For about 500$…has anyone tried this yet? It showed awesome promise from a Bas study involving 15 met carts, but now I am following Gordo Byrn znd Alan Couzens on twitter…with, to be very polite mixed results.
My previous experience is about 400 tests on a Korr Cardio Coach, at 10k$ it was 2% accurate at O2 and about the same for Co2. Not perfect lab grade but was always extremely actionable for RER and substrate utilization.
issue is 10 years old and I have to send it back for O2 sensor replacement (1k$ plus)
I was looking at the Calibre but it seems more smoke and mirrors and that they’re selling an appearance of precision. Like Lumen. I thought Kardiocoach was not very accurate based on some literature I read before.
I don’t have a lot of experience with medical-grade carts unfortunately. I paid 10x more ($5k USD) for a Pnoe cart and it’s not very repeatable or accurate, even with gas calibration. I expected this behavior when paying 1/4 of a lab-grade cart price.
VO2Master seems to be doing well, but it’s O2 only.
I find it difficult to believe that metabolic cart tech has come this far so fast that $500 will get you any reasonable readings. Cosmed and Vacumed portable carts are still very expensive, and for good reason.
I used a vo2master for 2years and it just never seemed to be accurate. Even after servicing (which was expensive).
In the end I contacted them and they told me the hardware was outdated and I should use the hardware until it stops working and buy a new one. For the price i don’t expect to buy a new device every 3 years.
Edit: we crossreferenced the vo2master with data from a medical grade machine at a university.
I haven’t had a proper VO2max test for about 10 years (university physio lab) and can’t comment on the Calibre or others; however, there was an interesting thread on Hacker News not too long ago - https://www.instructables.com/Accurate-VO2-Max-for-Zwift-and-Strava/ - which, if you’re inclined on the DIY side, looks like a not-too-bad investment of about $100.
I have the $100, just don’t have the patience and equipment to, well, do it myself. But anyway, some might find it useful.
At certain point during ramp tests it (KORR) would give odd or anomalous data at the top end…not sure if error, structure of ramp, sampling rate average etc. We stopped doing ramp tests very early on because things like VT(s), event specific maxlass (threshold) can be more easily and accurately determined via steady state. (and BL)…regardless of 50k$ vs 1-10k$ equipement
…IE calculating substrate utilization and using that data to inform Fuel plans for IM, Ultra running, Ultraman 3 day etc…thats what we used it for.
That’s a shame to hear, but not surprising. And I’m shocked that they won’t upgrade the hardware.
Pnoe claims their device is good for 12 years with the O2 sensor being replaced every 24 months. I’m grandfathered into a low price for service, but now Pnoe charges about half the price of the unit for service…so you’re effectively buying a new unit every four years.
I’m a hobbyist, so dropping 20k on a cart is not ideal. But I have considered it for the data quality that I want.
I haven’t had a proper VO2max test for about 10 years (university physio lab) and can’t comment on the Calibre or others; however, there was an interesting thread on Hacker News not too long ago - https://www.instructables.com/Accurate-VO2-Max-for-Zwift-and-Strava/ - which, if you’re inclined on the DIY side, looks like a not-too-bad investment of about $100.
I have the $100, just don’t have the patience and equipment to, well, do it myself. But anyway, some might find it useful.
…that is insane…! I’m always amazed at what certain types of people can do given a bit of spare time.
I’ve studied Pnoe’s patent and their device is really simple. It’s a MEMS flow sensor, peristaltic pump, O2 and CO2 sensor and a microprocessor and some ancillary stuff. I’ve even discussed the device with the inventor, although he wouldn’t answer ALL of my questions.
I found the manufacturer for the MEMS flow cell, but I haven’t found O2/CO2 sensors with the fast response time and high accuracy needed for breath-by-breath analysis.
Hi there. Bringing this back thread back to life hopefully. I’ve been using Korr Cardio Coach max for about 6 months now and the results have been pretty good and I find that any issues was really user error. For me, RER and substrate utilization matters the most. I am VERY interested if anyone has actually purchased Calibre Brio and has feedback. It just doesn’t seem realistic to me. I almost got PNOE or VO2 master but I looked at their research and data and was underwhelmed.
Looking forward to anyone’s feedback!
Hi there. Bringing this back thread back to life hopefully. I’ve been using Korr Cardio Coach max for about 6 months now and the results have been pretty good and I find that any issues was really user error. For me, RER and substrate utilization matters the most. I am VERY interested if anyone has actually purchased Calibre Brio and has feedback. It just doesn’t seem realistic to me. I almost got PNOE or VO2 master but I looked at their research and data and was underwhelmed.
Looking forward to anyone’s feedback!
I considering buying the CardioCoach Pro or max, but there is very little research data on the accuracy which makes me unsure. How is the accuracy when doing measurements on the same person from day to day or after some weeks? If one can’t measure the small differences in VO2max after training blocks etc on professional athletes, it’s kind of useless to me.
I have the VO2 Master, but it tends to give very variable results, often from 40 breaths/min< because they use breath to breath measurments. CardioCoach have a mixing chamber which should sort that problem.
Do you recommend it? Is there something with the system that you wished were different?