Concept2 Forum

I have an old basic polar strap and watch. It's faultless. But I struggle to see it clearly when rowing and it'd be nice to have a log of HR etc etc on RowPro.

But the newer monitors compatible with the PM5 seem according to reviews to be unreliable and a pita with batteries going flat all the time etc.

Should I just stick with my polar or are there some reliable monitors out there my googling is failing to turn up?

TY!

Unfortunately polar is not compatible with the PM5.

Ant+ or Bluetooth only. If you have problems with the newer soft strap monitor (like me) you can buy the hard plastic style ones for it. It will be cheaper for you too. Some say that the electrode gel works good but- meh. I like the hard plastic one

If you are in the US, the Garmin HRM-1G ANT+ belt is a great choice: very inexpensive on ebay used and unused, long battery life IME, dropouts sending to PM5 unusual, doesn't demand much in the way of a conductive medium between skin and sensor. I have no idea of availability UK/EU.

RowingBob2 wrote:I have an old basic polar strap and watch. It's faultless. But I struggle to see it clearly when rowing and it'd be nice to have a log of HR etc etc on RowPro.

But the newer monitors compatible with the PM5 seem according to reviews to be unreliable and a pita with batteries going flat all the time etc.

Should I just stick with my polar or are there some reliable monitors out there my googling is failing to turn up?

TY!

Strap the watch on the handle - no problem. That's what I used to have to do OTW and it carried over fine on the erg until I eventually got a PM3 and a receiver for it.

Get a Garmin ANT+ chest strap, they are awesome.

This gives you your HR on the screen on the monitor and a great live graph in RowPro and all the HR data you need at the end of each split.

The graph in RowPro is particularly useful as you can look at the "Slope" as your heartrate drifts with intensity.

I have a Polar H7 - works great with the PM5. No drop outs at all.
When done using it, you need to rinse the module and dry it off so the battery doesn't stay active 'on' and wear out prematurely.

Carl Watts wrote:Get a Garmin ANT+ chest strap, they are awesome.

This gives you your HR on the screen on the monitor and a great live graph in RowPro and all the HR data you need at the end of each split.

The graph in RowPro is particularly useful as you can look at the "Slope" as your heartrate drifts with intensity.

+1 on this. I have the same setup on the PM5. its easy peasy. do have to moisten the meter to get it to turn on but easy enough for my water jug.

The only bad thing is its cold when you put it on

danielcccook wrote:Unfortunately polar is not compatible with the PM5.

Ant+ or Bluetooth only. If you have problems with the newer soft strap monitor (like me) you can buy the hard plastic style ones for it. It will be cheaper for you too. Some say that the electrode gel works good but- meh. I like the hard plastic one

Polar offers a BT. I use it with my PM5, also sends to the ergdata app on iPhone ;and from PM to Row Pro. But hang onto the old watch/strap of course, for all the non-pm5s you will use and for races.

Have you guys compared the readings between watch+strap and PM5+strap?
My Suunto watch+strap is giving far more accurate readings then PM5+strap(ANT+).
Signal to the PM5 can lag as much as 4-5bpm. It's not very useful if you want to do a precise UT practice or very short intervals.

Anyway, the cool kids are using the Wahoo Tickr HR strap. It's Bluetooth and ANT+.
http://www.amazon.com/Wahoo-TICKR-Monit ... uckgo-d-20

s2kohio wrote:I have a Polar H7 - works great with the PM5. No drop outs at all.
When done using it, you need to rinse the module and dry it off so the battery doesn't stay active 'on' and wear out prematurely.

Me too. Works fantastic. There's a slight lag but very accurate and virtually no drops for me.

Polar H7 works perfectly with PM5. Older Polar units do not have the Bluetooth connectivity required.

Lee

i have both the garmin ant (came with the edge 705 mountainbike gps)
and the h7.

i prefer the garmin - the h7 was having dropouts (maybe distance?) - the garmin uses more battery (that said i usually replace them yearly regardless).
i also have a vivosmart HR watch - which is not exactly accurate compared to the others.

I have run all three on the same row and compared - the H7 / ANT are nearly exactly the same.

Thanks everyone!

bisqeet. Which Garmin do you have exactly?

The one I use is this.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/shop-by ... 10996.html

Note there are some bad reviews on the net about the soft strap version not working after a few months so I would not recommend it.

http://www.runworks.com/2014/06/garmin- ... -failures/

Really I cannot feel the strap when rowing, its totally non invasive.

Thanks Chris. Your hard strap monitor says it's ANT. Not ANT+ as per PM5 requirements specifications.

Does it work with the PM5 OK?