Concept2 Forum

Greetings. I use a Concept 2 rower at my gym, so my wife and I decided to buy our own machine for home use as a Christmas present. My question involves being able to use a heart monitor with the new rower.

Our plan is to buy the Model E with the PM5 monitor. I currently use an Apple iWatch 3 with my Apple iPhone to monitor my heart rate while rowing in the gym. I find it a bit cumbersome to try to look at the tiny heart rate readout on my wrist (iWatch) while rowing, and think it will be much more convenient to read the heart rate while displayed on the PM5.

Question(s) - Is anything I currently use compatible with the PM5? For the sake of argument, will I be better off to also purchase a strap on chest monitor belt and transmitter that is designed to be compatible as proprietary equipment? If this is suggested, what will I need to give me the best result? While I am in the buying mode, I may want to go ahead and get what I need and be done with the purchases.

Thanks for any help!

I use a Wahoo tickr strap. On my PM5 bikeerg I can connect H.R. thru the erg data app. On my older rower that has a PM2 I use my iPhone and connect my HR thru Wahoo's free phone APP

I use a Scosche Rhythm+ wrist monitor. Bluetooth Smart and ANT, it pairs with my PM5 and Polar Beat on my iPhone. Much more comfortable than a chest strap.

DCRainmaker has thorough review on the product here: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/sco ... tical.html

Get yourself a Wahoo Tickr.

Watches are hopeless as a HRM for rowing.

Concept 2 sell the Garmin HRM1G hard strap version and thats what I use. No problems with it connecting but the only issue was the construction of the case in the battery area and mine essentially failed after a few years of regular use. The model is a HRM1G and they are cheap as chips on E-Bay sent direct from China where they are manufactured. Not even worth replacing the battery a second time anyway at this price. I bought 2 of them so your not always having to run about wondering where you left it last.

Wahoo Tickr is what I use when I can bothered to remember to use it

The great thing about the Wahoo Tickr, besides being able to get to the battery is that you can upload all your exercises to the Wahoo APP.

Ripples wrote: ↑

December 9th, 2019, 2:44 pm

I use a Scosche Rhythm+ wrist monitor. Bluetooth Smart and ANT, it pairs with my PM5 and Polar Beat on my iPhone. Much more comfortable than a chest strap.

DCRainmaker has thorough review on the product here: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/sco ... tical.html

I use the same. I keep in on my forearm when I row. Pretty reliable.

I use the Garmin which links Ant to the PM5 which in turn uses bluetooth to Ergdata on the iPhone. Once paired for the first time it all seems to mostly work and all data is saved on the phone and sync'd with the online C2 Log. Occasionally have to manually pair the belt to PM5 before I start but usually it just comes up paired automatically if I give it a minute or two to get itself properly booted. Not had any issues with batteries or belt quality over this first year of use. I used Polar belts on my old Model C/PM3, and that worked at least as well. The battery would die after about three years of use which meant a new belt as it was not swapable.

Yep - the TickR for me too - the Garmin works as well and there are some BT ones too that work with the PM5 - have been a lot of talk in the threads
You need a chest strap (or upper arm) not a wrist - they just don't work.
This may help https://quantifiedrowing.com/

lindsayh wrote: ↑

December 10th, 2019, 6:00 am

Yep - the TickR for me too - the Garmin works as well and there are some BT ones too that work with the PM5 - have been a lot of talk in the threads
You need a chest strap (or upper arm) not a wrist - they just don't work.
This may help https://quantifiedrowing.com/

I also like the TickR.
The Apple watch is actually quite accurate.

David

i have been looking at the smart watches for monitoring of my recently diagnosed Angina. from what ive read the apple watch is the most accurate but is also by far the most expensive. there are a multitude of smart watches out there and i realise that they are not the most accurate device but better than nothing. as of next week i will be wearing a hospital supplied heart monitor so that will be interesting. only for a week though. so i have a choice to make re which smart watch i get and sooner rather than later. to be honest i have it narrowed down to two.
one does heart rate, blood pressure and sleep monitoring while the other one does all that plus blood oxygen and it says it has an ecg which i assume is just a graph of your heart rate etc.

I've owned almost every HRM on the market - Polar H1, Polar H7, Polar H10, Garmin HRM1G, HRM3, HRM-Run, Wahoo Tickr.

Would not recommend the Tickr. Despite others raving about it, I found the strap one of the least comfortable, and had intermittent connectivity issues with a PM4 and PM5, as well as my Garmin smartwatches.

Garmin HRM1G (hard plastic) straps seem the most reliable (though ANT+ only, no BTLE) and I've found them for $2.00CAD (not a typo) at a thrift-store. Despite the hard plastic strap (with a short fabric section) they aren't uncomfortable and they stay in place well. Battery swap is done without tools. I keep an HRM1G around as a spare.

The newer Garmin HRMs with detachable pods use four TINY screws to access the battery compartment and these have a tendency to strip out. Further, once you open a newer Garmin HRM to swap the battery, it's a crap-shoot whether they'll survive long. No idea why but they often die within 6 months of a battery swap, no matter how careful you are to get the seal back in place. (it's a proprietary seal, not a simple o-ring - boo, hiss)

Polar H10 is the current king of the hill.

• Most comfortable strap of them all, rubber dots keep it in place without being tight enough to constrict your chest
• Has ANT+, dual-channel BTLE, and Polar 5kHz "GymLink" simultaneous broadcast
• You can swap the battery without tools (CR2025 but also accepts more common CR2032) and the battery door uses a standard o-ring
• has onboard memory so if you want to log a workout (run, bike, wevs), you can do it from a smartphone app, without a smartwatch, or even directly with the HRM, syncing later

I also have several HRM and I also like the Polar H10 best. But strangely enough my Polar H10 can't be updated to the latest firmware. I had previously updated it to the ANT+ firmware, but since then it couldn't be updated.

FRiC wrote: ↑

December 12th, 2019, 12:31 pm

I also have several HRM and I also like the Polar H10 best. But strangely enough my Polar H10 can't be updated to the latest firmware. I had previously updated it to the ANT+ firmware, but since then it couldn't be updated.

Not sure if this is the cause of your H10's issues, FRiC, but there's a glitch in the Polar smartphone apps that makes updating a bear.

I had to install both the Polar Beat, and Polar Flow apps, make sure I had a Polar account, and was logged into that account in both apps.

Only after doing ALL of that would Polar Beat connect to the H10 and check for a firmware update.