Polar F11M Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper, New Design)
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Description of Polar F11M Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper, New Design)
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 F11M Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Grey Pepper, New Design)
Customer Review: Great Monitor
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
I've been using the Polar F11 for about a month now and I am really pleased. It was easy to set up, comfortable to wear and seemingly very accurate. The fitness test is useful and the programmed exercised plan makes it easier to keep to a schedule.
I give it 4.5 stars only because you cannot set up multiple users. So far it's great on all other counts.
Customer Review: Satisfactory
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
Works well enough. Don't understand all the hubbub about it creating a personalized workout routine, nor is there good documentation about the "OwnZones" and why they are important.Customer Review: Questionable build quality
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
This is the second Polar heart rate monitor I've had over 10 years... the first one lasted that long! The only reason I decided to replace it is that I lost my first one.
I read all the reviews on the internet and decided on this model.
PROS
- The layout and logic of the menus
- Decades of experience show in the execution of what you see on-screen
CONS
- Workmanship, reliability
- The chest strap is flimsier than my old model. doesn't seem like it will hold up (but time will tell)
- One of the buttons fell off in my hand the second time I used it. Polar is mailing me a new button, but it will take two weeks to get here.
A side note: Polar has online chat customer service you can access through their website. Bravo! It worked really well, and I got my problem resolved while I was able to do several other things... better than having a phone stuck to the side of my face for a half-hour! I think they should be a little more aggressive about getting a fix to a new owner. Taking 2 weeks to repair a brand new $160 unit is excessive in my book.
Customer Review: Reliability issues
Sport shop rating: 2 Stars
I've owned this product for over two years.
The functionality is nice but reliability is a major issue.
I really like the fitness program. You can set your weekly goals and at the end of the week if you have met your goals you get a trophee displayed on the watche's "home page" (the default time display). This is a nice motivator.
When I exercise I want to see in one screen the %beat rate (%BPM), the time (clock) and the calories spent so far and you do have this option, although you do need to fiddle with the watch using a rather non-intuitive combination of button punching.
After a year or so I found out that you can lock the buttons and that's very handy since the buttons got pressed often in my gymbag, getting me into all kind of weird modes. I'm sure it says so in the manual but hey, who reads manuals...
I have never used the computer interface so I cannot comment about this.
There are a few negatives:
1. The watch looks very cheap. For this price I would have expected a watch I can use outside of the gym and this is not the case.
2. The strap's inside is made out of fabric that you need to profusely wet to get it to register your heart rate. The major issue here is that at the end of the workout you have some wet fabric that will end up stinking of sweat, and of mold if you don't dry it up in open air. Perhaps you can wash it (I have never tried) but it's a real nuisance. I've owned watches from other brands before and they were all-rubber and had no problems registering the BPM.
3. The biggest problem by far is reliability. I've had quite a few cases where the watch stopped registering the heart rate or provided blatantly wrong readings. The issue seems to be with the strap as the same wrong or missing BPM shows up on the treadmill as well. This typically happens mid session and the sensors conductivity doesn't seem to be the issue since I'm all wet from sweat + I am drenching the sensors before exercising. This is a bummer as I am losing track of effort level, calories etc. for this session. I have tried replacing batteries but that did not help. A separate issue is that I have had the watch freeze on a couple of occasions. The only way to reset it was to open the back, remove the battery and put it back in place (kind of a Ctrl-Alt-Del for watches...)
I am now looking for a new watch as the reliabiilty problem is a showstopper for me.
One request from the maker: Add an "Auto-on" feature where the watch turns on the exercise mode automatically when it registers a BPM above, say, 100 or so. I've had cases where I found out after a few minutes I have forgotten to turn it on.
Customer Review: Reliably Unreliable
Sport shop rating: 2 Stars
I've used my Polar F11 for 3 1/2 years, and after watching the heart monitor read "00" for most of my long run today, I've decided it's time to try Garmin 305.
There's a lot of computing power in this little machine - but not enough engineering and quality control behind it. You can generate a training program based on your goals, determining the number of workouts and times in each of 3 heart rate zones - that's good - but if you adjust the settings the watch inexplicably renames the exercises. It's confusing and a sign that they skipped some quality testing steps.
Over the years I've suffered with the unpredictable failures in the heart monitor - sometimes it's fine for weeks and months at a time, and then it just goes erratic. To have have the unit serviced, you get so shell out $59-79 and have to wait 2-3 weeks for the authorized dealer to return it to you.
If you like to synch your workouts with a computer, Polar has a very nice web-based fitness toolset - IF you are a PC user.
My wife has an F5 unit and finds similar issues as well - so while Polar was the leader in creating this market, they've failed to keep the quality and features up to date. If you're in doubt, go look at the ratings on a competing Garmin 305 (same price point on Amazaon) and you'll see 500 5 star ratings and 300 4 star ratings.