Fitbit Aria

Not worth the premium price – Have owned the Fitbit Aria scales for a couple of years, and of course now that it is out of warranty, it has stopped working and keeps showing an error message despite me spending an inordinate amount of time trying to troubleshoot. Will never buy another Fitbit product if this is the dismal product duration I get for my hard-earned money.

Disappointing – Can’t get it to sync no matter what I do. Googled options to troubleshoot but unsuccessful. Wish I’d read reviews before purchasing, total waste of money! Would definitely NOT recommend Show details

This company contributes to Global Warming and unnecessary Land Fill – As all of the other reviews, these are the most frustrating devices to ever set up. Now they are not supported at all, the message during setup is "Whoa there, we've discontinued .. this device". They are now landfill and one is FORCED to update when there is nothing wrong with them. What a disgrace when we are all supposed to be fighting Global Warming.

Still going strong over 8 years later – I bought these in August 2012, called them magic and they certainly have been! Hubby and I weigh ourselves every day, and they are still going strong. Do buy rechargeable batteries for them, they need to be charged every couple of weeks but for the functionality I think that’s reasonable. They were easy to connect to wifi, we’ve moved house with… Read more

them, changed our internet provider and router, and every time the set up has been easy. Love the app and graph it comes with.

Great scale, wifi sync is a massive plus – Used this until my kids decided to drop it from 5ft in the air and it shattered... (safety glass so no splinters)... Was a great scale, had it for 4 years, never missed a beat... synced well. Best scale I've had, looking to find another now that I've tried some others. Wifi sync is a must, as your phone might be off or flat or in another room… Read more

out back and not be able to sync all the time... so unless you're looking for bluetooth 5.x wifi is the way to go.

Did give slightly different weights if you didn't stand straight, but that is similar with most digital scales. This was only off 1kg max usually. I just stood in same place and got same reading every time. #simple

Awesome Scales – These are great and accurate. They were a bit of a pain to set up but nce set up properly tho, they have worked flawlessly ever since. Batteries last for ages too. Show details

Fantastic when it works – I’m on my third set of scales. Luckily the last two were covered under warranty when the dreaded err message started on the display. This will be my last. For the price I expect longer than 12 months on them. Easy product to use and set up. Have been so careful with it and still broke internally somewhere.

Most useless scale ever – Keeps on showing error after 'thinking' for a while and never works when we step on it. We tried to replace the batteries but still doesn't work. Don't waste your money on this.

Terrible! – Worst scales and it should be a crime to sell such junk for the price they do. The idea of them is great but I’ve had nothing by problems since I bought them. Continually drops out from the internet and requires re-set up and even with new battery it goes to sleep before I can move through the set up steps to sync to internet. Also the weigh is… Read more

inaccurate. I have to weigh 5 times and accept the most common one as seriously each weight can vary by up to 2kilos each time.

Batteries died and never worked properly again again – Battery low message appeared and when I changed them, it would not turn on. It seemed the batteries were not making contact properly so I put a bit of padding under the battery cover to keep them in more firmly, and if placed gently down on the ground, it would occasionally work. Then after a week, it never worked again. Scale was 15 months old...… Read more

how can a $20 scale last for 10 years and a $200 scale last less than 2 years? Don’t buy Fitbit products would have to be my recommendation.

Boycott Fitbit altogether for producing this junk – Setting up the wifi connection on Aria scales is a total disaster :( the internet has hundreds of complaints. This is the 2nd Aria I will have thrown away. What kind of company dumps this kind of poorly designed product on unsuspecting customers? I say we should boycott all Fitbit products in process.

Completely Useless and FitBit's "advice" was also completely useless. They should offer refunds – I could never get this scale to pair with my wifi. I thought it must be me because I'm not that tech savvy. I sent numerous emails to fitbit and the replies I got were so complicated. They eventually blamed my modem and router, but a few months later I got a new modem and it still didn't work. I had a friend come over who is a tech head whiz… Read more

and he tried everything,the scale just couldn't actually be detected on the network. Fitbit's emails were useless steps which wasted massive amounts of time but achieved absolutely nothing except finally tell you it must be your router problem. The only scales I have ever bought which I can honestly say we couldn't use them at all and wasted a lot of time trying to make it work. Fitbit should really be offering refunds on these but they make out that its your fault for not being able to set it up. Really annoyed.

Inaccurate – The scale is EXTREMELY inaccurate. Your weight can fluctuate 2 to 5 POUNDS in a matter of a few minutes of using the scale. I bought a $12 scale at my local drug store that was more accurate than the Aria.

Less than useless. Thanks for essentially stealing my money – Kept needing resetting, never linked properly and 13 months after purchase doesn't work at all. Can't find a repairer, can't get it swapped, never got a return email from them.

