 50 meters (150 ft) is not happy with me.
Did a shallow checkout dive Sunday, the day I arrived in Cosumel, with no issues. It recorded heatrate etc. I do wear a neoprene wrist brace over the tracker to protect it from knocks and transient high pressures from swimming. Then Monday did two dives; the first to 80 ft and the second at 40 ft, again it recorded heartrate etc. with no issues.
Some time over night the display died, but the tracker is still functioning and syncing with my phone so OK, I can live without the display. Did four more dives on Tuesday. 90 ft, 40ft, and then a twilight dive at 80 ft and a 50 ft night dive. With the exception on the screen, the tracker did its job.
Then again some time over night, in the wee hours of morning, it decides to stop syncing with my phone. I can tell the tracker still has some life in it. Green laser that measures your pulse is active and when you press the touch sensitive "button" it gives the vibration response to show it registered the touch. But other that the seven steps I took some time in the early morning hours, its not giving me anything.
---
Funny thing happened after the first leg of my flight back to the states on Saturday. Arrived in Atlanta, made it through customs and still had time to get something to eat before starting my second leg. Logged my meal and noticed I had additional calories due to exercise. What?!?
My Fitbit linked once I had turned airplane mode off. Linked and downloaded ALL the info it had accumulated over the last week as I had continued to wear it 24/7 during the rest of the diving. Display is still not functional as of this morning (made it back home before the snows started, yay!) but I can live with that until the roads clear.
---
Another funny thing happened today (Tuesday). Went to the big box electronics store where I bought my Fitbit to see about a replacement. Guy I talked to said that a lot of the HR3s were having issues with the display going black just like mine had, but since I was past the return with no questions date (30 days? 60 days? I didn't ask) I'd have to deal with Fitbit's customer service directly.
So I call the number the guy had given me, expecting the hurry up and wait game to start, but was answered quickly. Went through the normal handshake routine; name, phone number, what's the issue, repeats it all back to me, yes, good, OK, does green light on bottom work, yes, does it vibrate when I hit the button, yes, Ok, let's try a hard reset. OK, plug it into the charger and hold the button until the smiley face appears, 10 seconds or so... OK, sure, why not....
WHOA!!! The smiley face came one, and now I can see the display,... wait, there's a couple of pixels in the upper left that look out of place, OK, do the hard reset again, OK, why not. Yup, smiley is back and...
Yup, that did it. Display looks like it should. No need for a replacement at all.
Weird. Guess the pressure of the water at 90 ft caused the touch/display screen to hiccup. Still not sure what the deal was with the sync issue for a week but doesn't look like it was caused by water leaking into it. All of our phones were acting up strangely requiring us to restart them almost daily to reset some issue. Who knows? Just glad the Fitbit is working, apparently no worse for the wear of seventeen dives as deep as 90ish ft.
Sweetangel
Registered
did you wear it on your wrist? I wonder what would happen if you wore it on your ankle? I might buy a used one to test that out!!
wish me luck!
wish me luck!
FezUSA
Contributor
Didn't have the guts to take mine UW on the last dive trip. I wore it most of the time topside and took it off when suiting up. My thoughts on this were based on the fact that Seiko has watches rated for WR where the R is "resistance" not "resistant" but state that 200m WR is NOT for SCUBA diving!! If you want to dive with it then you need a "diver's" rated model. The understood reasoning behind the difference is one of motion. An object sitting at a given depth needs less WR than an object in motion at the same depth. Furthermore the difference is quite significant, apparently!! I was never sure on the accuracy of this or whether it is marketing BS of the dive watch makers to get you to buy the usually more expensive watches!!
You will always find people that have taken gear not specifically rated for SCUBA diving to depths only accomplished by diving or dropping in the ocean and that the gear either continues to work fine or recovers. My youngest son forgot to take off his $35 Casio with a WR of 50m, something not 'officially' rated for anything more than the shower or surface swimming in a pool. Twice. It still works just fine. Thankfully he didn't push any buttons though.
As for replacement under warranty. That will be hit or miss depending on the company and the individual CSR and whether they actually call out the difference between the depth rating and actual diving.
Water Resistance | FAQs | Customer Service | Seiko Watch Corporation
Water Resistant mark - Wikipedia
You will always find people that have taken gear not specifically rated for SCUBA diving to depths only accomplished by diving or dropping in the ocean and that the gear either continues to work fine or recovers. My youngest son forgot to take off his $35 Casio with a WR of 50m, something not 'officially' rated for anything more than the shower or surface swimming in a pool. Twice. It still works just fine. Thankfully he didn't push any buttons though.
As for replacement under warranty. That will be hit or miss depending on the company and the individual CSR and whether they actually call out the difference between the depth rating and actual diving.
Water Resistance | FAQs | Customer Service | Seiko Watch Corporation
Water Resistant mark - Wikipedia
Damselfish
Contributor
Water resistance rating of 30m is nothing. Rule of thumb I’ve always used is divide by 6. I wouldn’t dive with a Charge 3. You might get lucky, you might not. (With a lot of things if a particular unit was put together more carefully it might do ok but if theres a sealing ring that was assembled sloppy not so much. I’ve actually seen this in identical flashlights.) You also might or might not get lucky with Fitbit customer service depending who you talk to.
I’ve never gotten the impression serious water resistance was a big priority for fitbit. (The instructions with one of my earlier fitbits said something about 1atm/30ft, doesn’t give the idea enough people involved understand the basics.)
I’ve never gotten the impression serious water resistance was a big priority for fitbit. (The instructions with one of my earlier fitbits said something about 1atm/30ft, doesn’t give the idea enough people involved understand the basics.)
You can take it down and it might work. It might not.
As others have said water resistance is a different thing to "diver rated" watches. If you scuba dive with a water resistant watch, you are using it outside normal working conditions. If something goes wrong and it can be proven to be something out with normal conditions, your warranty is null and void. Whether they can prove it was used outwith normal conditions is a different matter - I have no idea if they can log pressure at depth.
As others have said water resistance is a different thing to "diver rated" watches. If you scuba dive with a water resistant watch, you are using it outside normal working conditions. If something goes wrong and it can be proven to be something out with normal conditions, your warranty is null and void. Whether they can prove it was used outwith normal conditions is a different matter - I have no idea if they can log pressure at depth.
Sweetangel
Registered
I am well aware that a water resistant watch pretty much means you can splash with water and expect it to work.. not for diving. And salt water is more of an insult than fresh water. but.. I'm going to try it next week. I'll post results. lol
Damselfish
Contributor
I've found devices least likely to fail if I just don't care. I used to have an old Fitbit HR I wore paddleboarding and anytime I might wind up in the water. I didn't care if it drowned, in fact was looking for an excuse to buy a new one. I considered it waterproof - it never went swimming. 
(I almost ran over it with my car after paddleboarding but it escaped that fate as well.)
(I almost ran over it with my car after paddleboarding but it escaped that fate as well.)
TheCoolBeans
Contributor
My flex2 has been down to 60metres a few times and is regularly at 50m I’ve never had a problem.
however...
If you dive a drysuit without a separate inflation bottle AND you use trimix, then the helium that ends up in your suit temporarily kills your Fitbit!
Ive had 2 ‘die’ on my in these circumstances only to come back to life about a week later once they’ve had a charge.
apparently the helium does something to the sensor. 
however...
If you dive a drysuit without a separate inflation bottle AND you use trimix, then the helium that ends up in your suit temporarily kills your Fitbit!
Ive had 2 ‘die’ on my in these circumstances only to come back to life about a week later once they’ve had a charge.
apparently the helium does something to the sensor.
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