Posted by Teresa Ibanez
on 11/24/2010
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Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I wanted a heart rate monitor to use for general exercise and fitness. I bought four of the Timex monitors, one for myself and three for Christmas gifts. I have used mine several times and it works fine. The machines I use at my athletic club pick up the heart rate signal automatically so I can see the heart rate without looking at the watch. I wear the watch to record the length of the workout, the average heart rate, and the maximum. I like this amount of information; I don't want to download training information to a computer and I don't want calorie information since that would probably be inaccurate anyway; that is, you get the same calorie count for a 110 woman as a 230 pound man (me). There is a small exercise booklet that comes with the watch and monitor that gives some useful information to correlate your heart rate and length of workout with your fitness level. You can use this to calculate points for the workout and compare that with the range of points you should be accumulating every week for various activities like running a 10K or a marathon. Putting the monitor strap on is only a minor inconvenience. I have had no read-out problems. The wrist watch works as a watch when not showing heart rate. This is an excellent product for the price.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Timex T5G941 Heart Rate Monitor Watch
Product Description:
The affordable, entry-level Timex T5G941 is great for those just starting out with heart rate monitoring. This digital wristwatch-style monitor continuously tracks your heart rate via a comfortable, elastic chest strap (which fists chest sizes from 25 to 53 inches). The large, easy-to-read display recalls your activity time and average, peak, and minimum heart rate, and it includes 12/24 hour time and month/date display. It also features INDIGLO night light backlighting, up to 2 years of battery life, and is water resistant to 30 meters (100 feet)--enabling it to withstand splashes and accidental dunks into the water, but not suitable for swimming.
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Posted by Teresa Ibanez
on 11/21/2010
·
Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Before settling on the Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor, I did a lot of research on the various types of HRM out there. I was looking for a HRM that wouldn't just give me my heart rate, but I also wanted a bit more features, but I didn't need a lot of features that the higher numbered FT models offered.
When I saw the FT7 model, I was surprised to see so little reviews or mentions of this model. I'm not sure why, maybe this is a newer model or Polar just prefers directing people to the more expensive models because I kept seeing numerous reviews for the F6 or F7, FT40, and FT60 models.
After comparing various Polar HRMs, I settled for the FT7 because it had all the features that I was looking for in a HRM.
Watch/HRM
-Monitors heart rates. I found the monitoring to be accurate except underwater. (I'll go into detail about that a bit later.)
-Counts Calories. The Calorie counter seems to be quite accurate. I have used it for walking, spinning classes, swimming, and strength training sessions and the calorie counts are reasonable.
-Target heart rate graph. The graph is useful for seeing where you are and if you're within your minimum and maximum HR "fitness" ranges during a session.
-Very user friendly. Even though there aren't any instructions on setting up the watch, I didn't think they were needed. I didn't even bother looking at the manual until I was done configuring the watch, but I've never been one to read manuals. However, others may find the lack of a detailed manual a bit frustrating.
-Stores Training Files. Which include records of session durations, calories burned, average HR, Maximum HR, and the amount of time your workout HR was spent in the target range.
-Weekly Summaries. This basically sums up the total amount of time spent training, the total calories during each session, and how many sessions during the week.
-Settings are very easy to change especially if you have any weight changes and want to keep an accurate count of calories being burned.
-There is also a backlight, which is quite handy if you're somewhere with minimal lighting.
-I also found out that if you hold the "down arrow" button, you can change the time to a second time zone that you can set by going through the "quick menu" which is accessed by holding down the "backlight button (*)" which also leads to the "button lock" feature. If you hold down the "up arrow" button, you can change the "Watch face" to just display the time and date or the time and date and logo, which is smaller on the face, but it includes seconds and FT7 logo along the bottom.
-The women's watch is black with a gold stripe down the center of the band. I found the design to be all right. It is less flashy and colorful as the other models, which is one reason I like this watch. I can wear it with my work clothes and it does not stand out much.
-User changeable batteries. This was something I really wanted out of my HRM. I never liked sending something to the manufacturer for replacements even under warranty. I just don't like dealing with shipping, waiting, and extra fees.
-Water Resistant. I have used this HRM in the pool and the monitoring is relatively accurate when it actually reads the transmitter. I believe the Polar website notes that in some highly chlorinated pools or seawater the transmitter will not be picked up underwater. The pool in my gym is very chlorinated and there were times when the HRM will not pick up my heart rate. But if I just sit still in the water for a minute or so the watch will pick up the signal again. Though this can get annoying if you are trying to swim laps for endurance. The watch still gives me a fair calculation of calories I have burned during my swim sessions. Though the calorie count is most likely lower since I'm not sure how long the watch is not reading my heart rate during times when I am swimming several laps nonstop. I also tried using this in a saltwater treated pool and the moment I went underwater the transmitter does not work at all. So I'm guessing that this HRM will not work if you are swimming in the ocean.
Chest Strap
-The Chest strap is very comfortable, and I usually don't feel it, but then again it might be because I'm used to having something strapped around my chest all day. And I have had no problems of it slipping. It is also recommended to wet the straps a little. I usually just wet my hands a bit and rub against the cloth area, and I'm good to go.
-User changeable batteries. The transmitter pops off easily from the strap, and like the watch, I can change my own batteries, but unfortunately the watch and transmitter use different types of batteries.
-Another perk is that most of the machines in my gym also pick up the transmitter readings, allowing me not have to keep glancing at my watch while I'm on the elliptical or cycling.
Overall, I really like this watch. For the price I paid, it was worth it and it gives me all the basic things I need to monitor my workout sessions.
If you want a simple watch that gives you fairly accurate heart rates, calorie burns, training records, and user changeable batteries the FT7 is a cheaper option to the FT40 and FT60 models.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor - Women's
Product Description:
FEATURES of the Women's FT7 Heart Rate Monitor by Polar The EnergyPointer tells you if the main effect of your training is fitness improvement or fat burning Displays calories burned Comes with comfortable WearLinktextile transmitter and has coded heart rate transmission to avoid cross-talk Connects to your online training diary at polarpersonaltrainer.com with optional Polar FlowLink Basic Features Backlight Graphical target zone indicator Heart rate (displayed as % of maximum heart rate) Heart rate (displayed as bpm) HeartTouch, button-free operation of wrist unit KeyLock Manual target zone (% / bpm) - upper limit Water resistant - 50m Data Transfer Compatible with polarpersonaltrainer.com with Polar FlowLink Language Features Display text in English, German, Finnish, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian Polar Exercise Features Average heart rate of total exercise Exercise Date Maximum heart rate of total exercise Polar EnergyPointer Polar OwnCal Polar OwnCode (5kHz) Wireless ECG accurate heart rate Recording features Average heart rate Calorie expenditure Exercise Time (total) Exercise file info page with date and time Maximum heart rate Number of exercise files (with summaries) - 99 Transmitter Belt WearLinktransmitter (user changeable battery) Watch Features Alarm with snooze Date and weekday indicator Dual time zone Low battery indicator StopWatch Time of day (12/24h) with alarm User replaceable battery Includes Manual Polar FT7 Polar WearLinktransmitter
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