Day 81 - My Poor Fitbit

Not long before we left for our MERTA trip, the strap for my Fitbit broke. I emailed Fitbit and they sent me a replacement strap before we left.

Whilst on MERTA, my new strap broke as well, in exactly the same place as the old strap. We were hiking around Big Bend and the Utah / Arizona parks when my Fitbit would just fall onto rocks and add to the scratches on the screen. It nearly fell over the edge of a cliff a couple of times, has had near misses with the toilet and I lost it (but luckily found it again) at least twice.

I emailed Fitbit about this new strap and arranged for another replacement strap to be shipped to Flagstaff.

The strap arrived just in time and I decided to fit it in the evening once we had completed the laundry. As I was pulling the laundry out of the drier, I noticed my Fitbit in the bottom of the drum. I must have put it in my pocket last time it fell off and forgotten to take it out. It had gone through a hot wash and at least 60 minutes of tumble drying on the hottest setting.

Annoyed that I had gone to all the effort of getting a new strap only to put the watch in the wash moments after the strap arrived in the post, I went back to the hotel in a bit of a grump.

That evening, I decided to check that the watch really was ready for the bin and stuck it into the charger. Amazingly, the next day it was on, fully charged and working as normal. I fitting the strap and apart from a couple more scratches on the screen, its fine.

I actually feel a little guilty now as in one of the many emails I had sent to Fitbit, I had questioned the quality of their product given how I had gone through 2 straps in such a short period of time.  I am now really impressed that a Fitbit will still work after going through so much, I stress tested it to the max and it pulled through with little more than a few scratches on the screen.

Fitbit were kind enough to send me a replacement watch which has been delivered for when I return back home. Whilst it wont have any scratches on the screen, I'll be sad to switch my current watch, it has been through a big adventure on this trip just like me.