HR Monitor

[HornetMaX]

Polar H9 here. Cheaper than the H10 and just as accurate. If you splash for the H10 you get 2 simultaneous BT connections and a marginally better strap (not that the cheapo H9 strap is a problem for me). So yeah, up to you between the two, if the extras are worth the money.

Connection dropping has been a non-issue for me: over 2 years at 4 sessions/week, BT or ANT, I just experienced maybe 3-4 drops. 2 of them were due to the battery being low. The remaining two maybe to the belt not being wet enough. Now I routinely lick the sensor area before putting the strap on (nobody is watching me and it reminds me of Jesus Quintana licking his bowling ball). Weekly hand wash, just water and solid soap.

If you're into that, with the H9 and H10 you can also do HRV tests. Polar has one in its app (it estimates your VO2max), or you can use Kubiuos HRV app.

Other HRMs may be cheaper and as good, I just didn't try them.

P.S.
I had a cheap polar wrist watch with integrated (optical) HR sensor: that was bad in terms of accuracy (especially doing intervals). No good.

[Tsnor]

Polar H9 here. Cheaper than the H10 and just as accurate. If you splash for the H10 you get 2 simultaneous BT connections and a marginally better strap (not that the cheapo H9 strap is a problem for me).

Eventually the belt on your H9 will fail. I got 600 hours training time out of mine (H10), but I sent it through the washing machine. Now I hand wash.

When your belt does fail the H10 belt is compatible and has a better reception/sensor grid (according to polar) and slightly nicer buckle. $30 on amazon. It snaps onto the h9 module just like your current H9 belt. Polar explicitly says H9 module is compatible with H10 belt. https://www.amazon.com/Polar-Chest-Stra ... th=1&psc=1

DCRainmaker says H10 and H9 are the same silicon, just the H9 is not allowed to use 2nd BTLE radio, etc., so accuracy once you have the better belt should be identical. And H9 accuracy with the original H9 belt is excellent, much better than a cheapo belt.

OTW the H10 is much better. It will record HR without a phone so you can wear it and not take your phone OTW. H9 needs your phone in range to record any data.

[HornetMaX]

Eventually the belt on your H9 will fail.

Eventually everything will fail

When your belt does fail the H10 belt is compatible and has a better reception/sensor grid (according to polar) and slightly nicer buckle.

It's the "according to polar" part that doesn't convince me. But yeah, the pro strap is supposed to be better.

OTW the H10 is much better. It will record HR without a phone so you can wear it and not take your phone OTW. H9 needs your phone in range to record any data.

True. For OTW, the onboard memory of the H10 makes it better. Or if you swim. Or if you fall off the boat

[jseymour]

I've an old-school Polar HRM strap I use in conjunction with the add-on HRM pickup for the PM3 on my Model D. I lightly wet the sensor pads on the back of the strap, snap it on, and forget it's even there. (I've been using the same band at the gym for years.)

After the workout I thoroughly rinse the sensor pads with warm water, blot them mostly dry with a towel, screw up a square of TP and make sure the snap-ends on the strap are dry, and hang the strap up to air dry. I make sure the terminals on the back of the HRM, itself, are dry.

I also wear an Apple Watch for recording the session. I generally find the heart rates it records are in-line with the Polar chest band's numbers, except the Apple Watch tends to record a somewhat higher max rate than I ever see displayed on the PM3.

[Carl Watts]

Most of the bands are pretty much the same in terms of the HR numbers, the big problems are typically total dropouts or interference or simply no connection.

They may have appeared to get a bit better over the years due to the math they use in the calculation but the fact remains your HR is a very low frequency in electronics terms and so any change that then converted to bpm over a short sample time leads to a relatively large inaccuracy. For steady state rowing they are very accurate because your HR is not changing quickly or basically not at all but things like short hard intervals, not so much.

So basically the the technology works like this. Many moons ago I built my own frequency counter, its very old tech from the 1990's but its very accurate but you have to wait for very long sampling periods to get the accuracy, sometimes up to 90 seconds before its stops counting and updates the display. Really its designed to measure the likes of stable crystal frequencies, not things that are changing. It can run shorter times but the decimal point moves and you get less numbers on the display so less accuracy.

What has changed is counters now use math or algorithms and instead of straight counting it also uses predictive measurement, enter the micro into the equation.

Lets take your HR strap. Basically old school is literally count for 60 seconds if you want a very accurate result for a steady state row at constant pace this works pretty well. This is no good most of the time because you want the display to change every few seconds not once a minute, so what it does now is looks at the history and the time between pulses. This way it knows if your HR is going up, down or unchanged from one pulse to the next. You now get a better instantaneous reading by factoring in both the history it starts to predict rather than to have to wait to actually measure. The better the algorithm and the faster and more accurate it can measure the time between the pulses the better it is, but like I said the relative time between heartbeats is incredibly slow really compared to my counter that's looking at millions of counts per second, not like 3, 4 tops so the tech available now is overkill in terms of trying to get accuracy improvements.

