I am looking at different HRM than my unreliable Polar (although, Polar cyclometer works well). My Polar wrist HRM’s are totally inconsistent in whether or not I even get a signal (have tried different straps too). I’m looking at Suunto but curious about real-world opinions. Thanks.
I’ve been training and racing with a t3 this year. I use it only to keep my HR in check and as a stopwatch when racing (HIM). Don’t track my workouts, download anything, etc.
Have always had a consistent signal in training and racing. Very happy with it.
Have a friend who bought one and quickly cracked his face. They don’t seem incredibly durable. I only wear mine for running/biking workouts and will wear it in its second race of the year (IMoo). It has held up just fine.
Can’t remember what I paid for it (at Boston Mary Expo), but I think with expo discount was $110-120. Seemed like a good deal for a HRM.
I purchased a Suunto X6HR this summer off Ebay. Have been mostly happy with the performance. I use it for training and racing, and I also do a fair amount of hiking with it. I use the Activity Manager software that came with it. This is my first heart rate monitor.
The heart rate function has worked well for me. There are a few spots on my usual in-town running routes where I get some anomalies, either no read or an extremely high read, but it’s the same spots every run/ride so that tells me it’s power lines or something similar causing interference. The heart rate monitor has worked for me during fresh water swims. Haven’t used it in the pool. I did have a problem in one race in that this one person I went back and forth with a couple times caused some sort of interference which gave an upper limit exceeded warning beep even though I was nowhere near the limit I had set.
I use the elevation function a lot and have found it works well although when gaining/losing a lot of elevation I find it underestimates the top. For example, did a hike in NH a couple weeks ago with three 4000’ peaks. I set the reference elevation at the bottom which was a known number. At the top of each peak I got readings 50’-70’ less than the topo says. Back at the bottom I got the same reference elevation. But generally the elevation function has been good enough for me.
The elevation function does not work well when swimming, probably because the elevation is read via pressure. During a recent triathlon lake swim at ~100’ above sea level I got readings anywhere from -860’ to -1460’ during the swim despite the fact that I set the reference elevation correctly at the start. The elevation worked correctly during the bike and run but because the software has to compress the scale due to the huge fluctuations the bike and run look like almost completely flat lines. This is Vermont, there are no flat races. To avoid this in the future I’m thinking of setting the reference elevation at whatever the minimum the watch will allow that way it can’t go lower. That will work unless the course has bike or run sections below the water.
The software allows you to edit heart rate which lets you fix problems like what I noted above. It does not let you edit elevation. I agree that Suunto’s customer service is not good. I emailed them for suggestions on how to prevent the elevation problem and got a stock “possible future software upgrade” response which I don’t expect will ever happen.
Overall I’m happy. No issues with scratches or breakage despite some moderately rough treatment on my part.
I’ve got a Suunto T6 that I have been using for just over a year now. On my road bike it is the only computer I use and it works great, along with the bike pod. I have the running shoe pod and use it occassionally but prefer my Garmin 305 for running. I really like the software, even consider it better then the Polar software which is also pretty good, but I feel that the Suunto software gives you a lot more feedback. Haven’t had to deal with customer service so can’t really comment in that department, but doubt that I’ll ever have problems there as the regional office is just around the corner from me here in Carlsbad.
Given the choice between Polar and Suunto, I would go with Suunto again, very good HR monitor.
I’m looking at my T3 and GPS pod right now, as I need to take them to a DHL courier depot to have them shipped back to Suunto. The GPS pod just stopped turning on about two weeks after I got it. The watch stopped working about 4 months after that - face is totally blank. Maybe I was just unlucky, but when two separate products fail that quickly, you have to wonder about the quality. I’m going to have them fixed and then throw them on ebay as soon as I get them back.
I have a Suunto T6 HRM and I have been unable to download the software onto my computer. Has anyone else encountered trouble doing this?
I do like the watch. The elevation is cool to have. My has temperature, but I feel like it is taking my skin temperature, because it reads about 90 degrees all the time.
I tried the T3 and had to return it because the back light wasn’t very bright. I run a lot in the evening so it a dealbreaker for me.
I have real world hands on experience with the following set up: Before the event I put on my chest strap (under my tri top). Turn on my 305 Garmin Forerunner and 305 Garmin Edge. I get the satellites and heart rate on both units (I’m standing next to the bike at the rack). I put on my wet suit and do the swim thing. Get out of the stupid wet suit and put on my space helmet (L.G. Rocket) and do the bike thing, starting the Garmin 305 Edge as I get to the “bike mount” line. Do the peddaling thing and then stop the Edge when I get back to the “dismount” line. Rack the Bike. Pull on barf green shoes (Newtons) after pulling the Garmin 305 Forerunner out of them and strap it on my wrist while shufflling towards the transition exit. Start and stop the unit like a stop watch.
The point to the above description is that with one chest strap (that gets put on before the event and taken off after the event) I can get heart data, GPS, and a whole bunch of other digital stuff for both the bike and run portion of the event.
Two important points: be sure that both units are reading from the same chest strap before the event and that they know where they are (have satellites), also the battery life of these things is something llike 14 hours, and so if your event is longer then that you may have to modify your approach to accomadate this issue. Best of luck, and keep your heart ticking with or without a monitor. Tim
Kuendig-
If you’re trying to install the Suunto Activity Manager software make sure you download the newest version from the Suunto website. Most of the software CD’s out there contain an older version of the software which is buggy when used with updated versions of Windows XP. Their website lists some standard error messages that you’ll get if you try to install the older software.
As for the temperature always reading near body temp, yes, you’ll have that happen when wearing the watch. I think the million page manual says you need to have the watch off your wrist for 10-15 minutes to get an accurate air temp.
Hey…I like the looks of them…where do you get Suunto? How much do they run?