Polar h10 really always stays on when both buttons are buttoned down (I always unbutton 1 because else my headwind will start blowing)
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Someone said, on a Peloton FB group, that they were using a conductive medical grease to insure their strap worked consistently. It seemed overkill for just about everyone there, but I get it. I have wet the strap, and had it dry out before needing it. Maybe in those cases a gel might work really well. I believe they are water based so it would likely be washed out by sweat that would take its place. I have had rides where the strap doesnāt start right away, and only is added when enough sweat makes the connection between the sides of the strap. shrug
I guess itās what you think will work for you. The gel seems like a great idea to me if the strap working after a long time before a start is important (and if the gel actually works). Yeah, fumbling with your jersey and a water bottle to wet the strap and wake it up does seem cumbersome and potentially embarrassing.
Switches bring possibly needless complications to a device that is bathed in a highly corrosive and conductive liquid. (My Tickr was flooded at some point with sweat and it ate the insides eventually causing it to fail. Poor sealingā¦
So I asked my board certified actual medical doctor wife and she said:
āWhatās the difference between heart rate and pulse. Arenāt they largely the same?ā
Academically speaking, yes however you can have heart rate showing up on a monitor and if it isnāt really a true beat then you may not have it associated pulse with it. That is what we call pulseless electrical activity. PEA
Heart rate is measured electronically pulse is measured via palpation. But yes, essentially the same measurement.
Rate seems to imply the tracking of change over time. The change in the pulse, for what we are talking about. So pulse is a component of heart rate. Pulse IS heart rate. Without a pulse, you have no heart rate, nothing that will keep you alive. The distinction is without a difference.
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Running specific issue here, but optical sensors have real and very hard to overcome issues measuring heart rate reliably during running. I donāt find the optical heart rate from my fenix 6 when running useful. Resting and other activities it is likely fine for, but if I care about heart rate I will use an electrical strap.
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All the brand names right now are garbage quality compared to what they all used to be. The old Garmin hard plastic chest strap monitor was king. Lasted me 10 years.
In the past 5 years Iāve used a Peloton, Polar, a Wahoo and the Amazon special Coospo. The brand names died around 1 year of use. The Coospo has been the most durable by a mile, going on year 2 of using it 4-5 days a week. Buy the Coospo.
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I am done with the name brands as well. I have had good luck with both a Coospo and a Magene.
Yes. There are circumstances where the distinction is important in some situations. If you can describe in what circumstances pulse rate departs from heart rate and what to do about it, thatās great.
I mean, you can estimate VO2max from your 5 min cycling power or a 12 min run or some similar effort. Those are literally measuring different things. If youāre a fast twitcher, maybe your actual VO2max is lower than the estimate or something because of that extra anaerobic power. Or if your gross efficiency is higher than average, then your VO2max estimate will probably be higher than it really is. But yeah, for those two things the distinction matters.
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Same here, I much prefer the upper arm band location vs. a chest strap. Mine has been reliable, battery life is ok, not great but its easy to charge via usb.
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They are usually equal except for when it actually matters. Maybe I should have considered a career in internal medicine, they always seemed interested in such discussions about what usually amounts to nothing but I didnāt (I instead chose a career outside of medicine) but still it gets me every time when I see claims about the accuracy of of watches measuring heart rate. No they cannot, they can measure pulse
I got a couple of years out of my Coo Spo but shortly after I replaced the strap it died completely, Touchwood, Iāve recently replaced my current H10 strap after two years and its still going (but its only been a week) but I agree the garmin hard strap lasted best, I think I got 8 year out of mine.
When I use to train for Ironmans I would find myself running a lot in the winter (Chicago area) and what I would find is that my HRM strap either never turned on because lack of sweat or turned off because saliva wore off and I was not sweating. I would run in pretty much a long thermal shirt and that was it and I never sweated.
I started using Spectra 360 in the winter time and solemnly every had issues with capturing HR data.
Just a little note/tidbit I found when training in the cold where sweat is not going to be available. It also actually felt kind of nice when you put it on also 
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I tried their speed and cadence sensors. Actually very very good- let us know about the HR strap!!
($100+ for a Garmin is silly)
I see claims about the accuracy of of watches measuring heart rate. No they cannot, they can measure pulse
You are still flogging that? Give it a rest dudeā¦
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But the strap I got also captures running activity. I mean, obviously a waste if I donāt run, but I could run. At some point. It has a cache memory for activities that were not directly fed to a head unit. So to kind of defend Gaminās price/product, itās not ājustā an HRM strap, itās a āsmart strapā.
OMG! Mine did too, but they were ANT+ only! They were tanks! I could go a year without washing the strap, and removing the ābrainsā meant that I could keep that going for years! Itās part of the reason I was on ANT+ sensors for so long. They were damn near indestructible!! I think what killed one was a misstep in installing the rubber o-ring when swapping a battery, sadlyā¦
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Pulse deficits are a thing but uncommon in the general canine and feline populations. Maybe itās different in hominids though?
Joe
Well, heās not entirely wrong.
PPG (using light) is quite different than ECG (measuring electrical signal). For most people, they wonāt care. For others, we want as good a measurement as possible.
Iām also a fan of the Verity, itās the most comfortable Iāve had for cycling. I forget I have it on, so far (knock on wood) itās been the best optical HRM Iāve used.
The Polar H10 can do that as well.
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After countless warranty replacements with previous Garmin HRMs using the 4-screw casing (whole unit dying once the battery compartment had been opened, or new batteries lasting on a week or two), my Pro+ has been faultless for 18+ months.
The new compartment design is way cleaner and works well, stats are accurate, and it records a good signal in all conditions.
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