Nice heartrate monitor for the money
Written: Jun 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Polar has GREAT service; many features, large display; long battery life
Cons: Cannot change batteries yourself
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| maejohns's Full Review: Polar Accurex Plus |
Polar Accurex
For the enthusiastic bike racer, long-distance runner, or triathlete, I strongly recommend the use of a heart rate monitor. It can help you monitor your fitness improvements, learn a thing-or-two about your body, and gives you something to compare with your training partners!
The Polar Accurex offers a nice combination of features at a not so outrageous price.
The product comes in two pieces: a chest strap and a wrist unit. The monitor offers a nice collection of features, such as heart rate, stop watch, average heart rate for the workout, time spent within heartrate zones during workout, post-workout recovery, a countdown timer feature, date, alarm, etc...
You also have the option of setting a zone, outside of which the monitor beeps (this can, however, be annoying when your competitors are beeping in the middle of a race). It is handy for those times when you are controlling your desire to go too hard.
One nice feature is that when the monitor is in heartrate mode, you can hold the watch to your chest to have it flip over the clock. This eliminates the need for wearing a watch on the other wrist. (If getting back home from your ride on time is important to your significant other!)
The life of this system is superb. I have had to have the wrist unit battery replaced twice in three years, and the chest strap battery finally quit working on me for the first time in after 3 years of perpetual use. A bad point is that you cannot replace this yourself; instead, you have to mail it back to Polar, pay something like $35 and they send you a brand new one.
One definite plus for Polar, as a company, is their excellent service performance. For the heartrate monitor junky, it is difficult to go too long bare-wristed/chested, and Polar makes it a point at getting the repaired item back to you, whether it is a chest strap replacement or a battery replacement. I have sent mine back multiple times and have always had a quick turnaround.
One negative, as mentioned above, is that I cannot (or maybe I just am not supposed to -- I have never tried) replace the batteries myself. It would be nice if the design were changed so I could replace the battery myself (maybe the newer ones have this feature?).
There are many different companies manufacturing heartrate monitors these days, but bear in mind that Polar was the pioneer on this front. They have been at it a lot longer than the others and I really feel that they do their job better than anyone else out there.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
maejohns
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Member: Mark Johnson
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Reviews written: 37
Trusted by: 65 members
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