HRM advice, please

I seem to have to replace them every season or so…

Where did you find just the strap for sale? I ended up getting a new strap and sensor because I could find just the strap by itself.

This is also a good read: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/04/troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html

I haven’t tried the old straps with my 800, but I found that they lasted me much longer… I got 3 years out of my old one and it was still going strong when I got my 800. It isn’t as comfy as the new one, but it sure lasted well. If I recall correctly, it was about half the price of the new one.

What I can add, based on Tim’s link to DCRainMaker is that I run my strap under warm water and then smear warm water on my chest where the contacts will rest against my skin. Then I put my HR strap on. I do this before any outing. My HR readings are usually fine. I also make sure my chest strap is fairly tight so I get good contact with the skin. I just wish the Polar straps worked with Garmin products b/c the soft ones are more comfortable than the soft Garmin units.

I think proper care after use is important to keeping the units working too. I rinse with clean water and dry the strap with a towel before I hang it to air dry.

JG

If I can find my old Garmin HR strap, I would be willing to part with it for less than retail price. I only used it for a few weeks, although that was a few years ago. Do HR straps wear out even if you don’t use them? I don’t think so. But then I didn’t think boots would age. (I once had a pair of nice L.L. Bean boots where the heel completely crumbled, like dust. I hadn’t worn them in about a year. When I tried them out again, the heel literally fell off as though it were made of sand!)

It’s the older version, not the newer soft strap. But it should be in good working condition.

My strap stopped working a while ago, but the monitor still functions. I was going to try out the Polar Wearlink strap that supposedly works with the Garmin HR transmitter.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/solution-to-heart-rate-dropoutsspikes.html

Anyone else tried that yet?

@Tim Kelley 30267 wrote:

I seem to have to replace them every season or so…

Me too.

My wife has been using the soft strap for a while. I did not see it in the pile of clothes and washed it….never worked right again, (so they appear to be very sensitive to water intrusion). Beside that that is the third one of those I have bought. I am still using the lower end heavy strap model that came with my original Forerunner (working fine for three years, with several new batteries). I have a broader chest (not bragging in any way it just fits me well, where it never fit my wife right) and no problem detecting accurate HR so that strap actually works very well for me, for others though the readings are very erratic or non existent. I washed the cheap one, sweat on it for 10+ hours and swam in it a few times and it still works like a champ.

I have had more of a problem with breaking the cadence/WSS pickup off mid ride.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Premium-Heart-Monitor-Strap/dp/B0029M3NSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364834316&sr=8-1&keywords=garmin+premium+heart+rate+monitor
$45/year isn’t too bad if you are a data junkie like several of the people in this thread are.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-10997-00-Heart-Rate-Monitor/dp/B000UOD5QM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364834783&sr=8-2&keywords=Garmin+Heart-Rate+Monitor

I know my Stravadiction will not let me cheat on Garmin but with the exception of some erroneous GPS trails I have had pretty good luck with my Forerunner 610 and cheapo strap.

I just ordered the Polar strap ($17) to try with my Garmin transmitter. I’ll let you know how it goes when it arrives.

Also, I just discovered my Garmin hrm was dead (replacing battery did nothing), googled around a bit and tried the advice of taking out the battery and putting it in backwards for 10 seconds to reset the device. Worked like a charm.