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 Polar F55 Heart Rate Monitor (Ice Aluminum) By: Polar Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 5 More Information Fantastic Device  On: 2008-05-28I bought two - one for myself (Ice Aluminum) and for my husband (Bronze Rock). Previously we had (still have) a much simpler Omron model. We havent had them long, but they are really quite simple to use if you spend 10 mins looking at the manual. The same buttons are used for a majority of the functions. I love that you can customize the display - sometimes I look at my (HR - Calories - Time in HR Zone) and others I like to watch the (HR on the scale - HR - Time). You can pretty much change them around to suit your preference. For anyone who is making fitness a priority in his/her life and is on the fence about purchasing a basic vs. feature-rich HR monitor, I wholeheartedly endorse the fancy one. It is so much fun and it challenges you to do better. We both love using these HR monitors and although they havent made us healthier, they have sure been a stepping stone along the way. Havent used the website yet. Were techies but we just havent had the time. Im looking forward to it. Favorite Feature: Exercise summary. This tells you how long you exercised, your max HR and your average HR. For some reason looking at this after a workout gives me a great sense of accomplishment! FYI size/fit - Ive got a 34 chest and the chest strap fits fine on me. The wrist unit is large but not cumbersome. I chose that so I could see the display clearly. My husband has a 46 chest and it fits fine - but the wrist unit is on its last notch. He says its still comfortable though. (He does have a large bone structure so this would not occur in 99% of consumers). F55 Heart Rate Monitor - new strap is not for those with 40" + chests  On: 2008-01-18The strap that is included is different than my previous Polar heart rate monitor that this replaced. For whatever reason Polar chose, the strap is not replaceable as prior versions were; the battery pack snaps onto the strap, which does not allow a different strap to connect to it (the front is sewn into the part of the strap that goes around you). Although the fact that is is nice to see that the battery on the chest strap could be replaced, the strap, although indicating that it adjusts from M-XXL, was loosened it to the maximum size and it was still snug. I have a 40" chest and if that is XXL, they wont sell many of these units with that chest strap. Watch = 5 stars Strap = 1 star Motivates and help calorie counters like me. Keeps me Honest.  On: 2008-01-14I owned this HRM for a year. This is great for those who count calories. The time spent on cardio machine w/HRMs have a general idea what is burn. The Polar HRM is personalized to your Heart Rate so it shows the actual calories burnt for you. It kept me honest of the calories I should eat. Of course, I love it when I use the Polar HRM during weights. Without the Polar HRM, I wouldnt have stay motivated to doing weights. Knowing the calories burnt during reps helped. Also, I like the Workout Diary. Keeps track of the workout and sends you a message once a week if you have reached your workout goal. PROs: Calorie Counter. Workout Diary. CONs: Not meant to be used in a swimming pool. Not recommended  On: 2007-10-22The documentation was not appropriate to the product version. The product is unecessarily complicated and filled with silly features, for example, customized exercise routines. To measure heart rate, you have to wear a belt with transponder to get your pulse into the machine, and the belt that you have to wear you have to douse is water periodically. The installation and use of the belt are not documented. Readout is in a bizarre font. Amazon, of course, took it right back for full credit. Really good stuff On: 2007-09-09Its a complete and solid watch, the polarpersonaltrainer function (absoltely free of charge) is really helpful. The controls and menus are very intutitive and easy to use. I have to say that the workout funtion is only a kind of memo, just to remember what kind of excersice you want to do and with how much weight you want to work, is easy to program and use. Its a good companion and motivate me to improve because you can have a very accure measure of your progress. Excellent product, well worth the price On: 2007-08-30I have been using the Polar F55 about a week now, and at this point think its a great product, though it has many features I do not use. First off, the basic functionality is great - the strap is comfortable, and after adjustment I can wear it without really feeling it or having it come loose even when Im doing weights. Both the wrist unit and the gym equipment Ive used it on (elliptical and treadmill) read my heart rate without interruption. The advanced functions are... advanced. I had to read the instructions to figure out how to work the unit, but was able to figure (almost) everything out after doing so, the remaining exception being my inability to figure out how to rename exercise sessions. The features I found most useful were the fitness test, which calculates your VO2, and the personalized exercise program. Theres also a body