am0n

In reading reviews on HRMs (Tickr, Tickr Fit, H10, OH1, Rhythm+), it sounds like they break quickly and easily. Is that true? Or do most people have good experience with them lasting a while? I'm considering buying one, either chest or arm, but not excited about the idea of it breaking in 6 to 12 months.

philbob57

Can't really say, but I'm on my 2nd tickr Fit since buying the first one last November. I've ridden 1100 miles. That's just 1 or 2 data points, depending on how one counts.

am0n

So two in less than a year?

texbiker

I have the Tickr Fit. It is 13 months old with 4,576 miles. No problems so far.

bobwysiwyg

If I might, I'd like to throw another HRM into the mix, a Mio. It's a wrist worn, optical HRM. I've used mine for 3-4 years and pretty reliable. Once or twice, in reviewing Strava data, I've noticed very brief spike to an absurd HR, just thought meh, and moved on.

Tourist in MSN

I went through half a dozen Sports Instruments heart rate monitors over about half a dozen years. The company went out of business several years ago. They had a chest strap and a wrist watch unit. The chest straps never quit, the wrist watch units I suspect were not as waterproof as they were supposed to be. I used them on my handlebars, thus they occasionally saw rain. An example of one dying in the photo. It had four buttons and when I changed the batteries in them they looked like the buttons were in fact not waterproof at all.



Since then, I have bought three Sigma iD.GO heart rate monitors. They are also a wrist watch type, they use a chest strap. So far, no problems with them but I have only had them for about 10 months. I have one each on three of my bikes, I use an old handlebar adapter mount from my older Sports Instruments HRMs. The Sigma HRM did not come with that handlebar adapter mount.

The photo below is of my cockpit on my bike this past June and July when I had a five week bike tour in the Canadian Maritimes. The Sigma lived on my bike and was exposed to every rain event, and there were several, some of which were multi-inch rain events. There is only one button and that button appears to be well waterproofed since it never quit even though it was rained on a lot. The Sigma is at the bottom of the photo, to the left of the inclinometer which is to the left of my bike computer, which is to the left of my GPS. You can see the word Sigma on it, the upper number on the Sigma display is 115, which was my beats per minute at the time of the photo. The readout has big enough digits that I do not need my reading glasses to read it.




Here is a link at Amazon to the Sigma
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0728KH8GW/

I specifically wanted a cheap one that had no bells and whistles, just heart rate so I could tell if I was running too many beats per minute on uphills, etc. Sigma met that goal. And since it is only a wrist unit with a strap, I do not need a phone or anything else like that to make it work.

The Sigma iD.GO is compatible with my old Sports Instruments chest straps, so I am actually still using my Sports Instruments chest straps. These straps are the older type ones (1980s technology) that are not paired with a receiver, they predate the ANT+ or the other newer ones that you have to pair with a receiver. These older type chest straps also work with the exercise bikes and stairmasters at my health club for when I work out there on cardio machines in the winter.

So far I have not used up a battery on any of my three Sigmas, so I can't say how hard it is to replace the battery or which battery it takes.

If you are new to heart rate monitors, be warned that the chest straps work best if you have sweated a bit. On dry skin they do not have a good electrical contact and will not function well. When I use one at the health club I often will lick the electric contacts on the chest strap first to wet it before I put it on so that it has good contact with my skin. Without that and I might not get a good reading for 10 or 15 minutes.

Seattle Forrest

I've had one that lasted half a decade, I've had my HRM-Swim for 3 years now, and I've had others die after about a year. Sometimes it was my fault, but not always.

CooSpoo chest straps are about $25 on Amazon. Haven't had mine long enough to comment on longevity, but at that price it doesn't need to last forever to be a good value.

philbob57

My first Tickr Fit started turning itself off and on for a few minutes after 15-20 miles. Wahoo sent me a new one, which has been operating as expected for 700 miles.