The straps have improved in terms of being able to pickup your HR in the first place. The Garmin RUN has not missed a beat so far and its had one battery change. Rather than "Accuracy" now you are just more interested in it working consistently.

[RayOfSunshine]

The straps have improved in terms of being able to pickup your HR in the first place. The Garmin RUN has not missed a beat so far and its had one battery change. Rather than "Accuracy" now you are just more interested in it working consistently.

Thanks for your posts. It's all about connection and comfort these days! I loved the hard strap Garmin. The soft straps (Garmin HRM-dual, Polar, etc.) always seem to pinch me a bit. I'm probably going to order the Garmin RUN based on your review. I need a new one for the elasticity.. my current band works fine on the rower, but on the skierg it tends to slips a bit (and loses connection).

[HornetMaX]

Thanks for your posts. It's all about connection and comfort these days! I loved the hard strap Garmin. The soft straps (Garmin HRM-dual, Polar, etc.) always seem to pinch me a bit. I'm probably going to order the Garmin RUN based on your review. I need a new one for the elasticity.. my current band works fine on the rower, but on the skierg it tends to slips a bit (and loses connection).

Isn't the RUN discontinued ? Also, reading the specs it seems it's ANT only, no BT.

[Carl Watts]

ANT+ is the way to go, I avoid Bluetooth at all cost.

Am forced to use Bluetooth between the PC and the WattBike B Monitor, it seems great but my history with Bluetooth leads me to avoid it.

I have both a Bluetooth and an ANT+ USB dongle in the PC.

Not Sure if the Garmin RUN is still in production, there is also the PRO and the SWIM versions. Another thing to avoid is buying a second hand strap, just not worth it. A new strap only lasts a few years as it is if you have it on like 4 or 5 times a week.

The Garmin HRM1 hard strap was good but the tabs break off the case that hold the battery cover on, water gets in then its dead. Personally the soft strap is more comfortable.

The Garmin PRO is both ANT+ and BLE.

[HornetMaX]

ANT+ is the way to go, I avoid Bluetooth at all cost.

Am forced to use Bluetooth between the PC and the WattBike B Monitor, it seems great but my history with Bluetooth leads me to avoid it.

I have both a Bluetooth and an ANT+ USB dongle in the PC.

Could be the dongle or that specific HRM BT implementation. With the H9 I never had an issue with BT: neither on the PM5 nor on my phone (when connecting to polar app, or kubios stuff etc). That said, never had an issue with ANT either so yeah, either is good. BT is a bit more supported by apps and devices. Probably good to get an HRM that has both. Price will be essentially the same anyway. BT stuff is cheap today.

[Carl Watts]

The Bluetooth protocol kept changing. I tend to use stuff for years and years and you will find that the old stuff no longer works with the new stuff.

The first Gen PM5 is a case in point, it no longer works as it should with Bluetooth, I have to use an old phone with the old monitor to get ErgData to work.

Sure if you have all the latest stuff its probably all compatible. I used to have no end of trouble with some test equipment trying to get Bluetooth to connect, quite frankly it was rubbish. ANT+ has been multi-channel from the get go, Bluetooth wasn't.

ANT+ is far likely to suffer less interreference, just far too many Bluetooth devices floating about these days.

[dabatey]

I bought an H10 and it has worked constantly over a year with one battery change. Ant+ is better for connecting to the C2 I find, but I started to use bluetooth to connect to my computer for cycling turbo trainer after ant+ dongle issues and have had no issues there. I think bluetooth issues and HR monitors are maybe at the c2 end. I find the lick the strap method works fine BTW.

[Carl Watts]

I'm feeling so lucky that I have a laundry downstairs in the garage with all my rowers and the bike.

I can soak the HR strap in pure hot water before putting it on and do not need to lick it, however I confess to taking a nervous last second piss in a 1 litre yogurt container and pouring that down the sink and flush with water right before exercise because I'm to lazy to go upstairs to the toilet.

Lets get the finer details right before the comments start, the strap goes on first and there is no yogurt or even a spoon in the container.

[RayOfSunshine]

I confess to taking a nervous last second piss in a 1 litre yogurt container and pouring that down the sink and flush with water right before exercise

I sure hope y'all don't say "down the sink" like some say "down the hatch" or "down the throat"

[jamesg]

Looking to buy a HR Monitor for training

For training when rowing all you need do is keep the rating below 23-24. The range of ratings is 18 to 35, guess where HR goes up.

If in a long race such as P to M in London, you may want to keep HR down at the start. But judging by what happened last Sunday, those actually doing the racing don't seem to worry much about HR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqqFNWK-Hbs