workout which I thought fairly useless, as all it does is show you muscle group and sets (its also a single program, you cant have two different programs for alternate days). One thing I was curious about was the accuracy of the calorie expenditure calculation; I was initially puzzled by how it could figure this out just from my heart rate and statistics. I did some googling, however, and found that heart rate is proportional to oxygen use; it turns out several groups, including some sponsored by Polar, have researched how to derive energy expenditure from heart rate and the calculation is fairly accurate overall. I checked the calculated calories on the F55 against the calories calculated by an elliptical machine (which knows energy use) on a 45-minute workout and the Polar was within 4% of the elliptical. I think the best feature for me is the ability to continuously calculate and record heart rate and energy expenditure; without the F55 I only knew how many calories I was burning when I was on the cardio equipment, now I can record this during my weight sessions and other exercises. This, along with the ability to upload and keep track of my exercises and fitness level, will make the F55 used long after I get bored with all the extra bells and whistles it has. Edit: Two months later, I am still using it and loving it - it keeps me honest when doing weights and records my last 26 sessions so I can keep track of my workouts on the polar web site. Still puzzled as to why some features were included (lunar phase indicator? why? so people who need the moon to run can plan their running during the day?) but I just ignore the things I dont use. Very good On: 2007-06-29The product is very good. It took care of my necessities. Thank you very much. Best regards BEST ADDITION TO MY FITNESS PRORGRAM EVER! On: 2007-05-16I got my Polar F55 a week ago and LOVE IT! I will admit I am a big gadget person however I cant imagine anybody not loving and seeing all the benefits this device has to offer! It also is an excellent motivating tool! You can check up on your exercise time, calories burned, and HR zones from your previous workouts individually or look at them a week at a time. I love to watch the numbers climb and see myself reach my goals in real time as I exercise. Also it calibrates the heart rate zones at the beginning of each session so it is always customized to YOUR BODY! Also all through your workout you can see where your heart rate is compared to the limits for that zone so you can be sure you are getting the most our of your workout. You can tell it if your goals and it will work out a cardio program to help you reach those goals. It also works with every piece of cardio equipment at my gym and I have used it solid for a week and not receive any interference. The WearLink strap it comes with is EXTREMELY comfortable and doesnt even take you 15 minutes to get used to wearing. I wear it swimming, playing racquet ball, lifting, and any cardio you can imagine. I also wear the watch as my full time watch as I just am obsessed with checking out how I am doing as far as my weekly goals are concerned. I would say this is an absolute MUST for any person serious about their fitness level and it will easily keep you on track getting to that next level whether it is losing weight or strengthening your cardio prgram. The only negative I have to say is that the BodyWork out that is to do with lifting isnt that great of help unless you are a complete novice and then it would be a great starting point as it suggests reps, sets, and movements. If you are already in a lifting routine or know about lifting you proabably will not find it that great but the cardio part is PERFECT! Keeps you honest and motivated On: 2007-01-25I bought the F55 to be a motivator in my weight loss and fitness program. It records the duration , time and intensity of your workout. It makes sure you did all five workouts for the week and burned the needed calories for your target. OwnIndex feature gives you an indication of your progress. I use the an UBS IR to record my progress and send my results to the Polar personal trainer web site to keep a log of my afforts. I knew Polar made a fine product and this HR monitor is no exception. It is a very important part of my fitness program. AMAZING On: 2007-01-22This is by far the best heart rate monitor I have ever had; and Ive had a few. It was a bit confusing figuring out how to change the ying-yang icon, but thats just for personalization and doesnt effect how amazing all the features are. Its seriously like having your own personal trainer attached to you. Its easy to transfer stuff from the PC to the monitor and vise versa. I would highly recommend this heart rate monitor to every woman out there looking for that extra push; accuracy, etc. Ive had several people come up to me and say, "thats a really cool watch" because its not overly bulky and its a very attractive color (and red is not one of my favorites for the record). Monitor On: 2007-01-12Heart rate monitor works great but the body workout aspect is not very useful if you know what your doing in the gym Great HRM, lousy website On: 2007-01-06I love the F55. It allows me to schedule resistance