[darkpuppet]

naz,Apr 3 2008, 05:20 PM Wrote:dp can you post some tech about what to look for in a heart rate monitor?  i have been thinking about purchasing one also, but i don't really know what to look for.  is there a way to compare accuracy across different models?
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It really depends on what you want it for... but I just did a lot of reading up on the web. The general concensus is to stay away from the Nike/Reebok/no-name heart rate monitors. They offer basic functionality and don't have very robust or accurate training functions...

Which tends to bring one back to Polar. And they're one of the first, and still the original. I would recommend hitting up their website, and seeing what they have through the different ranges.

To track the major fitness factors,

The big things to look for is something that has target heart rate alarms (lower and upper to make sure you're not slacking or overdoing it), and for my usage I looked for a heart rate monitor with calorie tracking (which tends to be slightly more accurate than the cardio machines at the gym's calculations), a fitness test (ie, myIndex™ which takes your resting heartrate and calculates an approximate VO2 max from it (Polar uses a calculation based on several clinical studies).

Now, if you're going to get really serious, you may want to look for a HRM that allows you to enter in a manual VO2 max and maximum heartrate for even more accurate measurements. However, you'd have to get clinically tested for those numbers.

Now, there are HRMs for many uses. I find that even though they can be used as an everyday watch, they tend to be a tad bulky, so take that into consideration when you go shopping -- you don't need a watch that does everything (never, ever follow my example :P).

Then you also have options of getting HRMs that are cycling computers which allows you to track speed, distance, etc. However, for the cost of an HRM and the beating a bike can take, I feel a bit more comfortable keeping the two separate.

I guess the last consideration is the transmission type.. I'd just make sure it's at least FM, and it's a bonus to get coded transmission. Make sure that the strap is replaceable and sized appropriately for your chest. They come in multiple sizes.

Another handy feature to check for is to make sure that the HRM and chest strap sender have easy to change replaceable batteries. Mine have covers that you use a dime to unscrew. Which simplifies things as HRMs tend to go through batteries quicker than your average watch.

Other than that, it's really a personal preference thing.