If you just picked up a Google Fitbit Air for your summer hikes, you might want to skip the bug spray.
A Fitbit Air owner shared on Reddit that a weekend hike ruined two of the trackers. Bug spray containing DEET had gotten on a hiking shirt, transferred onto the watches, and ended up melting and etching the plastic casing. The damage clouded up the sensors underneath, so the watches couldn’t track health data properly anymore. Ouch.
The user said Google support confirmed this counts as accidental environmental damage, which means it’s not covered under warranty. Once the plastic casing breaks down like that, the watch also loses its water resistance, so more problems tend to follow.
Here’s the image of the Fitbit Air (the more expensive Steph Curry edition) ruined from bug spray:
Google’s own product documentation already warns people to keep sunscreen and bug spray away from the device entirely, and recommends taking it off before applying either one.
The culprit is DEET, which is in a lot of popular bug sprays and happens to be a strong enough solvent to break down certain plastics and coatings over time.
If you still want bug protection without risking your watch, look for repellents made with picaridin or IR3535 instead of DEET. Same goes for sunscreen, mineral based ones with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are a safer bet than the spray kind, since those often carry similar chemicals that can degrade plastic over time too.
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