The first one tracked a medical HRM I wore for 4 weeks very closely. I assume the 2nd one would, too.

willieb

I've had a Garmin Ant+ strap that worked fine until I sold it a few years later. I've also had a Wahoo Blue HR that worked ok as well with no issues over a couple of years. Now since I already have an Apple Watch, I use it exclusively for HR and have dumped the straps.

If I was going to buy a new strap I'd go with the Garmin Dual, but for now my HR using my Apple Watch (Series 3 LTE) works great. It provides the HR data to Cyclemeter on my iPhone.

am0n

Have any of you with the Tickr FIT put it on your upper arm (bicep)? If so, does it still seem to work well there?

am0n

Anyone have feedback on using an arm strap HRM on your bicep?

DrIsotope

Garmin Soft Strap HRM, in use for ~1,300 hours. I've replaced the battery once. It has been flawless performance wise.

You can't use a chest strap on your arm, because it's not optical-- chest straps actually detect the electrical activity of your heart.

Seattle Forrest

There's an arm band HRM that people are generally happy with. Chest straps are the gold standard for accuracy though, and the battery tends to last a year or longer; optical sensors need to be charted after several hours of use.

blacknbluebikes 

I've found the Polar H10 to be extremely durable and dependable after 1 year of use (4-5 times per week). Also plays nicely with Apple Watch. Very accurate, which is often not the case for armbands and wristbands.

MinnMan

WAHOO TICKR has been flawless through 2+ years of heavy use. Two previous GARMIN HRMs worked fine for a while, then gave wonky and inexplicable results, then went back to working fine, repeat, etc. Also, GARMIN was only ANT, whereas the WAHOO is both ANT and Bluetooth. No comparison IMHO.

August West

I've been using the same Garmin Soft Strap since 2015 for cycling (Edge 500 & 830), hiking & the gym (Fenix 3) and it has never had so much as one problem. I did change the battery last year just because I figured it was due even though it was still working great . I don't want or need BT so Ant+ isn't a problem. If it were to die tomorrow I wouldn't hesitate to replace it with an identical monitor.

rm -rf

8 years with the Garmin chest strap. The elastic is getting really old, and it's showing occasional incorrect very high readings. Time for a new one soon.

am0n

Thanks. Looks like some positive impressions of the Garmin and it looks like the newest/latest one also support BT. (ANT+ and BT is a must as I don't presently have any ANT+ units so I need BT, but want the flexibility of both once I get a better computer for my bike) Does the Garmin work with all Android Fitness apps, or only theirs?

How are chest straps for all day wear? I.e., if I wanted to occasionally see what my heart rate was doing throughout the day for baselining? I know that they need to be wet, so would all day wear be bad because without working out the skin would dry and the measurement would start being intermittent?

For the Tickr Fit, any of you have issues with the strap deteriorating? I've seen that comment often about the Tickr Fit. Haven't seen it about the OH1 or Rhythm, though.

Seattle Forrest

I wore a Garmin strap for a hike/climb that lasted 26 hours. My only complaint sleeping at the trailhead and getting up at 3 am.

Seattle Forrest

Can you buy just the transmitter part? I was given a strap, but don't need to replace one. I'd probably benefit from leaving a chest HRM in the car because I'm getting more forgetful as the years go by.

frogmorton

I went through a few tickr fits in a pretty short time. Then I just swapped out the strap for a polar strap and have had good luck for about 3000 miles. I now think the previous its were good and it is just the wahoo straps that suck.

John_V 

I've had my Wahoo Tickr since 2016 when my Garmin HRM died. Except for batteries dying, I've never had an issue with it. I did replace the strap because, through my negligence, it somehow got torn. My wife has had two Tickr's during the same period of time. My HRM is used 6 days a week for about 3-4 hours/day, on average. If you take the time to take care of them, they will last you for quite a while.

Seattle Forrest

This one is highly recommended. ANT+ and BT for about $25. Works every bit as well as the $70 ones. Their customer service is incredible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BS6B4PD..._dioKDbZQJZ5K4

MichaelJH

I have gone through 2 Wahoo Tickrs in about 3 years. The contact points on the monitor that plugs into the strap break.