My daughter wants to get a bluetooth heartrate monitor, but doesn't want a chest strap. I'm pretty happy with my Wahoo Tickr straps (I have two) - they seem to survive my abuse better than Garmins did. But I know nothing about arm band monitors, other than a bit of reading on DC Rainmaker.
Should I go with the Wahoo Tickr FIT armband? Can I save a bit of money and buy her a COOSPO? Other ideas>
There's a rumoured Garmin armband. No idea of timescales though.
I'd recommend getting a Fitbit, if you want it to stop working every six months or so 😀
I have had a wahoo tickr arm band strap for about 3 years now, still works perfectly fine, battery seems to last forever, did have to replace the textile strap after about 2 years as the velco was starting to lose its grip.
Mrs. Slow and I use Polar OH1s. They have been reliable. I've recently picked up a couple of Polar Verity Senses - an update to the OH1, better battery life, nicer strap, multiple BT channels - but they haven't been used yet.
I've had good results with coospo stuff off amazon at a fraction of the cost of branded sensors.
Polar.
For arm based, the Polar OH1. By a country mile.
I've had one off aliexpress, looks like a bowflex one, but I only paid about £20 for it. sadly I lost it.
replaced with a Livlov one off amazon for about £30 ish. works a treat. no idea how accurate it is as the only thing I have to compare it with is a relatively cheap smart watch, and a fitbit band and both of those wont read over 160, so prettty useless. The livlov is more consistent with the old one and seems to give me full range readings.
Polar verity sense (previously oh1). Fantastic bit of kit.
I can tell you what not to get.
MyZone Switch.
Bought as my MZ3 HRM kept failing and I liked the idea of a wrist and arm strap - more convenient than chest strap, plus could start/stop it. But they have both proven to be naff. neither records accurately and my Garmin watch is far more accurate, so I have ended up using the chest strap anyway (which has since broken and been replaced - thats 4 now!)