missymel515

Thank you everyone! I'm very impressed and grateful for how quickly I got responses. I'll definitely be taking a look at the ones y'all mentioned. A quick question for tearose: how often do you have to replace the battery on your polar? The website says 1-2 years but I know it would be shorter with me wearing it all the time.

Hello everyone, I've been reading the forum for a while now but this is my first post. I want to get a heart rate monitor to wear everyday instead of a watch so that I might get a little bit of a warning sometimes before I get really sick. I've been reading reviews of different brands and models in an attempt to decide which one to buy, but it's frustrating reading reviews about using them for marathon training when I'm going to be using it for standing. It seems that the more I find out the more confused I get. I know that I want one that will alert me when my pulse goes above or below my own 'normal' range, and it would be nice if it recorded and transfered info to the computer but it doesn't have to. I thought I wanted a Polar but then I found out that you can't change the batteries yourself, and I've read reviews that said Polar had horrible customer service and it took them over a month to change the battery and return it. Paying $12 and not having it for a month every time the battery dies wouldn't be acceptable, especially if the battery only lasts a couple months. Pretty much every other brand seems to have questionable accuracy and/or reliability though. I'm also concerned about the comfort of the chest strap since I'll be wearing it pretty much all the time, not just for work outs. If anyone has experience with specific HRMs and can give me any suggestions it would be beyond appreciated. I think having one could be really helpful, but actually buying one is getting way too overwhelming!