Just bought a Garmin Edge 130. it’s the first gps i’ve had with BT or Ant+ and I’ve a vague interest in playing with heart rate.  Tried a cheap Lidl chest based HRM years back and couldn’t stand wearing the strap.

Whats the cheapest wrist based HRM that will link to my Garmin Edge?

Bump?  has no-one tried this?

Pretty sure any ANT+ one will link, don’t know what the cheapest is.

You can get a Mio Link for about £50, that’s about the cheapest I’ve seen.

Or Wahoo Tickr Fit, for about £60. It goes on the upper arm, maybe more accurate for cycling.

Yes, if it is the right wireless protocol it will work.

I use my 520 with a Mio Link and it always works perfectly.

What about Garmin VivoSmart – looks like you can pick them up refurbed for about £40 on eBay?  seems to say it will connect to ‘compatible garmin devices’ without saying what they are….

What I was really wondering about was stuff like the Xiomi mi band 2 which you can pick up for about £15 (or even less on Wish)

If it broadcasts on Ant+ it should work.

Check if it can broadcast HR – that’s the critical thing you’re looking for.  Link below to the DC Rainmaker product product cmparison chart that shows if it has that feature.  My Forerunner 35 does, but it may not be the cheapest option

DC Rainmaker

If you are using it for riding, which I guess you are, be aware that wrist based hrms don’t work particularly well.  It might be the bouncing around or the angle of the wrist, I don’t know.  I  have a scosch one that works with the edge but I no longer use it when riding as it is too unreliable so there is no point really

What’s the Schosche?  Is it the Rhythm Plus – that seems to be the one DCRainmaker is recommending/using for riding.

Yes it’s that one, but he doesn’t really recommend it or any of the wrist ones for riding.  I’ve tried mine in various places and it’s sort of ok high on my arm but still not as reliable as a strap. It only gets used for running now

Edit: I see that dcr does recommend either an upper arm or chest strap rather than things on the wrist. I’ve just had not great results with two units and latest firmware. I should also add that it might depend on your skin as dcr seems to push it heavily but I’m not so convinced even though I do like it for long runs as it is comfortable

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/11/winter-technology-recommendations.html

“This is my primary and singular running/cycling/hiking/etc heart rate sensor (when not testing something else).  ”

(sorry – didn’t read your whole post)

Chest strap works for some people, wrist strap works for some people, upper arm strap works for some people. Best to try them out, and see what works for you.

There is a new version, the Scosche Rhythm 24. Don’t know if there’s much improvement in terms of accuracy etc. Not sure if it’s available to buy yet.