need help with heart rate trouble shooting!

polyesterchesters
polyesterchesters Posts: 81 Member
edited September 20 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi! I just bought the Polar F4, and this is my 2nd day with it. Yestarday, it went fine (although to my dismay I was only burning 537 calories on my elliptical for an hour rather than the 650 mfp was calculating, but I digress....) I was using it today, and it would be going along fine, and then it would signal my heart rate a zero then it would seem to reboot and have my heart rate again.

At first I thought it was because I had the watch piece too close to the heart rate moniter on the machine, but it even did it when I was well away. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • ractayjon
    ractayjon Posts: 365
    you need to make sure the body strap indicators stay wet. If they dry up you can lose signal. Try a littel lubricant (ky jelly or vaseline) rather then water when you put it on - it may help. Once you start sweating it lubrictes itself.
    If this doesnt work then ?? maybe a faulty monitor? I dont know.
  • PanicAtTheBuffet
    PanicAtTheBuffet Posts: 374
    When mine used to do that, I just tightened the strap a little more. Make sure you wet the skin where it makes contact on your chest.

    Congrats on your 12 pounds!
  • sprags
    sprags Posts: 56
    Was your watch signaling your HR at zero or was the machine? If it's the watch...it's because it was too close to your HR strap around your chest (it has to research for the signal then). If it was the machine...it may just be a faulty machine or it was picking up someone elses monitor and making it skip.

    Yesterday I was running on the treadmill and my machine said my HR was 210! I looked at my watch and it was only 150. Hope that helps some!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Treadmills have separate receivers for the Polar transmitters. The receiver is a standard Polar part, a module that plugs into a connector on the circuit board. So it is reading the signal separately from the wristband receiver that you wear. There are a number of things that can affect signal reception, just as there are factors that will interfere with signal reception from the chest strap. As a result, the two numbers will not always agree.

    From what I can tell, there are issues with the Polar WearLink chest straps (the soft straps). Polar recommends that you wear them tight--like marks-on-the-skin tight. They also recommend that you wash out the strap and receiver after each use.

    I used a wearlink strap for about 6 mos, then it started acting up and giving irregular readings. I thought it was the battery and had it replaced--no change in performance. That's when I contacted the Polar repair center at Creative Health Products and they gave me the wear and washing info. That worked for about a month, then the problems started again. Both my wife and I have had a number of Polar products so we have a couple of the old plastic straps lying around. I just switched back to that and I have not had a problem since. And I don't even have to wet it down that much--usually I am too impatient to walk over to the bathroom, so I just lick the sensor pads on the strap and it works fine.
  • polyesterchesters
    polyesterchesters Posts: 81 Member
    Thanks for the tips! I am going to try some petroleum jelly instead of water and see if it works, as for making it tighter, I am not sure I can go any tighter right now!!!
  • Questfor250
    Questfor250 Posts: 155
    yup, moisture is the key to maintaining contact. My wife thinks I am weird when I lick my fingers and lube them up to slip under the contacts of my body bugg. It works. Once I am sweating it isn't an issue.
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