exercise along with cardiovascular exercise, can test my fitness level and let me know if I need to ramp up or ease up on my workouts. It is a great HRM. But I absolutely HATE the website to which the data gets downloaded. The software that Polar sells for their very high end HRMs not only is not included with the F55, it cannot be used with the F55. You cannot download the F55 data to use in other programs like Ultra Coach either. I am ok with the idea of paying extra for the Polar software or even for having to buy a third-party program. In fact, I was able to use Ultra Coach with my old Polar S410 HRM. The S410 had a sonic interface to Ultra Coach and it was hideous. Most of the time the connection would not be made and if, on your fourth or fifth try, you accidentally hit the wrong button, you would lose all of your data. The F55 has an infra red interface that is much better. You can create a custom resistance exercise workout, like, for example, bench press x 2 sets, curls x 1 set, etc. You create this on the website and upload it to your F55. When you are in the gym, you simply press a button when you begin the set and press it again at the end. When you have finished the number of sets for that exercise, it moves on to the next one. But the website is cumbersome and slow. The marketing material mentions that you can use their website, but they do not go out of their way to mention that there is no other possibility. For a $200 HRM and a $60 infrared interface, I at least want the ability to download the HRM files as text or csv files and read them in Excel or, as I mentioned, import them to Ultra Coach, PC Coach, or some other software. I could have spent $360 to get another HRM complete with the Polar software, but that would have been a cycling or running monitor with no resitance training workouts programmed in. The F55 is what I wanted even if I had an unlimited budge. Oh well, to sum up a long-winded rant: LOVE the HRM and HATE the website. Polar F55 HRM Review On: 2006-11-10This is my 3rd Polar HRM. I personally struggle with learning the features of their products- it just doesnt click, but once I understand how the devices work, I am very pleased with the performance. I upgraded from Polar HRM #2 to this model for the additional features and user replaceable batteries. Thats huge. I used to send my old device to be serviced and telemetry strap exchanged and the turnaround time was very poor. I almost went with another make just for that feature, but I think Polar recognized it wasnt user friendly. The button action is much improved on this watch- stiff at first, but after a little use its very easy. The display is large and clear. OwnFit and OwnZone are huge features for me training for multisport activity. I like the data storage and the 2.0 IRDA device (sold separately) to upload the data to my computer. The free software is useful, but not very robust. All in all Im still getting used to it, but I got what I expected and it is doing all the things advertised. I would recommend this device. There are other devices with more features and capability, but you need to get honest with yourself and ask if you really will use or need all that stuff, or care to measure it. amazon is the best ..... On: 2006-11-10really really good , excellent service ,until now i dont have any complaint ,thank you amazon............. POLAR F55 On: 2006-11-09Sorry I prefer write in Spanish. El reloj me ha resultado excelente en mis ejercicios diarios en el gym. Lo utilizo todos los dÃas y especialmente en mis prácticas de Spinning. Lo recomiendo favorable y ampliamente. A trainer on your wrist On: 2006-09-25The Polar F55 is great. I wanted a hear rate monitor and didnt care much about bells and whistles, but was attracted to the weight lifting features and the larger size of this model. The F55s unique feature is basically a diary to keep track of your sets, reps, and weights. If you dont lift, or if you can remember all your sets and weights, you could gete by with a lesser model. Each of the Polars features is well thought out. My HR monitor is my personal trainer on my wrist, and I love it! Yes, it is complicated, but I fancy myself a technical guy, and like to keep track of all that stuff! It really helps to motivate me. Issues: the wrist band is a little small; I didnt think I had large wrists, but it wouldnt fit a much larger wrist, and the chest transmitter was a little tight on me (6, 200lb). excellant product On: 2006-07-21I have used this monitor for just a week and already find it the best addition I have ever made to my fitness program. Simply put, this unit will automatically take care of the M&Ms of personal training. Measure and motivate. Very simple learning curve. Once your up to speed on the buttons the Polar does the rest. Want to see how many calories you have burned? No problem. Want to maintain your cardio level. Simply done. Using this monitor will take anyone seriously interested in their fitness to the next level. I would rate it higher then 5 stars if possible. Also the Polar personal training web-site is a very good resource to track your data and progress. The nice part is that the Polar personal trainer comes along at no additional charge. |