Loving my Swimmo

mandy_godfree

I know there are all sorts of fitness trackers out there, all of slightly differing accuracy and ease of use. But I am absolutely adoring my Swimmo. My OH bought it for me for Christmas, and just wearing it in the pool is making me try much harder. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by how intense kick drills are, and astounded that my front crawl laps maintain a heart rate only in the fat burning zone.

I use a combo of fit bit and Swimmo. Swimming has to be put into fit bit manually. But I just didn’t want to spend a fortune on fitness watches. Finding a water proof one at a reasonable price, and with a visual display has been really hard. But thoroughly recommend Swimmo. The graphs are great and it’s brilliant not having to worry about whether you’re losing track of your laps. The vibration is bold enough to feel it at the half way point and that really spurs you on.

Burned a massive 742 calories today in just under an hour. I know my highest heart rate, my lowest heart rate and my average, and I can download the results to my phone at the pool.

Simply fab, really recommend.

thereshegoesagain

Thanks, I'll look into getting one.

loneda

@mandy_godfree
Do you still recommend the Swimmo? I am seriously considering getting one since it seems to have everything I want (lap counting and heart monitor) but there are not a lot of reviews online and what is out there seems mixed. I was glad to see your post when I searched the forums.

Does it accurately count laps? Any cons? Thank you!

kayak4water

$200 is a fistful of dollars for the Swimmo!

www.swimoutlet.com has a product called Sportcount 200 for about $40. It doesn't monitor heart rate , and you have to click the button on the finger mounted device with your thumb as you finish each lap. So far, I've resisted the temptation, but it's a less spendy alternative for those considering some kind of toy to kick their game up a notch.

As for me, I just set the timer on my watch to 12 minutes, and swim freestyle for that 12, then I do drills for other strokes (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly). If I'm breathless, my heart rate is probably 155-160. I'm breathless during that first 12 minutes because I have to push myself to be able to stay warm for the remainder of my hour swim. Not very scientific, but my goal isn't speed, but rather, better technique.

I've heard from another swimmer that the fitbit Flex will count laps. I don't believe it. Again, no heart rate reporting. Also, I've seen some bad reviews at rei.com. I don't trust it.

I used to be an early buyer of new technology. Now, I just don't want to bother. I just want to swim.

loneda

I've had several of the Sportcounts ovet the years. When they work they are great. But the last two I've had didn't last more than a month.

My goal is not technique, my goal is either distance or speed. When I do distance sets I would really like to not have to count laps but just to let my mind wander.

lorrpb

I think the new FitBit Ionic counts laps too.
I've had 2 lap counting watches that did not work consistently, but the count was based on the pushoff, not GPS.

AnvilHead

lorrpb wrote: »

I think the new FitBit Ionic counts laps too.
I've had 2 lap counting watches that did not work consistently, but the count was based on the pushoff, not GPS.

For indoor lap swimming, any device using GPS is essentially worthless. Not only do you have the building attenuating GPS reception, you add in the fact that the watch is underwater about half the time (which further attenuates GPS reception) and the result is that GPS is useless in such an environment. Not to mention that the accuracy of GPS (and how it wanders) isn't a good solution for tracking a repetitive back and forth 25m distance. The results would be far worse than a device sensing pushoff by the accelerometer (which is how most/all swim watches work, AFAIK).

There are several Garmin models which use GPS for open water (outdoor) swimming. In DCRainmaker's tests, even there they suffer from accuracy issues (due to repeatedly going in and out of the water and losing/re-acquiring GPS lock) and the tracklog you get from them is decent but not great.