New indoor rower....looking to get my first Concept 2!

[COMike]

Hi everyone,

I have been lurking on here for a bit and decided to become a member of the community.

I will be purchasing a Concept 2 D within the next week and am very excited to begin training with it. This will be used for my fitness and getting back into shape after four years of surgeries and weight gain after retiring from the military. Just about every one of my joints has been reconstructed ... YUCK! Gradual weight gain has put me into a state I vowed I would never let myself get into.

I would like to be able to use the PM5 with a heart monitor and am still trying to figure out just which one to get. I have an iPhone 5 and a laptop. I have trained with a polar monitor before but believe that it is not supported by the PM5. If you have suggestions both good and bad please fire away!

Nice to be here and cant wait to get the C2 and begin training again!

Cheers,

Mike

[dsissitka]

Congrats!

I would like to be able to use the PM5 with a heart monitor and am still trying to figure out just which one to get.

I would go with the Polar H7. It will work with your PM5, your phone, and your laptop if it supports Bluetooth 4/Low Energy/Smart. I've sent one of mine through the washer and still works fine.

[COMike]

Thanks! I will be sure to look into that. I have always liked Polar products.

[gregsmith01748]

I second the Polar H7. It works great for me. I use it with the wahoo fitness app on my iPhone 5 with few problems. The battery life on the H7 could be better, but it has been reliable and has few problems with dropouts or erratic readings.

I've never used it with the PM5, so I can't comment on that.

[COMike]

Thanks!!!

I am going to be getting one of them shortly! I appreciate chest strap HRMs as opposed to wrist ones as I have found using some buddies wrist models and they did not appeal to me.

[keith7747]

Greetings all,
I am also new to the Rowing field and I had purchased the Concept2 Model D two weeks ago.
Im 63 years old and a very active cyclist who rides on an average of 4,000 + miles each year.
I wanted something that would give me more of a cardio workout then what I was doing.
I do love this machine.
At this time I do one workout in the evening when I get home from work, and several thru the weekend days.
But one about 15 minutes each time.
Cant remember what my drag time is, but my setting is on 4.
I am rowing about 32 s/m.
Doing intervals.
I see by the other posts on the PM5 using other ANT+ attachments.
I have 3 different HR Straps, Garmins, and Bontrager all 3 have the ANT+ technology and they all work fine with the PM5
ALSO, I have the ERG DATA APP for my iPhone 5s and it works perfect as well. I also have external speakers that is hooked up to my 5s.

NOW the only issue I have or had was when I was trying to update the Firmware from 15 to 16.
My computer did not download to my flashdrive, OR, the PM5 did not take the flashdrive with the firmware on it.
I talked to Will in support, and I had to disconnect the PM5 from the machine to hook up to my computer so the program could download it.
So it will be a hit or miss if you want to upgrade the firmware using the flashdrive.
The only way I will know if there is an upgrade is if the website announces it, then I can connect the PM5 to the software on the computer .
SO FAR: I love the machine, and the support has been very helpful.

I am so glad I don't have to talk to someone in another country when ya need help!!!
If you need tech help, ask for Will.

[keith7747]

Well I guess I spoke too soon,
for the 2nd time now within a month of owning it, the PM5 is giving me error codes and freezing up.
It all has to do with the flash drive. I have went thru 3 different thumb drives and they all will do it after a while.
This is the 2nd PM5 unit I've tried.

[Hollywood_Kuma]

Keith,

I also had some problems with the PM5 - I think there are a few software bugs that need to be squashed.

The main problems were, however, with the C2 supplied USB stick, rather than the monitor. Replacing the C2 USB stick with a third party stick fixed a lot of issues. I still get the odd strange error message, but with my new (non-C2) USB stick, I don't have any major issues.

Make sure you format the USB stick for FAT/FAT32 and not NTFS, as I don't think the latter is supported.