I had a Sports Instruments Pro9 which I loved for years. Seriously, I had that thing for about 6-7 years. It’s nearing its end of life and someone gave me a Polar S720i. It’s a damn nice HRM, but I’m having issues with it as well. So, I’m on the prowl for a new HRM. I don’t need a Garmin Forerunner with GPS capabilities or anything like that. I just need a decent HRM that works well with a price range of under $120. Any recommendations?
Thanks.
EDIT (08OCT2009): I’m bumping this thread because I need a new HRM. Recommend me one that isn’t a Polar and isn’t a Suunto. I’ve been looking around and I’m leaning towards a Timex, specifically this one. Any thoughts on Timex HRMs?
I would consider sending it in to Polar Service. They’ve been pretty good to me in the past. I’m still using my 720i after 6 years (I think) now. It’s still a very nice unit. Have them take a look at it and give you a quote - I would guess it should fall in your price range and you’ll end up with a very nice unit.
I just got a Polar F7. It has the nicer ‘wearlink’ strap with replaceable battery.
I found it at 24hr fitness store for ~$92 and since I’m a member, I got it for 10% off of that.
The lowest price I had seen before was ~$110.
The F7 suggested is a very nice unit but no lap/split feature, in fact no F Series units do splits. For the price you mentioned, try and find a RS200, we replaced it with the RS300 but is still a very nice unit and you can always add the S1 footpod later. The RS100 will also work fine.
curious why your against the suunto? i have the basic model t1 and love it. works great in the water and have not had
a single problem. plus i got it on ebay nib for 80 bucks.
I really like my timex HRM (I think it’s the Ironman Race Trainer model). It has all the features of the ioronman (mainly the lap function) and it uses ANT+ to communicate between the watch and the chest strap.
I just replied to another nearly identical post. I also owned the Pro 9 for about as many years. It died. Since you can’t get them any more (I would, loved the watch), and the Polar watches don’t compare as far as ease of use IMO, I picked up a Timex Ironman Race Trainer. It appears to mimic most of the best Pro 9 functions and offers a bit more. I’m hoping for the best. What did you end up getting?
I got a 2nd Pro 9 off of eBay. It died about a month later. I just received my Garmin 310XT yesterday. I haven’t been able to use it yet because I have a suspected stress fracture in my right 3rd proximal toe bone and no running for me for at least 2 weeks. Right now, I’m trying to think of all the different ways to set it up. I need two modes for running (1 for doing laps around a track/long runs and 1 for doing automatic splits every mile for races), two modes for bicycling (1 for spin class and 1 for outdoor riding), and one mode for triathlons. I’ll figure it all out eventually.
The Garmin 310XT might be overkill and more than what I was wanting to spend, but someone gave me a 20% off coupon and if I’m going to be spending that much money, i would rather get a nice device that I’m going to use and get lots of information from really not that much more money.