Heart Rate Monitor with or without chest strap?

I have a Polar F6 which has the chest strap - love it. I've always been told without the chest strap it's much less accurate. Chest strap doesn't bother me at all - when I run, I attach the watch to my water belt so it's not even on my wrist.

thanks for all the feedback. I was considering one, but wasn't sure how the strap would feel or if it would fall off or something.

thanks everyone!

I have one, but it doesn't have the chest strap. To me, it's not as accurate, because for the wrist component only to detect my heart rate I have to update it manually by pressing down the button on the watch with a fleshy part of my thumb (to complete/close the circut and allow it to get my heart rate) -- and a lot of times, it doesn't work! I hate having to stop in the middle of my workout to press the button and wait 5 seconds to make sure it registered my current heart rate. I'd much rather have a chest strap that was auto monitoring me all the time and automatically updating the info instead of relying on me to do it. Let me tell you, it's not always convenient! You have to be able to hold your wrist and finger that presses the button really steadily to take a reading.

I can't even tell you how many times I was doing an aerobic workout and could not get the dang thing to register my heart rate (because you seriously have to press that button just right and the stars have to be aligned) and so I know by the end the resulting calories burned isn't accurate. Some days I'll stop (like if I'm out running) and update it, but that seems counter-productive. If I'm following an aerobic DVD I don't want to stop because I'm in the groove (and those instructors aren't going to stop unless I pause them!)

I am going to ask for a new one this Christmas -- one WITH a chest strap, because I've heard nothing but good things about them. And I think it'd make my workout life a lot easier and more accurate.