rlmalisz

I went through at least a decade of Polar-ization. Had their HRMs early on, then their multi-sport watches. Hated their closed garden, hated that so much stuff had to be sent in for battery replacement. Disappointed that their later devices took forever to get a GPS lock. The last straw was when they went to the WIND cycling sensors, and I found that the damned things were essentially disposable. If you were really stubborn, you might be able to replace the batteries in them without destroying them. All that said, except on rare occasions where interference kicked in from some large electric transformer, the heart rate data always looked spot-on.

Got a Wahoo Elemnt and about the same time got an Apple Watch, and kicked Polar to the curb. Wahoo speed, cadence sensors joined the family. And my first TICKR. The early ones could do *one* BLE connection and arbitrary ANT+ at the same time. Problem I had was I wanted the BLE connection to go to the watch, but also had to connect it from time to time to the phone for updates, configuration, etc. And inevitably at the start of a ride, would find that the phone had called dibs on the BLE connection, and a fairly involved dance ensued to get it shifted to the watch. Aside from that, though, heart rate data was solid, even when the battery was getting weak. My SO is still using that TICKR years on with no issues.

Wahoo came out with the pricier TICKR X...which supports up to 3 simultaneous BLE connections. My problem appeared to be solved. I got one, waterfalled old TICKR to SO, and things were great...for about 6 months. I started getting erratic HR data while walking, cycling, sitting still. Replaced the battery, not much improvement. Contacted Wahoo, they sent me a replacement, I sent them the sick guy back. New one worked well for about 6 months, failed...and I was now beyond the one year warranty.

In the interim, they had extended the 3-connection ability to a second gen "baseline" TICKR. I have since gone through at least 3 (6, if you count the warranty replacements) of those. Have one unused warranty replacement sitting next to me, one more on the way....it got to the point where I kept a spare for coverage during the warranty replacement hang-time. When that last replacement shows up, I'm selling them both for whatever I can get for them.

I bought a Polar H10. Not fond of the strap setup versus Wahoo's. It supports arbitrary ANT+ and 2 BLE connections. You have to install their app and go through some hokey-pokey to enable the second BLE, but did so and it works, which suffices for my needs. But they have abandoned their insular connection protocols, sensor has user-serviceable battery. I am hopeful.

It's discouraging that Wahoo keeps selling these flakey devices. I'm old, and count on HRM data to let me now if I am pushing hard enough or too hard. Having HRM data that isn't trustworthy has caused me to abort a training climb I later knew was not a problem...but when the HRM is screaming that you're at 200+ BPM, at 70 years old, it gives you pause. Failure rate on these Gen 2 baseline TICKRs is apparently bad enough that Wahoo doesn't want the failures back. They sell for ~$50. Wahoo must be getting them for a fraction of that, if they can absorb a warranty replacement and shipping on every one they sell...I have not had one survive a year. This most recent failure was purchased less than two months ago.

Anyway, I was sure I was done with Polar for good. And now am back, at least for the HRM sensor. Wahoo may eventually get their act together and be an HRM candidate for me again some day. At this point, not holding my breath.

--Richard

Aushiker

Regarding the HRM on these devices (Garmin in my case), I mentioned my Garmin heart reading to my cardiologist a while back when I thought I was having a stroke. His response was that if was accurate, I would have been dead. Since then, I have taken reading with a grain of salt. YMMV, of course.

All that said I have found the Garmin to be good at getting a connection; my Wahoo experience was like yours so that ended my experimenting with Wahoo and I have stuck with Garmin since.

unterhausen

My tickr was really frustrating. I have since come to the conclusion that there aren't any good heart straps. Wish I was wrong. My garmin watch works okay, but the battery life is abysmal

Jjbailey930

I have a Tickr band. Seems to be consistent with my Apple Watch 7 I had and now Ultra. Only an occasional issue connecting to Zwift but probably user error on me.

Classtime 

After much trouble with garmins, I went to the Tickr and used it for years with my phone. Got a new Garmin Explore and needed the new model Tickr which also works great.

unterhausen

When you say "new tickr" do you mean the tickrx?

