Heart Rate Monitor Suggestions

Ive had a Polar HRM for about 2 yrs and use the watch as my actual watch also. I just replaced the battery at a jewelry store with no problem and its running just fine. Love my polar HRM, highly recommend it

Wow, I had no idea a Polar HRM would only last about one year with 1 hour per day use. I was considering that one a couple years ago, but have settled on the Fitbit Flex (I realize this is not a heart rate monitor) which is the same price and hopefully lasts longer than a year!

I don't know if you have a bad apple or bad information, but that is crap. I recently replaced my 2nd Polar HRM. It lasted 15 years, and I had to have it refurbished once. I changed the battery two other times. Whoever told you that was smoking something.

Then you are clearly not using your hrm much!
The unit does not need replacing, the battery does. I use various Polar models, an older F55 which is a great fitness unit, with the ability to add workouts. but communicates via irDA. The FT7 which is also a great fitness device, an RCX3 which I use for interval training and split timing, and an H7 bluetooth transmitter which syncs with Polar beat on my iPhone. The F55 (2007) required a battery change after approximately 1.5 years, not as user friendly to change as the newer models such as the FT7, but I did it myself. The H7 transmitter I see requires a battery change about twice a year with me using it an average of 1.25 hrs per day for 4 - 5 days a week.

FYI. FT7 specs from Polar:
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
FT7 Training Computer
Battery type
CR1632
Battery life
Average 11 months (training 1 h/day, 7 days/week)
Operating temperature
-10 °C to +50 °C / 14 °F to 122 °F
Back cover
Polyamide

Watch accuracy
Better than ± 0.5 seconds/day at 25 °C / 77 °F temperature.
Accuracy of heart rate measurement
± 1% or ± 1 bpm, whichever larger, definition applies to steady state conditions.

WearLink+ Transmitter
Battery type
CR 2025
Battery life
Average 700 hours of use

Operating temperature
-10 °C to +50 °C / 14 °F to 122 °F

30m (Suitable for bathing and swimming)

To your stated purpose of getting decent calorie estimates - all of the cheaper Polar's that have been mentioned (FT4/FT7) also give you cheap results, you might say.

They are lacking very needed stat and means of getting it if calorie burn estimate is important - they have no VO2max.

The calculate it based on your BMI (they ask for height and weight) and then decide where that is in the range of good to bad (they ask for gender and age), and from that assume if your BMI is bad, your fitness level and VO2max is bad too.

Bad assumption - because you can actually improve cardiovascular health much faster than you can lose weight.

Cheapest Polar for your stated purpose, is the RS300X, maybe $10-15 more than those cheaper Polar's.

But, what is your workout time, out of your week?
5 hrs of exercise out of 168 hrs in week is only 3% of your time.

And the HRM is ONLY valid for steady-state aerobic where HR is the same for at least 2-4 min. If lifting, Insanity, P90X, or similar stuff where HR is up and down constantly or doing anaerobic like intervals - it's not even valid and will give you inflated values.
So now how much if your weekly time is it actually valid for?

The Fitbit or other activity tracker will do much better for the other 97% of your time.

If your non-exercise TDEE is around 2000 daily or 14000 weekly, and your exercise burns say 5x500 cal = 2500 in the week, that's only 15% of your calories (2500/16500).
Your food logging will probably be off more than that will be off even if you aren't exact on the calorie burn, unless doing more intense or longer amounts of exercise.

Hi there,
yesterday I've order the "Garmin Vivofit Wireless Fitness Wrist Band and Activity Monitor with Heart Rate Monitor".
I don't know yet....waiting the dispatching (can't wait actually).
But I believe is a good balance between the Fit bit and the Polar with HRM that usually are costly.

I just bought the Bodymedia Fit Link. I'm on my second day using it. It's a total eye opener! Now I know how I gain weight so easily. On a day with an hour of intense exercise, I burn roughly 2300 calories in 24 hours. During my spin class today, I burned 433.

I'm short and have less to lose plus take a certain med that kind of slows everything in my body down. Not sure if it also slows the metabolism or not, but I gained 7 lbs. during my first six weeks of taking it.

I really wanted an overall picture of my daily calories so I bought the fit link.

You might want to read their FAQ's on what their device is going to be decent and no where decent at estimating calorie burns on. It's not really the Swiss Army Knife of tools (meaning it can do anything).

Spin bike is not one of those, as step-based is still the primary counter of calories. Body heat has much less influence, and that's even if the sensors work well for you.
The galvanic sensor is the on/off switch basically, that's how it tells it's on you. Don't ever let it sit on the shelf with the sensors touching the strap, it'll think it's on-body. Ya, that's how good that sensor is.

I just bought the Bodymedia Fit Link. I'm on my second day using it. It's a total eye opener! Now I know how I gain weight so easily. On a day with an hour of intense exercise, I burn roughly 2300 calories in 24 hours. During my spin class today, I burned 433.

I'm short and have less to lose plus take a certain med that kind of slows everything in my body down. Not sure if it also slows the metabolism or not, but I gained 7 lbs. during my first six weeks of taking it.

I really wanted an overall picture of my daily calories so I bought the fit link.

I've had mine almost 3 weeks and I love it. It definitely helped me get a more accurate idea of my fitness level, and has motivated me to increase my steps during the day. Getting those little check marks on the app has become quite important!

Someone mentioned bluetooth HRMs eating battery...I have a Zephyr and it's rechargeable. I recharge it about once a week or so, and I've never had a problem with it running down. It syncs with a bunch of different apps including iCardio, Runkeeper and Endomondo, and they feed into MFP. It also uses regular bluetooth instead of bluetooth smart or ant, so it works with a much wider range of phones, including older Androids.