Not Fit For Purpose – In a nutshell, I've had three Fitbit Aria's and all of them have failed with the sensing, thinking, step off, ERR issue. One failed just after one month. Another after around 12 months. Another at around 13-14 months. These scales were purchased at $175 each. I believe Fitbit are breaching consumer law by selling this product and not honoring… Read more

warranty after 12 months. This scale is clearly not fit for purpose. Not only is it not reliable, the weight reading it was showing did have variability even when "working". I have contacted Fitbit 4 times over the past 2 months about this issue but they no longer return my emails. I see the ACCC has looked at this and it seems Fitbit are now legally obliged to honour a 2 year warranty period in Australia despite their 1 year claim. I assume they are getting around this by imply not returning support emails. All other Fitbit products I have owned (mainly Charge HR's) have also failed after around 12-18 months.

Don't bother – Breaks down after the 45 days and then you can't get a refund! It won't sync and then the scales don't work at all so the product is actually completely faulty. Don't bother!

Pathetic – Replaced batteries. Reset them. Still just does crazy stuff. Fitbit should be made accountable for selling such a poor quality product. If this is typical of their lack of quality why would anybody buy any fitbit product?? This Santa definetly won't be handing out any fitbit products this Christmas.

Looking into Fitbit Aria problems mostly Aria not Aria2 – Firstly Fitbit is just a marketing/sales company and they don't have any spare parts or repair facilities anywhere. They cannot even supply a replacement battery cover. Judging by their answers to customer problems they don't have a clue how the scales work. I'm guessing that they only wrote the specifications and had some other company design and… Read more

build them. They regularly have to replace Aria scales under warranty and it must be costing them dearly. This means that they stick strictly to the 365 day warranty and won't entertain any action after that period ends. The replacement units are only covered by the balance of the 365 day warranty. If you haven't got an Aria scale save yourself some grief and keep it that way.

But if you already have an Aria scale...

Known problems:-

Surprisingly you can read these, and more, for yourself on the fitbit forum.

Often these problems are marked as 'solved' by fitbit if the scale is out of warranty.

1. Unable to connect to WIFI. The Aria only works with the older 802.11b WIFI protocol and cannot tolerate non alphanumerics in the password.

2. Scale won't turn off. The aria scale has pressure switches on the front 2 feet. These switches fail after some use and remain activated leaving the scale thinking that they are still in use. The net result is that the batteries are exhausted in short order. There is a plastic part in the switch that fatigues and breaks and an enterprising fellow has created a 3d printed replacement part for the switches https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2988535

3. Error messages. There are a couple of common error messages that show up after some time. The main one is called "sensing - step off - thinking - err". I have this problem and I'm still looking into it.

4. Repeated weighings give different weights.

5. Weight is inaccurate. Apparently the only calibration that can be made is to the zero reading. The actual weight calibration (span) was performed at the factory before shipment and cannot be changed. How do they expect to ship them around the world and stay accurate?

6. The customer complaints about the later replacement (Aria2) scale are not great either.

Bob

Its cool, but really a prime example of product obsolescence – Bought an Aria along with a Fitbit Surge in April 2015. Aria was A$170 or so, $500 in total for all. Thought the Aria is actually pretty cool, being able to sync your weight, body fat and BMI on a graph / chart and see various stats over time, along with the other fitness stats. If you've got fitness / losing weight goals, it is actually pretty… Read more

useful to that effect, and anyone in your house can get a Fitbit account and use it.

But on the downside it really is hard to setup, and every time you change the batteries or update your WiFi, you just have to do it again unfortunately. Sometimes I felt like flinging it off my balcony, it became that annoying, esp if there's issues with the wi-fi on your phone or home network.

And April/May this year (2018), it just died, bang on 3 years of use. I tried all the troubleshooting, but the display never lit up again. Great example of obsolescence, selling an expensive item that seems to be programmed to die over time, then getting you to buy a new one. Then you really regret spending so much money when a $15 pair of scales from Kmart would probably still be going strong.

I wrote an email to Fitbit, where someone on the other side on the planet replied with several emails confirming things, finally saying it wasn't covered under their 1-year extended warranty. I also lost the original receipt, as when I had to exchange the Fitbit Surge, JB Hifi kept the receipt with Aria on it...but funnily enough they never noticed!!

Anyway I pointed out the Consumer Affairs website regarding warranties:

https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/refunds-repairs-and-returns/warranties/types-of-warranties

..that 3 years was unreasonable timeframe for such an expensive item to stop working, and I could file a case with them regarding consumer guarantees. Really funny, Fitbit replied in 10mins saying they were looking into it, 1 hour later that they approved my request for a replacement and to send my details, 2 hours later confirmation it was on the way and 4 days later it had already arrived by Fedex to my doorstep!!

Encourage others to do the same when their Fitbit products fail. Also I'm on my third Fitbit watch after the first two failed too (band & battery issues - replaced under an extended warranty with JB), so probably wont buy fitbit products again.

