Fitbit Aria WiFi Smart Scale

After about 1 year it stopped working (1 year warranty through Fitbit). The error says to step off the scale even when no one is on it, until the battery dies. Fitbit had no solution, so I took the scale apart. There are 4 thin plastic parts that support the sensors, and 3/4 were broken. I looked online and found a forum full of people with the same problem. I asked Fitbit if they had engineered a solution, but they have not. The photo is from the forum, but is the same problem I found.

Step on, step off, thinking... ERR
This is all you'll see on this scale after a year or two (or less!). If it happens to be more than 1 year after you bought it, tough luck, Fitbit's answer is "unfortunately your scale is broken and there's nothing we can do about it". THOUSANDS of consumers are having this issue, it is all over the Fitbit troubleshooting boards, and yet Fitbit offers no fix. This scale works for a few months, maybe you'll get 2 years out of it if you're lucky. After that, it bricks and it's nothing more than a very expensive paperweight.

I purchased this scale 2 years ago from Amazon. Aria will randomly flash to step on the scale, searches, tries to sync. This goes on for a minute, it turns off, and then a few minutes later it happens again and the cycle keeps repeating itself until the new batteries are dead 2-3 days later. Followed all troubleshooting steps on their website and made sure firmware was current which didnt help.

Decided to contact Fitbit in search of any suggestions. Big waste of time! I only wanted some help getting it to work properly and the agent brushed me off the call. I guess they dont like talking to anyone out of warranty? It was a nice scale while it lasted, but now its an expensive paperweight.

TO POTENTIAL BUYERS:
If you are okay paying for something that will no longer work as intended 2 years down the road then this isnt a bad option at all. Customer service is only good within warranty (1 year across the board). I would suggest saving money and getting a cheaper digital scale, or another branded wifi scale. Just look into their company first and see how they are customer service wise before handing them $100+

No issues with Amazon as the seller, they are up to par on all aspects, this is just about Fitbit as a company and the Aria scale.

Save your money. This is an expensive scale, but not durable. Mine stopped syncing after just over one year. Fitbit support confirmed that "there is something wrong with it, it is not working properly." However, there is no actual support - just "well, it is out of warranty so there is nothing we can do." I should have known, though. Fitbit trackers also last for just a little over a year before they give up the ghost, too. I cannot tell you how many Fitbits I've purchased over the years, but I am done with this company. Do not waste your money on this piece of junk.

I am a fitness junky, and I purchased this device because I already had a Fitbit and thought it'd be nice to have my weight and body fat automatically tracked along with my other stats. I have been mainly disappointed with the product. The body fat measurement definitely lacks accuracy and precision. I wasn't as disappointed about the lack of accuracy (as mostly I was caring about a general trend) however the day to day jumps have been 2-3% at times. That is much more than any noise in measurement, and is big enough to really hide your progress (or lack of). I still use it because it is nice to track my weight, but probably not worth the high price tag. I have attached a months log of body fat to show how big the spread is. Swings of 3-4% are just unacceptable.

Like many buyers of this scale, I've recently taken the fitbit plunge and wanted to include this scale to easily track weight and body fat fluctuations. Visually, the scale is very impressive. I got the black version and it is thin, sleek, and substantial (footprint, heft). The glass is perfectly smooth, edge beveled, and the weigh-in process (step on to step off) is done in less than 5 seconds. Aesthetically as well as fit, feel, and finish, this is a 5-star product.

Functionally, there are a few problems. First, connecting the scale can be a challenge. The process includes broadcasting the ID of the scale, connecting to this "wifi network" on the phone, and then switching the network of the phone back to your personal wifi network. It took me several tries but eventually it worked and has worked flawlessly since. Unfortunately I've forgotten the exact problem I experienced but I do recall having to switch networks while my phone displayed a webpage that was reading "connecting". Anyway - see this page: [...] if you run into trouble. In contrast to this setup process, all other scale settings (users and their profiles) are very easy to setup once the scale is working correctly with the network. Additionally, I haven't had any issues with connectivity once the scale was setup correctly the first time.

Secondly, the scale must be used on a hard surface. In our bathroom, a rug sometimes slips slightly under the edge of scale and can really throw off the reading. If this happens, my reading can be confused with my wife's and the scale can start to get confused. Fortunately, all the readings are stored online and the erroneous readings can be easily removed on the website. If the scale is free from the rug, it never confuses my wife and my readings.

Finally, the body-fat reading is precise but probably not accurate. By default, the scale is set to regular for a user and read my body fat read ~12.5%. After I switched to "slim" body type, the reading dropped to ~6%. Using a handheld body fat tester I'm around 8-9% . The good thing is that this reading, like the weight, is very repeatable. Also, it's clearly independent from the weight measurement. For example if you drink a bunch of water and wait 10 mins, your weight will be up but you body fat reading may fall. Of course, what's happening is that the scale is simply measuring an electrical signal and then converting this to a % body fat. Ideally, the Fitbit site would let you input your exact body fat number (taken with a vibrational or displacement measurement) at a point in time and this number could be used to calibrate the electrical to % body fat conversion. To my knowledge, no consumer scale allows this calibration to be done today. To me it's not a huge issue as the body fat is consistent and a useful metric as I increase my lifting and muscle mass.

This leads to perhaps the greatest strength of this device; statistics. Many folks roll their eyes when you tell them that your scale uploads your weight to the cloud. However, body weight fluctuates throughout the day and week. With this scale, I've found myself weighing myself several times per day and looking at my data over a week or month, clear trend lines can be seen despite the daily fluctuations. Ultimately, this is the reason that I bought the scale and makes me very happy.

I held off on rating this scale until I had used it for several weeks. Initially, (after the setup headaches) I would have leaned towards 3 stars. During the first 1-2 weeks, my frustrations with body fat settings and trouble with the rug in our bathroom, I would have probably gone with 4 stars. However, understanding these issues and more importantly, seeing the benefits of frequent weight measurements, I couldn't be happier with the purchase. I strongly recommend that anybody happy with their Fitbit and serious about achieving their weight loss goals, take a good look at this high quality product.

UPDATE: I still have the scale and it's working great. I get about 6 months or so between battery changes and it was pretty painless moving to a new place with a different network setup (even though I had completely forgotten the setup process). Overall, the Aria Scale is proving to be very easy to stick with. I can't think of what else could obsolete this device anytime soon so I anticipate many more years of use.

One the worst electronic purchases I have ever made. Extremely difficult to setup up infact never was able to have it sync weights with the Fitbit app. Then one incorrect step on the corner which lifted one side slightly and dropped back down, now receives Err message every time.

Do not waste your hard earned money or time. Good luck.