Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper)
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Description of Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper)
The world's only heart rate monitor that creates a workout program with how much, how hard and how long to exercise to reach your goals.The Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor is the world's only heart rate monitor that creates a workout program to tell you how much, how hard and how long to exercise to reach your goals. This powerful wrist monitor provides a highly accurate gauge for getting the most from your exercise sessions. The Polar Keeps U Fit Workout Program gives you personal guidance--how often, how hard, and how long you need to exercise to reach your personal fitness goals. It also includes a free-of-charge online component.
The wristwatch-like monitor features a large display that includes 12/24-hour time of day, alarm, and stopwatch. The transmitter includes the Wearlink Coded function, which eliminates interference from other heart rate monitors. The transmitter's electrodes, which pick up the heart signals, are integrated right into the strap for added flexibility and comfort.
The OwnCal feature shows your energy expenditure during one exercise session as well as your accumulated kilocalories during several exercise sessions. It also allows you to set daily and weekly exercise goals in terms of calorie expenditure. The Fitness Bullets feature shows a bullet on the monitor's display for every 10 minutes spent exercising/training in your target heart rate zone. The Coded feature eliminates interference from other heart rate monitors. Other features include:
- Displays heart rate, exercise time, and average heart rate
- Manual and automatic heart rate limit settings
- Large easy-to-read display with backlighting and split screen
- Water resistant to 30 meters (100 feet)
Manufacturer's Warranty
The original purchaser of this heart rate monitor is backed by a limited warranty that states that this product that the product will be free from defects in material or workmanship for two years from the date of purchase.
Note:
Polar heart rate monitors are precision instruments; consumers are not advised to change their own battery. Polar recommends that all service be done by an authorized Polar Service Center which will include a warranty for 90 days on repairs and 6 months for batteries.
About Polar
The first EKG accurate wireless heart rate monitor was invented by Polar back in 1977 as a training tool for the Finnish National Cross Country Ski Team. The concept of "intensity training" by heart rate swept the athletic world in the eighties. By the 1990s, individuals were looking to heart rate monitors not only for performance training needs, but also for achieving everyday fitness goals. Today, the same concept of heart rate training is being used by world-class athletes as well as everyday people trying to lose weight. Polar is the leading brand among consumers, coaches, and personal trainers worldwide and the company is committed to not only producing the best products, but also being the leading educator on the benefits of heart rate based exercise.
Sports reviews of Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper)
Customer Review: Good, when it works...
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
If this product worked consistently I would give it five stars. Unfortunately, it often struggles to pick up the heart rate in the first place, even when I use an electrolytic lotion. Usually I have to start exercising for some period of time before it starts delivering reliable readings. This is very frustrating, as I would like energy expenditure measurements for the entirety of my workout, without fiddling with the thing for 15 minutes or longer pre-workout.
When it is working, it delivers what seems to be a fairly reliable calorie expenditure estimate, as long as it is calibrated. Two notes on the calibration:
(1) it doesn't seem to calculate resting energy expenditure well - it gives me an unrealistic value of 125 cals/hr for sitting around. This, however, is not a problem - I just subtract 125 cals/hr from the readings during activities.
(2) I caution against using the built-in "fitness test" for estimating your VO2Max. Calculating VO2Max on the basis of heart rate alone seems to good to be true, and that seems to be the case. The estimate varies widely based on whether you input your activity level as "moderate", "high", or "top". Any test that depends so heavily on such a vague and arbitrary variable is highly suspect. But if you estimate your VO2Max by some other means (such as the Cooper test), the device should give reasonable readings - indeed, when I compare the values it gives for stereotypical activities (e.g. running a mile), they are quite close to the theoretical values for a person of my size.
Customer Review: Not for fat people...
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
Okay, now that I have your attention with the review title...this heart monitor watch is only average. The reason I say it's not for fat people is because I have had it for about 3 months and was about 80 pounds overweight (5' 11, 270 lbs) when I started. The watch has helped in the fitness department because I can keep my heart rate in the proper zone, but that's only when it actually registers your heart rate. You see, the strap is not built for people with a wider chest. My chest measures nearly 54" around. The strap stretches enough to fit but its under so much stress that it tends to want to fold over therefore making the electrodes not stay on your skin. This is especially true if you are sitting - like rowing or paddling. Probably 80% of the time I use it I lose the signal sometime during the workout so I never get a truly accurate result. The strap is wet as instructed and I have tried changing batteries in the transmitter but none of these things help. I'm sure it's a fine piece of equipment for people with a little less girth than me, but of you are in the very overweight category it may not fit well enough to register a pulse. I have since switched to the Garmin Forerunner 305 and it works great. By the way, I'm down 25 lbs. Yeah!Customer Review: Computer download feature basically useless
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
Pros:
- Unlike the lower-end Polar models, the F-11 allows you to change the chest strap battery yourself without sending it back to the manufacturer.
- The cloth chest strap is comfortable and easy to wear.
- User interface is straightforward, heart rates read properly and quickly.
- Saves workout data and can tell you how and when to exercise (perhaps not a "pro" if you don't want a watch telling you what to do.)
Cons:
- Although you can download your workout data to the computer, Polar's proprietary software gives you basically no flexibility in viewing it. The downloading step is easy, but you must be connected to the internet to perform it. Once data are downloaded the only way you can access them is through Polar's webpage. The "plots" are a percentage of time you spent in each heart rate zone. No heart rate vs. time. Not even exact heart rate values -- just ranges. If you do any sort of interval training this is more or less useless because the averaging washes out the interesting features of your workout data.
Customer Review: Parts of this work really well...
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
but parts of it don't. As a heart rate monitor, it works great. As an exercise motivator, if you're a geek that finds heart rate / calorie data motivating, then it works great. The problems that I've had so far are: 1) if you're buying this because of the data upload feature, be aware that this seems to be touchy (at best). I have yet to get it to work. 2) The chest strap is really difficult to fasten / unfasten until you've used it 10-15 times (this could easily be a build quality issue with my particular strap). 3) If you are going to use the 'OwnZone' feature, read and pay attention to how the monitor initializes itself as you begin to exercise. If you don't, you'll find that your recommended heart rate zone can be kind of bizarre. If I were going to buy again, I would probably consider the higher end unit with the mini usb connector, the acoustic (yup, it sounds like an early 90's modem) data transfer just seems too ginchy.Customer Review: Great HRM - Poor Service
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
Pros:
Excercise program is nice. Has workout history.
Cons:
Displays Heart Rate or % of Max. Would be nice if it alternated between the two like it does at the end of a workout.
Mine lasted less than 6 months. Started showing irregular heart rate / no heart rate. Polar support said to replace the battery in the transmitter. Didn't help. Original battery tested fine (supposed to last 2500 hours). Had to send it in for warranty repair. Took 2 weeks and I had to pay shipping both ways. No cross ship available.