Hi Socarlo,

I do every swim wearing either an H7 or H10. Both work well for me. Some tips;

1. The H7 belt/strap wears out. Occasionally I have to buy a new one. I have found the H10 strap a little better in terms of generating a reliable schedule, but YMMV.

2. The battery in the transmitter (H7 or H10) needs replacing regularly. I have had trouble with Maxell batteries - it may be just me, but they seem to lose power quick. Panasonic batteries seem to work well, as do Eveready.

It’s cheap and fast to replace the battery, but I suspect you may see better results upgrading the soft chest strap/belt. It can be purchased separately from the transmitter.

Wayne, a new request. I use a Wahoo Fitness TICKR when on the bike. It allows me to record heart rate data on my V800 while seeing my HR on my Garmin 520 as I cycle. I suspect I am not the only one doing this.

For the past few months, I have been receiving messages on my v800 that the TICKR is low on battery. This occurs at the start of a workout, and then at about the hour mark and then at rapidly decreasing intervals. I would be grateful were it not for the fact that;

- this occurs even when I have replaced the TICKR battery immediately before the ride
- the Wahoo app suggests the TICKR is delivering a full signal
- my 520 seems entirely unconcerned about the battery strength.

I even purchased a new TICKR but received exactly the same results with the brand new unit.

Is it possible that the V800 is at fault here?

I had a similar experience with the 4iiii Viiiiva. It gave me the low battery warning every ride regardless of how new the battery was.

Hi
I would say kbd helped with this answer. It could be a variety, the V800 knows the battery probably from data the Polar's send from the tranmsitter. Hard to know what battery data they put out if anything, so the V800 probably goes through a pre workout start up and that data is missing from the others, the V800 defaults low battery life?? Have confidence in your transmitter and battery life, and probably every 2-3 months depending on weekly hours of training then be aware of battery life

Hi Bighammer
Thanks for your suggestions.
Unfortunately I already tried them with no success. I got 3 straps (2 were new, one borrowed from a friend) and two h7 units at the time I received the v800. I replaced one of the batteries and checked, using polar beat, that they were reading full charge.
I have also tried removing the batteries and waiting two minutes: no luck either.
The t31 is working fine (i have some doubts on accuracy, but that may just be me being picky).
Sometimes I am tempted to go back to the ft80.

Polar V800 v. 1.11.49 out:
- GoPro video overlay
- Strava Live Segments®
- OH1 Fitness test support
https://support.polar.com/...800-GoPro-Strava-OH1

Not that I use any of the above, but cool that Polar keeps pushing out major updates to a 3.5 year old watch. Thanks.

Hi,

I updated my V800 with the new firmware version 1.11.49 and now I cannot link with my iPhone. I do not know how can I solve this situation. Do you have any suggestion?

Thanks

I’m trying to remove the Strava menù options that I got with the last software update: does anyone know how to remove it?
I don’t use strava and would like to save the time to go through a menu option that I may never use.

Replying to myself to share updates.
I finally got a h10 transmitter (no strap, transmitter only).
I put it on an old (10 months) strap and paired with the v800. I then went to swim.
Everything worked fine (except a couple of signal drops, nothing to be concerned about).
This brings me to the conclusion that the h7 transmitters are not a good option for swimming: I tested 3 of them and none ever worked.
Conclusion: I would highly recommend the t31c (even compared to the h10) for swimming: it has a low cross section, it is reliable, and it is also compatible with older polar products (if you have any, I still use an ft80 when swimming in open water).

Thanks to polar support team for the help provided with the h7 (I couldn’t be more satisfied for the service provided by the New York office).

I'm a new user with short term V800 experience, but in reply to your two posts: hiding features like Strava Live Segments from the main menu won't receive much attention as it's so easily skipped. Since I can just turn on live segments using the Strava app on my phone, I also thought this would be of no value to me. However, that's not the case. The V800 Strava Live Segments feature gives me earlier alerts than the audio prompt from the Strava app, both for approaching and ending a segment. The way they work together is quite useful, actually. Regarding swimming with the H7 heart rate transmitter, I find that if I wear an old bike jersey and do a pool swim, the strap doesn't move at all when pushing off. Also, the 119 bpm freeze problem that many users report during swim activity has reduced from over six minutes to just a few seconds now. I'm not sure exactly why. Perhaps movement of the transmitter and/or overly chlorinated water caused the problem. In the future, I'll bring some chlorine test strips to the pool to see if changing chlorine levels affect H7 performance. For now, I'm pleased with the H7 strap and have fixed all issues.

