What's a good affordable HRM?

I am wondering too - great Christmas present for me!

I found this on consumer reports.

sent staffers home with the monitors to see how easy they were to use.

The Timex Personal Trainer was our top performer, but all except the LifeSpan, a model worn like a ring, will provide a consistently accurate heart-rate reading. The chest-strap models allow you to move freely, since you can get your heart-rate reading without touching anything. The wrist-only models require you to touch the device to get a reading. We don't recommend them for cyclists, and runners or swimmers might find them distracting.



Unless otherwise noted, all models have a watch, stopwatch, alarm, backlight, settable target zones, and a zone alarm that beeps or flashes when you dip above or below your set zone. Most have a calorie counter, a feature that we did not test.

CR Best Buy
These models offer the best combination of performance and price. All are Recommended.

Recommended
These are high-scoring models that stand out for the reasons below.

Those with a "recovery" feature
CR BEST BUY AND TOP RATED AT $50.00,Timex Personal Trainer T5G971 ,

Others high rated
Timex Zone Trainer T5J031 ,
New Balance N5 have a heart-rate-recovery feature, which can be used to measure how many beats your heart rate drops within a minute or two, depending on the model.
A bonus for walkers
Bowflex Fit Trainer Plus has a built-in pedometer.

I bit the bullet almost a year ago and bought one. I use bodymedia and love it.

Polar FT4....Polar is amazing and incredibly reliable. The FT7 is also great (I have it too), but it hits the 100 mark.

This. I got my FT4 on Amazon for $60 I think. My husband got an FT7, I think it was right under $100 also on Amazon.

I'm with the above poster. I bought the Polar FT4 on Amazon for $60-70. It is a simplier verson of the Polar HRMs, but it does tell you your heart rate calories burned and duration of work out which is all I needed.