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I'm getting a bit feed up of chest strap HRM breaking after what seems, to me at least, very little use. I've been through several brands, four our five in 6 years or so. The last one, a decathlon own brand, actually lasted about 18 months of use, but only then towards the end if I took the battery out and put it back in every time before I paired it with my phone. Now it just insists my heart rate is 70bpm all the time. Others have just given up despite new batteries, straps and copious amounts of swearing.
Is it me and my apparently corrosive sweat? Or do they have a limited lifespan? Are some more reliable than others? Are wrist ones better? It needs to be Bluetooth LTE.
Do you, erm, clean them? 🤢
The straps? Yes. Wipe down the plastic bit of the strap after use. Have occasionally hand washed straps in cold water Didn't do anything with the little pop on thingymajig, other than changing batteries. Am I meant to?
yeah mine last around a year of 3 times a week training
The garmin comfort straps last a lot longer. I’m a heavy saline producer but done seem to have a problem. I did manage to kill a non-comfort strap.
I use Polar HRM and Polar straps and I pop mine in the wash with my kit quite regularly. They've lasted quite a while (at least a couple of years so far), but I do have a couple I rotate.
You have tried... Changing the battery I assume ?
my old school garmin strap has been going for over 15 year, used pretty much daily and I sweat like a fat lass in a disco. still going strong and only on its 2nd battery. the thing is magic I tells ya.
🙂 Yes, I'm good friends with anyone locally who sells CR2032's!
I'll chuck the strap in the wash with my next load (nothing to loose) and if that doesn't work buy yet another one. Are Wahoo any good?
Wahoo strap is same as Garmin comfort. The monitor is less noisy too.
Optical heart rate monitors (on the wrist/arm) may be better. They work differently, ie they don't have electrodes. The electrodes and wires are probably the bit that gets damaged from sweat, or just repeated flexing.
The optical heart monitor is just a small module with LEDs. The strap is just to hold it in place, so could be easily replaced if necessary. And your arm is probably less sweaty. So hopefully will last longer.
Optical heart rate can be less accurate/reliable for some people, but worth giving it a go. I like the Polar OH1.
My Fitbit Ionic has a built in HR monitor and its actually very good. Optical, as said above.
Don't think I can connect it to Zwift unfortunately.
I have a secondhand Garmin HR monitor for Zwift, the old style and as someone said above, it just refuses to die and the batteries last forever.Lol
I’ll chuck the strap in the wash with my next load (nothing to loose)
BTW "They" say not to use softeners on them. I don't on my gym kit anyway.
superjohn71
Member
🙂 Yes, I’m good friends with anyone locally who sells CR2032’s!I’ll chuck the strap in the wash with my next load (nothing to loose) and if that doesn’t work buy yet another one. Are Wahoo any good?
I've been using the Wahoo TICKR FIT for some time now with no problems; it's forearm rather than wrist mounted but seems fairly accurate based on some side by side testing I did with the Mio wrist mounted one I used to have
I've got a Vivoactive 3 with optical HR; and apart from the first few runs (which were as much out of habit as anything else) I haven't bothered to rescue my old HR strap from the bottom of the drawer it's hiding in. And I get to see my HR 24/7.
Which is nice.
Optical HRM is great. Makes me feel super fit. I can run a 40min 10k in z3.*
I can't.....it's just that optical hr is ime repeatably shite for intensity work outs.
Every few months I give my inter changeable Coospo/Polar bands a few rinses under the cold tap before hanging them to dry, using the clip fastener inside the open corner of a cardboard box to dangle the band above the ground.
Only time I get data issues is when the battery is practically dead.