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 Nike Imara HRM By: Nike Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 5 More Information VERY dissatisfied with this watch  On: 2008-07-12I got this watch in about April of 2007. I used it roughly 2 to 5 times a week for probably about 30 minutes to 2.5 hours at a time on each day, never doing anything underwater but just regular aerobic exercise and resistance training. The heart rate function worked decently well and tracked calories as stated. Like other reviews have said though, it is very sensitive to others around you that may also be wearing one and get really thrown off. Same with walking/jogging my dogs around the neighborhood, there were times that my heartrate would go to the 60 bpm range and then after half a block jump to the 200 bpm range - way off. In about September 2007, my heart rate would not go past 100 even though I would be working very hard. I thought it was a dying battery so I replaced those. That didnt help. I went back to the store where I got it and tried it with a chest strap from a brand new one, and it worked just fine. Turns out the transmitter from the chest strap just GAVE OUT. REALLY? I was appalled because I spent a little over $100 for this watch. LUCKILY, the store felt bad for me and just swapped it out for a new one. A few months later, in April of 2008, the SAME thing happened and all of a sudden the chest strap stopped transmitting my heart rate to my watch. I went back to the store and again they were willing to give me another new one rather than make me go through the trouble of sending the watch and chest strap back to the manufacturer for a repair under the warranty. What a hassle. I was saved from wasting my money on this thing only because the store I bought it from was so generous. Otherwise it would have been $100 down the drain on both watches. Im expecting this THIRD EXACT SAME watch to breakdown a few months from now too, to continue the trend. I should have invested a little more money into a heart rate monitor and gotten a Polar, which most of my colleagues have and NONE of them have had the terrible experience I have had with the Imara. Pretty, but not made for serious training  On: 2008-02-25Had I known that the actual heart rate is not visible unless you are in the timer mode, and that in that mode, the timer is the larger of the two pieces of data visible (HR is shown to the right of the running time, and its quite small), I would not have bought this HRM. For most people, I would think, HR is more important than a stop watch, and I dont understand why it would be designed this way. I do not know how Im going to see that tiny figure while doing a cycling time trial - its just way too small. Other negatives: The watch is very stiff, and difficult to put on, and the excess band is quite difficult to thread through the plastic ring. Postive: The chest strap is made small enough to fit a womans body, which is a nice change from the mens HRMs Ive tried. Color is nice...price was also quite reasonable. If careful, continuous reading of your heart rate during training or racing is what you are looking for, dont waste your money on this HRM. Spend more and get one that will better suit your training needs. Comfortable, Simple, but gets interfered with On: 2008-01-27I wore this watch for the first few years of training for races. It is a comfortable watch, with very simple, easy to use features. I did have to eventually order a different heart rate monitor, because this one doesnt have the digital FM transmission that many other heart rate monitors have. The result is that it picks up other signals and starts displaying the wrong heart rate data when running by power lines, or more specifically when running with others wearing a heart rate monitor. If youre planning to wear it in races or with a training buddy, this feature might frustrate you as often it will pick up the other persons heart rate signal and display a heart rate of 240 or something obviously off. Other than that, it served me well! Liked it so much, I bought it twice!  On: 2007-11-21I used my first HRM for well over a year on a daily basis when I was training to run a half marathon. It fit comfortably, was easy to use, and the batteries NEVER DIED! The only reason I bought a second Nike Imara was because I had lost it during an interstate move. Cant go wrong with this one. Liked it so much, I bought it twice! On: 2007-11-20I used my first HRM for well over a year on a daily basis when I was training to run a half marathon. It fit comfortably, was easy to use, and the batteries NEVER DIED! The only reason I bought a second Nike Imara was because I had lost it during an interstate move. Cant go wrong with this one. Happy with this purchase On: 2007-04-20I spent almost a week researching HRM before settling on this one. Generally I jog/walk with a jogging stroller and wanted to keep track of my workouts. I wanted something that didnt have too many bells and whistles (and thus making it difficult to use). After looking at several brands I decided that I wanted a HRM with 1) A calorie counter. 2) A time in zone feature where I could see if I was getting a good workout by being in my target heart rate zone. 3) A backlight and 4) I wanted to be able to see my heartrate as I worked out without having to flip through several modes/screens. I tried to order the Imara through Amazon and (as usual) it was from a vendor that wouldnt ship to an APO. I ended up buying it on base for about the same price but still wanted to write a review since there were very few on this particular product. I have used the HRM for about a week now and am extremely happy with it. I think the chest strap is quite comfortable for what it is. You do have to wet the sensors (which isnt a bother to me) but once its on I find it detects your heartrate with great accuracy. Once you see a little heart flashing on the screen and you know its picked up your heartbeat. Ive never had a problem with it losing my heartbeat which is a complaint I saw on many other HRMs. The watch itself is very easy to program and simple to use. The face is smaller than some of the other HRMs Ive seen and is also supposed to have a smaller band since it was designed for women. I like that even if you have it just on time mode in the lower part of the screen you can still see your heartrate. The watch also has a turn off feature to save on batteries. It automatically will turn off after 12 or 24hrs of non use (if you want it to) in order to save battery power (this doesnt require you to reset the time or anything though). You can change the batteries yourself (unlike some of the other HRM brands where you have to send it in to have the battery changed). One final note-- when researching I also read a few reviews that brought up interference problems when using an iPod with a HRM. I havent had any problems using this HRM and iPod at the same time. Overall Im extremely happy with this HRM. It has all the features I wanted, a nice design, and decent price without a lot of extra features I would never use. |