Inaccurate results – The general functionality of the Aria has lived up to expectations, except for its inconsistency. Weighing myself twice within 5 minutes produces measurements which differ by approximately 2kgs. For this reason, I am not in a position to recommend the product.

Err message just out of warranty !! – Same issue that everyone is having step on sensing thinking step off ERR just out of warranty ! What a rip off ! Never again fit bit. Don’t waste your money people.

Good but there should be better options available – Fitbit Aria does not always connect easily to wifi and it takes a long time trying to connect and sometimes it doesn't at all. It even will confuse me with guests who have close weights as mine. The battery does not last long in Fitbit Aria, so better to purchase rechargable batteries with it.

Very Disappointing for price paid - doesn't anything last longer than warranty nowadays?? – Early signs at about 1.5 years was batteries required changing with increasing frequency. Then the device would activate even when you were not standing on it and whirl around for hours on end (maybe why the batteries didn't last!). Then it just stopped working completely - just on 2 years. Certainly not worth it for the price ($140) and synch… Read more

function with fitbit watch went by the wayside when my watch fell apart (after only 1 year). Seriously disappointed with both products and would not consider purchasing again. What do you have to say FitBit? I would have thought repeat business is your staple, I would come back and purchase more (even at your ridiculous prices) if only your goods lasted the distance (ie at least warranty and then some).

Awesome... until you are at the end of the warranty – Works great, until the warranty expires then like everyone else, it no longer works. I think there should be a class action against Fitbit as this fails to comply with consumer law in regards to ‘expected life expectancy of the product’ Seems everyone has the same issue. It wouldn’t surprise me if Fitbit were like apple and deliberately… Read more

manipulating the performance of their products through the software.

Big disappointment, for what started out as something I loved.

Terrible – ERR Message! nothing works company will not respond. There are so many issues with these scales just after warranty . sounds like they planed that all too well. They suck

Worst customer service on the planet... galaxy maybe! – I snapped the clip on my battery cover Emailed asking to buy a new one They said sorry, its out of warranty I said I know, where can I buy one? They said I can't I said why not? They said they do not repair them... no parts are available.... ever THEN they said .....click this link to buy a new scale!!! I said WTH and asked to be referred… Read more

to the supervisor

....... just looped thru the same stuff

Adding... is there anything else we can help you with!!!

Good for 3 months. Rubbish product – After a somewhat cumbersome set-up procedure, the product worked really well for 3 months before it failed. Good for the bin now as I have tried everything possible to restore the product.

Impossible to set up. Requires router setting from the 90s. Zero support – Does not work on 3 different internet routers I~ve tried and even when online will not connect to the app. Terrible product, do not buy. Also, measuring accuracy against 3 other scale set all set up on similar surfaces - these scales are not accurate. High price to pay for no connectivity and poor accuracy. You're better off buying a 10 dollar set from the pharmacy.

ERR message – Had to happen after warranty expired. ERR message keeps coming up and thats it. Definitely won't be buying this product again. There are other companies that make scales that last more than one year

A few issues – Great product initially but also had issues when we moved trying to sync with a new wifi .. took ages to get it sorted then also we kept getting really random reading ..varying up to 2kg! Im really struggling now after changing batteries and it just keeps saying step on all the time Initially this has been the best set of scales to help me with my weight loss journey..now after 3 weeks I still have no idea what I truly weigh

Great - Until you have to change the batteries – Bought these to help with my fitness journey. Setting it up was a little confusing but we got there in the end. Worked well for a while and then it started mixing people up which we thought was a little odd. Then the batteries died so we figured that was why. Ever since changing the batteries it has not worked or connected to the app. We have gone… Read more

through the set up process multiple times from multiple devices, reset the scales, followed everything to a T and it still isn't right. Now its just an expensive glorified digital scale. Would never buy these again. Just want to throw them in the bin.

Inaccurate scales – Don't waste your money. The scales change weight every time you stand on them even if you do it several times over a few minutes as recommended. And they are about 3kgs under

Good gadget – This unit compliments the fitbit watch well. All the stats from your watch and scale are available on the same app and you can keep track of your exercise and weight. You just have to be sure and weigh yourself at the same time otherwise the results will not be accurate. Overall I would recommend.

Doesn't last long enough for the price – $165 scale lasted about 2 1/2 years, checked on forums and found a lot of people having the same problem? search on aria step off ERR and see how many people are having the same problem, Fitbit support not any help, told me it was out of warranty, they don't have a repair centre in Australia and don't sell replacement parts AND btw would I like to… Read more

buy a Fitbit premium membership AS IF !

Actually liked the scales as such, automatically synced measurements to the Fitbit site for my wife and I quite well, just isn't long lived enough, last Fitbit product for us.