I still haven’t found the perfect heart rate monitor, for me, for everything I do.
For anyone that’s interested here are my favourites by sport/activity
Running (All): 1st Garmin HRM-RUN 2nd Wahoo TICKR-X
Why? I like the Garmin’s strap. It looks nice (!) and I sometimes use the Running Dynamics
Bike (All): 1st 4iiii Viiiiva 2nd Wahoo TICKR-X
Why? The Viiiiva bridges those pesky ANT+ sensors to Bluetooth
Waking HRV: 1st Suunto SMART Belt, 2nd Polar H7
Why? It looks nice and does the Bluetooth SMART job required by my smart phone.
Gym (weights): 1st Scosche Rhythm, 2nd Wahoo Tickr-X
Why? I try and pop it off when doing bicep curls (my weedy arms always fail)
Rowing (Concept): Scosche Rhythm, Wahoo Tickr-X
Why? Normally because I combine with weights afterwards. The Scosche stays on for me.
Swimming Pool: Nothing or… 1st Garmin HRM-TRI 2nd Wahoo Tickr-X
Why? I can’t afford the HRM-SWIM and I’m trying to gather as much back data as possible so that when eventually all the 3rd party products that I use work properly with the HRM-TRI I will be able to analyse the data.
Swimming (Open Water): Garmin HRM-TRI, 2nd Wahoo Tickr-X
Triathlon Race: 1st Garmin HRM-TRI, 2nd Wahoo Tickr-X
Running Race: 1st Garmin HRM-RUN or nothing
Duathlon Race: 1st Garmin HRM-RUN 2nd Wahoo Tickr-X
Walking/General Activity/Sleep Tracking: Nothing
Best Generic Strap (not pod): The new stripy Garmin one. Contrary to popular belief that Polar straps are more accurate/reliable, I prefer this to the Polar generic strap and indeed have no evidence that the Polar strap is better than this new Garmin one (Polar *WAS* better than the older Garmin straps).
Best ANT+/Bluetooth Bridging HRM: 1st 4iiii Viiiiva 2nd MIO Velo
Why? 4iiii is more versatile
Best Overall? It should be the HRM-TRI but the data ecosystem I use for that doesn’t work yet. So the Wahoo wins.
Black Friday 2015 | Amazon | UK | Amazon | USA |
4iiii Viiiiva V100 HRM | £79.99 | Link | $77.64 | Link |
4iiii Viva Mini | TBC | |||
SMS Bio Sport Ear Bud | £40.97 | Link | $69.99 | Link |
Garmin Heart Rate Monitor (Hard) | £31.00 | Link | $39.09 | Link |
Garmin HRM-RUN (Soft) | £51.36 | Link | $99.99 | Link |
Garmin Premium (Soft) | £31.89 | Link | $39.99 | Link |
Garmin HRM-Swim | £76.00 | Link | $98.99 | Link |
Garmin HRM-Tri | £96.52 | Link | $129.99 | Link |
Jabra Sport Pulse | £99.00 | Link | $123.10 | Link |
LifeBeam Smart Helmet | n/a | Link | $185.49 | Link |
MIO Fuse | £94.95 | Link | $129.95 | Link |
MIO Link | £58.95 | Link | $61.51 | Link |
MIO Velo | £84.35 | Link | $111.19 | Link |
Polar H6 | £54.50 | Link | $42.99 | Link |
Polar H7 | £37.49 | Link | $51.45 | Link |
PowerTap PowerCal ANT+ | £104.49 | Link | $95.99 | Link |
PowerTap PowerCal Bluetooth | £87.53 | Link | $95.99 | Link |
Scosche Rhythm+ | £70.00 | Link | $79.95 | Link |
Suunto Smart Belt | £43.68 | Link | $54.91 | Link |
Under Armour Armour39 | $62.99 | Link | ||
Wahoo RFLKT | £71.99 | Link | $89.99 | Link |
Wahoo RFLKT+ | £79.99 | Link | $128.57 | Link |
Wahoo TICKR | £44.14 | Link | $59.85 | Link |
Wahoo TICKR-RUN | £64.99 | Link | $71.92 | Link |
Wahoo TICKR-X | £79.90 | Link | $99.90 | Link |