Classtime 

Not X.

blacknbluebikes 

Replaced a Polar h10 with a TICKR X. The Wahoo has been pretty flawless, actually. Connect it to Garmin 130+, Zwift on iPad, Concept2 rower. I don't connect it to the Apple Watch, though. Readings start to flake when battery even slightly low, but new battery always resolves the issue.

unterhausen

It can be difficult to buy a good battery. I suspect that is a lot of the problem that I had with my tickr. We had a lifetime supply of batteries from Amazon, which weren't great. At least they didn't leak.
My tickr is still around, I suppose I should make an effort to find a good battery and use it again.

rm -rf

My Tickr was fine, until it quit working after 3 or so years. By then, the strap was getting a bit stretched out.

I got a Polar H10 a couple years ago. I like it!
The strap seems sturdier than the Kickr's. The buckle is a bit annoying, but it is very small and flat, which is good. I wonder if the strap is too small for larger chests, I have a fairly narrow chest and the strap is most of the way extended.

It uses CR2025, though, a slightly thinner version of the usual CR2032. Why? (some reports of CR2032 working, but I got 6-battery card of CR2025 just for this.) Batteries are lasting a long time so far.

No wetting of the contacts is needed to get it going. I get instant heart rate as soon as I buckle it.

chaadster

Really??! CR2032s are very commonly available around here, and I’ve never had any issues with Duracell or Energizer; are those not good batteries?

chaadster

I’ve been using TICKR since ‘15, and still have my original one in use as well as a newer v2 model. The original did go through a funky period for a second, which battery replacement did not fix, but then it suddenly straightened out and started acting right. That, or maybe I ran an update; I don’t recall. Anyway, I use the original for my indoor rides, and v2 outside, just because I have the two and it makes keeping my gear organized easier. I think the straps are very comfy, and hav no trouble with stretching, even though I’m a barrel-chested size 48. I wet the contacts before use, but I’m not hairy, so maybe that’s the reason they work really well for me.

unterhausen

They are widely counterfeited. Local sources may be better. Amazon has trouble with cross contamination between real and counterfeit stocks, according to reports.

chaadster

Oh, wow! I'd never considered counterfeit batteries were a thing, but I also lack the foresight to plan and order ahead, and am usually running to the local CVS pharmacy in a panic with just minutes before roll out for the ride!

Ogsarg

I had a very high heartrate with my Tickr at one point and read about resetting it by reversing the polarity on the battery for a second and then putting it back. It seemed to work for me. As I recall, mine was reading like 225 or something and I wasn't working all that hard at the time, so I knew it was a flaky reading. I also read they are very sensitive about the specific battery and suggest using Panasonic. A sign of poor engineering.

Oddly enough, the Tickr is one of the more reliable things connected to my Garmin. The Bontrager lights that are supposed to be turned on/off by the Garmin is a complete crap shoot and in the rare event they both connect, one or both will almost surely disconnect at some point in the ride.

But its me 

Another thing to consider is the bitter coating applied to coin size batteries. Per Wahoo:

1. Wahoo recommends using Panasonic coin-cell batteries or another name brand without a bitter coating for optimal performance and tracking.

rlmalisz

I have only used the sacred Panasonic batteries for replacement. Have always done the firmware updates, reverse-battery reset, battery replacement before filing a trouble ticket with Wahoo. Per my original post, the last one failed after two months of comparatively light usage. Wahoo's app reported the Wahoo original battery at 95% when ithe HRM started losing its marbles. Not pilot error, not a bad battery, just another flakey TICKR. My time is worth too much to me to battle these devices with no useful outcome. As I said, it's telling that Wahoo seems unsurprised that the device failed two months along. Every one of these I have owned has taken me time to pair it to everything, time to debug it when it fails, cost of Panasonic CR2032 as part of that dance, time to file a trouble ticket with Wahoo. It had become such a pattern that I bought and kept a spare as failover, while waiting for the warranty replacement from Wahoo. I have the last failover sitting on my desk, unused. Am trying to sell it. If someone wants to roll the Wahoo dice, $20 + shipping.

--Richard

unterhausen

How do you make sure they are real Panasonic batteries? The better the brand, the more likely they are to be faked.