Heart Rate Monitor

I have the one from wal-mart that is less than $30 bucks. It works for my needs. It is a watch type that monitors heart rate, calories burned, and also have stopwatch and countdown functions, in addition to regular watch functions. The only draw back on it is that you have to stop and press the button to check your heart rate, but it hasn't been an issue for me. Another slightly aggravating thing is that depending on what you are doing with your hands, you can hit the button to stop the calorie counter. I wear it when i am cleaning stalls in the barn, and I have to keep a check on it to make sure it is still on.

Like I said, this one meets all my needs, and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

I wouldn't recommend that.

The reason is that a heart rate monitor with the breast-strap measures your heart frequency and not your pulse rate (counted by the blood flushes per minute e.g. at your main artery at your ankle.
If your heart rates gets quite high two muscle contractions of your heart (the heartbeat) could get so close together that the pulse of the blood flush can't be countably told apart.

There are a few of those devices on the market. (e.g. from the brand "Beurer")
Most of them look like a glove with a ring around your index finger. That ring rays light through your fingertip and counts the blood flushes going through it.
But I experienced those as even more uncomfortable to wear and even not really accurate.

I have been reccomending mine to everyone, top rated by consumer reports, good housekeeping and a lot of fitness journals. Luck you it's on sale for only $38!

http://www.amazon.com/Timex-T5G971-Unisex-Personal-Monitor/dp/B000P8VWQS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298410114&sr=8-1

not sure what you mean by "leads" but if you mean the chest strap, it's required to be accurate in any heart rate monitor that actually works.

I am thinking about buying this because I've been searching for a good one for a little while now. While reading the reviews, though, I've seen a few people say that it really overestimates on the calories burned. Have you noticed this? A lot of people also said that they were having to put gel on it and even that wasn't working. You seem to really like yours though (along with numerous people that wrote reviews on Amazon) so I don't know what to do...

I think the people who have a problem with it over estimating have not set it up correctly (their weight, base and max HR) and those that are haveing a problem otherwise are not realizing how important it is to keep the chest strap on correctly (ie: slightly wetting it to create initial connection and having the strap snug enough). If the few (out of thousands of reviews) are useing gel and that is STILL not working (weird) I would say they have a defective chest strap or interference somehow. I also wonder if they are basing their opinion off of comparing the readout to gym machines which are notoriously inaccurate. I trust it, my trainer trusts it and I trust the professional (not just comsumer) reviews I have read. I stand behind it The HR also matchs my count. You can buy ANY HRM and it will turn on, tell you numbers and look as though it's working but how do you KNOW? That is why I researched it, and compiled professional, unbiased and consumer opinions. There is ONE that is better and it cost $200 more (Polar).

I have the one from wal-mart that is less than $30 bucks. It works for my needs. It is a watch type that monitors heart rate, calories burned, and also have stopwatch and countdown functions, in addition to regular watch functions. The only draw back on it is that you have to stop and press the button to check your heart rate, but it hasn't been an issue for me. Another slightly aggravating thing is that depending on what you are doing with your hands, you can hit the button to stop the calorie counter. I wear it when i am cleaning stalls in the barn, and I have to keep a check on it to make sure it is still on.

Like I said, this one meets all my needs, and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

I have the same one and love it. I even checked my heart rate on the elliptical trainer with my HRM and it was exactly the same!
I wouldn't recommend anything else