Fitbit Aria Black (FB201B)

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Epic fail fitbit aria – Fitbit aria just over 12 months old. Really challenging to setup. Never synced. Second change of batteries, now not working at all. For the money, I would have expected better.

Cynical example of built in obsolescence – Bought scale in the last few days of 2015. It performed admirably until early April 2017. Seemed to give accurate weights and post them to the Fitbit site for 15 months. The BMI measurement seemed like a gimmick so I did not pay it much attention. Our cat used to sit on it regularly so my son set up an account for him! 5.9 kgs, he is one big cat. … Read more

After that the scale would post - 'Step off, Thinking Err'. I looked at the Fitbit site and there was over 220 people with the same problem. Once it had this problem that was the end. I went through pages (not every one I admit) and did not find a single person reporting it was fixed. Just pages and pages of 'contact our customer support'. I contacted the online support went through what could be best described as 'troubleshooting theatre' and was told to send them a photo of the details in the battery compartment. A few days later I received an email requesting I do the same steps as I had already several times before. I went through the steps and replied. After a few more troubleshooting requests they told me I was out of warranty and they offered me a year subscription to the Premium site. Cut an even longer story short I pointed out they were selling defective equipment in breach of Australian consumer laws and I was going to lodge a complaint with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission and go on a social media spree if they did not replace my scales. They relented and said they would replace them. My parents have scales that are still working after 50 odd years. It appears that the scales are designed to break shortly after the end of the warranty period. They are shonky and a con. See this review - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1S15OPWKKN0MT/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0077L8YFI

No repair centre or spare parts available in Australia – I received this as a gift for Christmas 2015.Only used it once a week and last Friday it showed an ERROR message.Contacted Fitbit but after the usual troubleshooting steps, I have been informed that my scales is is out of warranty by just 3 months and no repair service offered in Australia.Terrible aftercare service for such expensive products.Will not be purchasing any future products

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! – Fitbit Aria is the most inaccurate scales (and by far the most expensive) scales I have ever purchased. Gave 4 different weights in less than 3 minutes - woefully inaccurate & extremely unreliable - very frustrating when trying to lose weight. Don't waste time or money on these.

Innaccurate weights – The weight changes every time you step on and step off which is the most frustrating thing when you are on a weight loss journey!!! The body fat % is also way offf from day one. Do NOT BUY!

Unusable without a WiFi network – If you use an area cover WiFi network like I now do the Aria scales simply don't work. With a great deal of time and effort you can use this (lots of manual entry) with your phone WiFi but you can't use Bluetooth. Setting up an account was almost impossible. I registered and endlessly got a message saying my account didn't exist. They are also not very consistent. If I weigh myself 10 times over a short period I get 10 different readings.

Floored product and terrible customer service – Like so many others here, I'm on my second Aria scale, after both - almost identically stopped working just after the 12 month warranty period. Customer service simply say - sorry - out of warranty ** do not waste your money

COMMON error problem at 2 yr mark (out of warranty) – I purchased the aria scale and loved it but after about 2 years and a battery change it stopped working properly. It says sensing, step off then error. I searched this error and found it is VERY common at 2 yr make. Some even suggest 'designed to fail' Fitbit will not support this common problem and say throw it out and buy again!!!

Terribly inconsistent – In terms of weight measurement - these are terrible. Its not an issue if they are a little inaccurate. Its an issue when they are wildly inconsistent. They provide weights kgs apart within minutes and without movement. Moving them around by a width of a foot can also cause kgs of difference. I've got another set of scales that in the same… Read more

positions do not suffer any of this.

Body fat % has been at an accuracy /variance of +/-25% (yes, upto 25% of difference between one read and another which makes it absolutely useless).

20kg difference between two users and it suddenly decided it couldn't work out who is who and syncing details to wrong user and turning the other user into a guest when they stood on next.

If I could go back I would have never bought these garbage scales. Looks like fitbit put all their effort into design style and account syncing and forgot what they were actually building these for.

Stopped working after 13 months – This scale was a huge waste of money. While it worked it had good features, such as tracking your weight in your fitbit app automatically. However...to last just over a year, so of course it's just outside warranty, is a complete joke. We've had nothing but dramas with every fitbit product we've purchased. Stay away.

Very inconsistent ! Buy a cheap one from Coles and works better! – The worst scale I've ever seen! Honestly! First time shows me 54, second time 55 then goes all the way up to 58! So annoying!dont waste your money! I wish I checked the reviews before buying it

Seriously, why bother – This thing has become the bane of my existence! It is ridiculously hard to set up and god forbid you have to change networks and set it up again because apparently that is 10 times harder to do. As for when it actually is working, it's just ok. Any old regular digital scale would work just as well. Do yourself a favour, buy a cheaper, less… Read more

technical scale and download a weight tracker app to input your weight into.

Don't waste your money on this nightmare.

Good scale and customer service – Bought the scale to go with my Fitbit blaze earlier this year. The scale stopped weighing a few weeks back, so I emailed the Fitbit help desk and got a response 24 hours later. A couple of days tick tacking to check the batteries were not at fault and they sent me a new Fitbit ARIA scale. All this took a couple of weeks - can't fault the service.… Read more

.love the scale as it syncs to my Blaze and my wife's charge. Really easy to set up and use. Overall really enjoying my Fitbit experience and kudos to the help desk for being so efficient.

Terrible! – Had the sensing error after 3 months of having this scale. Contacted fitbit twice about sending it in to be fixed or getting a replacement as it was still in warranty. Same response was sent to me twice about resetting the scale but no mention of warranty or replacement. So frustrating! No help! Wasted my money. Considering the switch to Garmin -.-

Designed to break down – I've had mine for a bit less than two years which seems to be about the longest you get out of them. After a battery change I have a persistent error. It won't weigh anything let alone transmit data. A thorough read of the help forums reveals no-one can fix this error and a lot of people get it after a network or battery change. The rubbish tip… Read more

is the only option. I hate putting so much stuff into landfill. Our fitbit flexes only lasted about 12 months each too. Fitbit is building junk.

Had trouble setting up, but appears ok now – I bought the Fitbit Aria this morning from my local Officeworks and after a frustrating start it seems to be doing ok now. I had trouble setting it up initially (you should aim to use your mobile rather than pc/mac) as it wouldn't recognise my WiFi router. I kept getting an error saying WiFi ERR after entering my home wifi network credentials. I… Read more

eventually read somewhere that the reason it wasn't registering was because it only recognises A-Z and 1-9 in the wifi username and password. So I had to change my home networks' username and password to only include letters and numbers rather than !@$#%$^. Hope that helps anyone who's encountered this problem.

From my own research, the two top smart scales that keep coming up in conversations are the Withings WS-50 and the Fitbit Aria. Although, I find the hardware in the Aria could use a little updating.

Good At Wirelessly Recording Your Weight But Useless At Measuring Your Bmi Or Fat % – The aria looks good and measures the weight of multiple users well. However, it's wifi range is only 10m and it's body fat calculation is way off. This has the follow on effect of distorting your lean mass and BMI as well. I bought the device to help me gain weight and despite exercising more and following a strict nutritional diet, the Aria told… Read more

me I lost 3kgs of lean muscle and gained 1 kg of fat in 10 days. I had DEXA and VLA scans preformed over the same period and both told me I had actually gained 2kgs of muscle and lost 0.5kg of fat. Additionally Aria told me I had 25% body fat but really I only had 18%.

So Aria is a good device if you want to weigh yourself daily and have that data automatically uploaded to your Fitbit account but not much else.