Polar S210 OR AXN300???????????

[BumbleBeeDave]

I'm planning to get a new heart rate monitor for this coming season to replace my old Nashbar which was pretty much just a straight pulse reading and stopwatch.

I definitely do NOT want cyclocomputer functions--both my bikes already have computers for that. Nor do I want computer upload capabilities. Polars don't work with Macs anyway, that I can find out. I was pretty well set on a Polar S210 because it's the least expensive model with a coded transmitter and I've had problems sometimes in spin class with interference from other riders.

But then I saw the AXN3000 from Polar and I'm wondering if it might actually work better, though they are marketing it for use in hiking and other endurance sports. It doesn't have the coded transmitter, but it does keep track of climb and descend AND rate of climb and descend, which seems like it might be useful, as well as having all the individual fitness testing features. Seems it has everything I could need but the coded belt. AND it comes in yellow or black--the two exact colors of my bike.

Here's the AXN3000 features . . .

• Heart Rate & Action Features Continuous heart rate w/ graphical trend Average & max. heart rate OwnCal® w/ energy expenditure rate (kcal/h) OwnIndex® fitness test Target Zones w/ visual & audible alarm (1 set of limits) Heart touch, button free operation
• Altimeter Features Altitude w/ graphical trend, ascent & descent Vertical speed (ascent & descent rate)
avg. & max. Slope counter Cumulative ascent and descent
• Barometric Features Sea-level pressure w/ graphical trend Absolute barometric pressure Temperature
• Watch Features Time of day (12/24h) w/ dual time zone & 3 daily alarms, date & weekday indicator Reminders (visual/alarm) Stopwatch & countdown timer Water resistant up to 100m User replaceable battery Backlight
• Data Communications Features Uplink™ , settings upload from PC to wrist unit • Storage Features 80 exercise files (w/ summaries) Exercise file info page w/ date & time Exercise Time (total) Time in target zone Average heart rate of total exercise Last OwnIndex® Visual & audible alarm in target zones Calorie expenditure (exercise/total) Automatic Logbook w/ circular 1 week memory Seasonal totals

And here's the S210 features . . .

* OwnIndex - provides a measurement of predicted Vo2 Max (Fitness Test).
* OwnCal calculates energy consumption (calories burned) during exercise based on Vo2max.
* 3 sets of target zones with visible and audible out of zone alarms and 3 countdown timers.
* Heart rate samplings (120 data points).
* Interval function plus lap splits with average heart rate.
* Time spent in/above/below target zones.
* Tracks average heart rate, recovery heart rate, and % of maximum heart rate.
* Water resistant to 50 meters (164 feet).
* New Coded WearLink soft fabric chest transmitter that eliminates cross talk
now comes with this model. Ability to change your own battery, fits very
comfortably and molds to each individuals body shape, adjustable size for
fit, also waterproof for swimming. (small size also available) 2-year
warranty.
* Calculates total calories burned.
* Stopwatch, backlight and calendar (with time of day).
* Displays total exercise time.
* Low battery indicator in receiver.
* Average and maximum heart rate of total training session.
* Storage capacity - 6 files (one complete file, five summary files).
* Summary file - Receiver stores start date and time of exercise, total exercise time, average and maximum heart rate for session (total of 5 files).
* Complete file - Receiver stores latest exercise information in 1 file.
* 2-year polar warranty.

Any suggestions on what I should do--aside from wasting all your time reading all of this? ;) :rolleyes:

BBDave

[Catulle]

I might be totally wrong but I certainly avoid Polar heart rate monitors. I have owned over a half dozen different Polar wrist h.r.m. and I no longer use them. Maybe the new ones for bicycles are better than the regular wrist monitors, I don´t know. Last week, however, I bought the new Cateye 200 something or another and it is great. I has all the regular bicycle functions (chrono, distance, speed, averages, accumulated results, so on, and h.r.m.) It comes with a new design chest band.

I have two older model Cateye bike computer/h.r.m. and they have worked flawlessly for me. I find Polar very difficult to operate (a difficult logic), they are only 10m water resistant (when Casio, Timex, Nike... are at least 50m), and undependable (sometimes they are showing 130ppm, and suddenly jump to 360ppm, or simply they take forever to start recording the pulse even when the contact points are wet).

Casio has recently launched a wrist h.r.m. which is great. I wish they would make a bike computer with h.r.m.. Casio is an honest product: Good price, easy to use, perfectly dependable.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . is really more what I'm looking for anyway. do you know the model # for it?

Has anyone else had bad vs. good experiences in general with the Polars?

BBDave

[Ray]

. . . is really more what I'm looking for anyway. do you know the model # for it?

Has anyone else had bad vs. good experiences in general with the Polars?

BBDave

I've had good experience with Polars over the years. I'm not a hard-core HRM user, but I've had three or four of them over the years and never had any problems.

-Ray

[CT Rider]

I won't buy Polars anymore because you can't replace the battery in the cheststrap. Replacement is about $40 after shipping. I was getting about 15-17 months of life in the chest straps (about 8 hours/wk average). I now use Sigma Sport HRMs which have user replaeable batteries in bith the wrist unit and chest strap.

[BarryG]

I'd also make user-replaceability of the batteries in both the chest strap and the wrist unit a high priority in selecting a HRM.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Good point. The info I’m seeing says the 2006 model of the S210 comes with a newly re-designed chest strap with a user-replaceable battery.

BBDave

[BarryG]

The info I’m seeing says the 2006 model of the S210 comes with a newly re-designed chest strap with a user-replaceable battery.
It's worth checking whether any of the wrist units have user-replaceable batteries. In my A5, they expected me to send the wrist unit back to Polar to replace the battery. I managed to get a Polar tech support person on the phone to talk me through the replacement, but it wasn't easy.

Without user-replaceability in BOTH the wrist unit and chest strap, I'd be most inclined to buy an inexpensive (offbrand?) hrm for $20 or so knowing that I'll get my money's worth if it lasts one season.

Barry

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . the wrist unit battery lasts for like four years. It’s the chest strap that doesn’t last. Doesn’t it work that way with the Polars?

BBD

[BarryG]

I had to replace the wrist unit battery in my Polar A5 before the chest strap. That's just one data point though.

[jjb]

I've had a s210 for 3+ years now and have been happy with it now that I have switched to the new chest strap with the user replaceable batteries. It works great for spinning classes and such. I agree with the others that have said about the older chest straps and would also add that the battery life of the new strap is also better since when one snap of the strap is disconnected the transmitter is effectively off. I wouldn't be concerned with user replaceable battery on the wrist unit, I have yet to replace mine. Polar provides OEM parts for a number of a wide range of manufactures and there tech seems to be pretty much state of the art. I have just upgraded my polar to the S725x (xmas gift so my wife will get my s210). I would also point out that there is a software package for transferring data to a mac it looks quite good, but I haven't tried it. You can get more info at:

http://www.ismarttrain.com/

hope this is helpful

-jjb

[CT Rider]

The info I’m seeing says the 2006 model of the S210 comes with a newly re-designed chest strap with a user-replaceable battery.

The best thing Polar could have ever done! My only other cautionary word about Polars is their apparent sensitivity to RF and EMI noise. 3 of us in my Saturday morning riding club would all loose our readings on our Polars when we came into the vicinity of high voltage power lines. The loss of readings would last for about 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile. One of the three Polars did have some minor problems while doing indoor training in the neighborhood of a furnace.