HRM....

BigdaddyJ

does a cheap HRM do the job, or should I really go and buy a real good one with all the bells and wistles?

VballLeash

What do you mean by "job"? Will it give you an estimate of calories burned yes, will it be as accurate as the more expensive ones? Maybe, maybe not... I'm sure there's many on here that have cheaper ones that work well for them... I have the polar f6 and I don't even use it very much but it does work very well... you should probably get one with a chest strap though if you want it to be pretty accurate. Good luck!

~Leash

lisawest

There will be MANY others who will comment on this one, but I will tell you about my experience. DH and I got Bowflex HRMs for $30 at a Black Friday sale (reg. $80). They had the Polars, and all the other really expensive ones. Ours were one of those "loss leaders" to get you in the door. Worked with us! They came with the chest strap, we can change all the batteries ourselves. DH uses his the most. He runs with it frequently. The only issue he's had with it was when he ran in the REALLY cold weather (frost on his hoodie, beard, etc.). I've checked the pulse against my carotid, and it's right on. Whatever you get, I feel that a chest strap and easily replacable batteries are VERY important! That is, of course, behind all the usual important stuff!

Do a lot of research before you go shopping. We found that many sales people didn't know what they were talking about. Good luck!

lahlie

I think it depends on what you want it to do. Personally, I went ahead and spent the extra $$ to get a HRM that shows my calorie burn because I figured if I was going to make a serious conscious effort of tracking what goes in, I wanted to be exact on what I was burning as well. I am not sure about many of the HRM on the market. My suggestion is to do your research and read reviews on different makes and models of what you are looking for. I bought a Polar FT7, which was a little over $100, and I love it! Polar is top of the line as far as HRMs go as far as I am concerned. I have a degree in Exercise Physiology, and we had polar HRMs (and that was 10 years ago) that we used to do all of our testing with. I trust Polar. But I am sure with the technology as it is today, one is just as good as another as long as they are comparable.

BigdaddyJ

bump!

Azdak

My opinion: like any product, there is a minimum level of quality that you should not go below. In other words, if you only have $30 for example to spend on an HRM, I would suggest not buying anything and saving up for a better product. At some point, lower price is not better--you are throwing good money after bad.

OTOH, more expensive HRMs can have "bell and whistles" that you don't need--usually these are advanced programming features or "coaching" features that, quite frankly, many people buy but never use.

Now if all you want is an accurate heart rate reading, almost any chest strap monitor will do. Heart rate is not that technically difficult. The other feature that most people want is some type of estimation of calories expending. Here is where a quality brand name becomes more important.

Many people do not realize that the quality/accuracy of HRM calorie readouts probably varies as much between brands as it does between different machines. I always find it ironic that many people will dismiss the calorie readouts on machines as inaccurate, yet unquestionably accept the readout on any HRM, no matter how cheap. It's another example of the power of auto-suggestion.

I don't know all the details of all HRM manufacturers, so I stick to what I know. And what I know is that there are two companies that have been doing their own research for many years and that use proprietary technology in their HRMs. Those two companies are Polar and Suunto. I am not being negative towards the Reebok model--I just don't know how they do their calculations, so I can't recommend them. To me, there is a difference between buying a wholesale product from an unknown manufacturer and putting a brand name on it, and building in exclusive technology and research that you have been developing for over 20 years.

So my advice would be to stay in the Polar and Suunto families and pick a model that has the minimum features you want. I would say that either the Polar FT4 (~$90 on Amazon--maybe cheaper on ebay) or the Suunto T1c ($119 on Amazon, ~$99 on ebay) is about as low as I would go. Models above that start including the "coaching" features or multisport features that you probably don't need.