I got my first Fitbit as a Christmas gift in 2014. It changed my life. Before I strapped on my Fitbit Flex for the first time, I truly thought I was an active person who was overweight. My Fitbit showed me in black and white that it simply wasn’t true. The truth was that I had become sedentary. I was only getting a few thousand steps each day. It took a lot of effort to get myself to the 10,000 step mark, and I wasn’t consistent with that for quite some time. But my Fitbit and its app motivated me to keep going even when I felt like quitting. My step count got higher, and I became consistent. Nowadays, walking is a deeply ingrained habit.
The big drawback to the Fitbit is the expense. A pedometer is a simple device. You can get one for a few dollars at Wal-Mart. Fitbits, on the other hand, are rather pricey. I tend to be frugal, and I want to get my money’s worth out of anything I buy. So when my first Fitbit died just outside of the warranty window, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I started using my cell phone as a pedometer, and that was just as accurate. It was slightly inconvenient, because women’s athletic shorts generally don’t have pockets. But ultimately, I missed having a Fitbit. I missed the badges. I love badges. I don’t know why. I know they’re digital and so it mystifies even me that I find them so motivating. But motivate me they do. And motivation is important when you’re trying to change your behavior, and your life in general.
Eventually I bit the bullet and bought another Fitbit. This time it was an Alta. I did a review of it here. At that point, it had been 6 months since I had started using it, and I had already had to contact customer service after 2 weeks of use to get a replacement charging clip, which had broken for no apparent reason. I made a video of how to repair it, in case you ever find yourself in the same position. Fortunately, after that initial hiccup, nothing went wrong. And now, another year has passed, and the question is, how is it holding up?
The Good
Overall, the Fitbit is functioning very well. It syncs with no issues, it still holds a charge, and it doesn’t misbehave in general. My husband was gifted an older Charge HR and it has lots of bugs. This leads me to believe that overall, each Fitbit iteration gets a bit better and the experience is smoother.
The Bad
The wristband has started popping apart. I do not understand why this is a point of failure for Fitbits. My Flex needed a new wristband after about 5 months of wear, and then again a few months later. I ended up buying a pack of off brand wristbands in bulk, and they worked okay. Some of them popped apart immediately, some lasted longer. Eventually I bought a slightly higher priced off brand replacement on Amazon, and it worked smashingly. And then my Flex died.
But back to my current wristband. I first started having this problem about 2 weeks ago. I used some superglue on the knobs where the wristband attaches to the actual Fitbit device. That worked fine for 2 weeks. But as of today, it started popping apart. I plan on re-gluing it tonight in the hopes it will buy me a few weeks, but it looks like some wristband replacements are in my future. It will probably be these: Wekin Replacement Bands.
The Ugly
My Fitbit is just not as pretty as it used to be. I still find myself banging it against doorways and such. The screen has lots of scratches. It also has some smears of superglue, because, well, I’m a messy gluer.
The Verdict
I still love my Fitbit, and despite its initial cost (I paid $128 back in December 2017), it’s worth it. Even if it died today, its cost would only be about $7 per month. I will always be grateful to Fitbit for the motivation it has given me over the years. The 100,000 step badge, in part, sparked the idea for the fundraiser for Jezza’s well.