Glad to hear you found a solution that works.

Another possible solution is the Polar OH1.

I have been using one for a few months and have found it to be accurate and way more comfortable than a chest strap.

It has worked great in the pool. I wear it on my upper arm and it stays in place really well.

I use it in 'recording' mode alongside my V800. I'll get a reading on the V800 during rest intervals sometimes, but the OH1 will record the entire session.

The only thing I need is a way to merge the HR data from the OH1 into the workout file from the V800. Right now, I upload both to Flow.

If you can't see your HR while swimming and you can't merge HR data post swim with the V800, then the OH1/V800 combo needs a firmware update. This would be a non-issue if Polar had included the Gymlink 5kHz band in thE OH1 as in the H7/H10. I'm surprised that neither the OH1 nor the Polar H10 chest strap forward post activity data to the V800 similar to Garmin HRM-Tri and Forerunner 920xt. Looking at heart rate alone on Polar Flow uncorrelated with any activity seems pretty weak.

It would be great if the OH1 had a 500 Mhz radio also, but I assume it was a question of cost/size/battery life.

I can usually pick up my HR during rest intervals, since the OH1 broadcasts while recording, which is nice.

I would really like Polar Flow to have an option to copy the HR readings from the OH1 activity to the V800 activity.

I remember manually editing hrm files with the old PPP software. I would go in and correct the elevation during the swim, and maybe fix HR spikes and such.

I haven't tried exporting the files and editing them myself.

Just being able to review my HR data for a swim workout is good enough for now. And not having the issues around wearing a chest strap is great.

Mostly unrelated question: I use the V800 at the gym with a Stages Indoor Cycle. Is there anyway to record heart rate, speed, distance, cadence, and power with the watch or with Polar Beat? At this point, I'm only able to record watts and cadence on the V800. The Stages console displays and records all parameters, but at this point can only export data to Training Peaks from a csv recording I make using a USB stick attached to the console. Using the SyncMyTracks app, I can then sync the ride with Polar Flow; however, it shows as a Polar Beat cycling activity and like other Polar Beat cycling activities, it does not include power/cadence. Any workarounds others have discovered?

I haven't tried my V800 with any power meters. I have a Computrainer that I use for power training on the bike.

Are you saying that the Stages is sending power and cadence via Bluetooth to your V800, but no other parameters?

Yes, the power meter, i.e., the Stages crank, transmits cadence and power over BLE. I can pair that signal to the V800 along with heart rate from the H7 strap; however, the Stages "console" can't be received by the V800. This is the display unit that has all the data I want, including speed and distance. Although it broadcasts over BLE also, I can't make it work with the V800 or any smartphone app.

Sounds like an issue with the Stages if you can't get it on your phone either.

It's up to both/all companies to implement the Bluetooth profiles correctly.

Does anyone know if there is a way to skip a step in a custom workout? For Garmin, hitting the lap button while in a custom workout automatically advances to the next step in the workout. Is there a way to do that on the V800?

Press and hold the top left (light) button. A menu appears and scroll to start next phase.

Magic!! Thanks.

I'm reviewing the results of the Santa Rosa Ironman Triathlon held yesterday, May 12, 2018, in Santa Rosa, California. After exploring both Polar Flow and Strava, not a single athlete I've checked used the Polar V800. I haven't looked at everyone, but I do find this disturbing. Garmin truly dominates the market, despite the fact that Polar V800 is a better swim tracker for displaying heart rate on Strava. It also displays HR while swimming. That's not possible with any Garmin device. Why, especially in the United States, is Polar's market share in this triathlon segment so small?

It helps that Garmin is compatible with all power meters. I have a V800 and I may sell it since it’s worthless on the bike with my PM.

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https://twitter.com/mungub

Works with all Bluetooth pm’s doesn’t it? Mine works with p1 pedals.

Due to the very poor customer service and the issues with the Vector 3's I am strongly considering giving Garmin the boot. I own several of their products and have be using them for years. Thinking of going with Polar.

This watch has been out since 2014. That is a millennium in the tech world. There are simply too many newer watches from Garmin and Suunto that have more features and competitive prices.

In my opinion, not using Ant+ sensors is a major fail. Everything I've read says that Bluetooth compatibility for powers meters is a mess. I've never tried since I use Ant+.