Which heart rate monitor? product feedback anyone???

I'm looking to buy a heart moniter to more accurately calculate my calories burned. I don't want anything super fancy or expensive.

Has anyone recently bought one?? What do you recommend? are there any that you can wear in the water?

p.s. I'm a female 24yrs 149lbs 5'5" I bike, walk, jog, swim, pilates, play with my little weights, etc.

What do you consider "super expensive"?

Any of these will do - the Polar brand is the top seller for a reason. The F11 is probably a bit overkill, but the posters here love their Polars.  

around $100-150 would be acceptable, but not much over that.

I just bought a Timex one. I was leaning towards a Polar, but the fact that it only comes with a 6 month battery warranty and the reports are its $50+ to have them replace the battery when it dies, really gave me a bad taste about their products.

I will let you know how the Timex works.

Polar is tops IMO. Accurate, durable and - if you like that kind of thing - they can be super cute!

I swear by my Polar F4. It gives me accurate readings, tells me when I'm not doing enough/doing too much, and it makes me feel like an exerciser. :P

The Polar F4 is going for about $90, comes in red, ice, and black, and is water-resistant up to 50 meters underwater. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's been great for me.

P.S. - I have the Berry one, and I keep it on my wrist when I'm not working out because it's that acceptable as a cute watch.

I just bought a Polar F6 for $130ish on Amazon.  Best thing I've purchased to help in my weight loss.  This model will track your calories burned during exercise so you get a more accurate count (since the machines can vary greatly).  It's great!

were i you, i'd seriously look into buying a m-o-n-i-t-o-r and NOT a m-o-n-i-t-e-r...i have one of the former and have gotten much better results with it...

I have 2 polar monitors, a cs200 for my bike & a rs200 for running (with a foot pod) IMHO polar are great, if we have had ANY problem with them we have sent them to be repaired and they have been back at home within 48hrs their warrantly is fab. For some reason I burn more calories with the rs200, even if I have it running at the same time as my bike one?? So for that reason I like my running one best, LOL.

 

Original Post by llogan10:

I just bought a Timex one. I was leaning towards a Polar, but the fact that it only comes with a 6 month battery warranty and the reports are its $50+ to have them replace the battery when it dies, really gave me a bad taste about their products.

Don't know where you heard that, but it's $15 to replace the battery, not $50, and they are supposed to last a year.

I have a Polar RS200 and I hate it.  It constantly loses the heart signal and gets stuck.  Plus, any of the heart monitors are useless for calculating your calories burned unless you get a metabolism study done based upon your own body.  My gym gladly does that too...for 125.00 + 39.99 for the mask you have to buy.

Original Post by 1pianoman:

were i you, i'd seriously look into buying a m-o-n-i-t-o-r and NOT a m-o-n-i-t-e-r...i have one of the former and have gotten much better results with it...

 Thank god this guy is here to correct our spelling errors. Thanks to everyone else for the feedback! I feel a lot less lost now!

Ok well, I'm debating between the Polar F6 and F4. I'm leaning toward the F4 because it seems simpler and it's less expensive. Any thoughts from someone who owns one of these two models???

Well, unlike the F4 the Polar F6 has a coded chest strap, so you won't receive your neighbour's signals if you work out close to someone else or do group runs. This doesn't matter if you're not going to be near other HRM users while working out, so it's mostly a question of what use you're going to get out of it.

  And the F4 has cuter designs, I'm told - I wouldn't know, I'm a guy and I can't tell the difference when looking at them, except that they've got different colours :-P

 The underlying technology is mostly the same, and the various mathematical formulas they use to derive calories burned from heart rate aren't subject to change the way design is. Though I would recommend you get one with the OwnZone testing - the monitor I have doesn't come with that and it was a bear to do the rockport walk test and some other VoMax tests to get the details right.

I have the Polar F11 and love it. It does come with the OwnZone testing. You can test your fitness level and get your OwnIndex, create your own program, etc. It too has made a huge difference in my workouts and weightloss. I believe I paid around 139 for it about a year ago.