Issues with my Polar FT4 after only 3 weeks. Anyone else?

parias1126

Am I the only one that has had issues this early? I go on a 3.5 mile walk every evening. For the last 3 days my HRM has will just lose my heart rate, drop down to 59, then to 00. I will adjust it and raise the electronic sensor and it would get it to work again on the first day. But then it would just go back down to like 129 when I know I'm not keeping a steady heart rate of 129 because I've already been alternating walking/jogging for 20 minutes or so. I would usually get about 152 and higher when jogging or 142 when walking uphill. Now it's reading around 140 when I'm jogging for one minute and then when I go back to walking when I get uphill it is dropping to a steady 125-129. Then it will just do it all over again. Yesterday, I would just push the sensor bands closer to my skin and it would get a reading again that seemed accurate, but today I am positive the readings were absolutely wrong.

I have taken care of it. I rinse the band off after every use and wash it once a week. (It's only been washed 3 times). It worked fine for the first 3 weeks even if I forgot to wet the sensor strips. Tonight I made sure they were wet before leaving (the whole entire strip to see if that helped) and laying securely right against my stomach/chest.

Could I be doing something wrong or should I contact Polar? I purchased it on Amazon, but I no longer have the box so I don't think they would take it back anymore. Funny, I just threw the box out on Saturday when I was cleaning up and the following day I started having issues with it. Hmmm.....

rherington

Your gonna say gross to this! I quit rinsing mine so much. About once a month I rinse the band. I do this because every time I rinse it it takes some playing with it to get it to work the next day. So I chose stinky ( I can't say it really is though) over the headache of getting it to work again. If I don't rinse it works perfectly.

Spanaval

Similar to the problems I've had with it. Try washing the band in the washer (no softener or other additives), to see if that helps. Mine's still wonky, although I can get it to work for the most part with some tinkering around - soaking the strap and wetting my skin prior to use is what seems to help the most. I'm going to change the batteries and see if that helps at all.

parias1126

Your gonna say gross to this! I quit rinsing mine so much. About once a month I rinse the band. I do this because every time I rinse it it takes some playing with it to get it to work the next day. So I chose stinky ( I can't say it really is though) over the headache of getting it to work again. If I don't rinse it works perfectly.

It does make sense. When I didn't wet it prior to exercizing, it worked perfectly. I only started having issues after wetting the sensor strips.

MissTomGettingThin

Mine's still gong strong after 18 months. I've had to change the watch battery a few weeks ago, that's all.
I wash it every two or three wears in the washing machine with my kit and make sure it's under my bra and secure.

Maybe I've been lucky.