Best Heart Rate Monitors

Heart-rate monitors for casual exercisers

The simplest heart-rate monitors do one thing: measure your heart rate. Increased public interest in more advanced models, combined with progress in technology, has resulted in heart-rate monitors that can download data to your PC, analyze physiological parameters, attach to accessories that enable custom workouts based on activity, and track your position, distance and speed. Many monitors now come with additional accessories, called pods, which are designed to work with the heart-rate monitor by transmitting activity-specific information to the wrist device. For instance, cyclists have bike pods, runners have foot pods, and all athletes can use GPS pods, which track your location. They are available as accessories to specific heart-rate monitors at an additional cost ranging from $60 to about $140.

Because of the range of heart-rate monitors available today, we divided our report into two sections: one for beginning exercisers or those who just want the basics, and the other for serious exercisers who need more features.

We found good reviews for some basic heart-rate monitors. The unisex Timex Personal Trainer Analog Heart Rate Monitor T5G971 (*Est. $60) excels in independent testing and gets good user reviews. The Timex Personal Trainer tracks only heart rate and calories. The large display, which has an Indiglo nightlight, displays average, peak and maximum heart rate; it also includes a clock. In independent testing, the Timex Personal Trainer gets excellent ratings for accuracy and ease of use. It's certainly not the cheapest heart-rate monitor available, but it performs better than cheaper monitors. Owners are also happy with the Timex Personal Trainer, giving it an average of four stars in more than 100 reviews posted on Amazon.com. Owners say the large display is easy to read, and the watch quickly picks up the heart-rate reading from the chest strap. Users also like that they can replace the batteries themselves, rather then sending it to the manufacturer for a battery replacement (like with many competing heart-rate monitors). Overall, the majority of owners are happy with the Timex heart-rate monitor, but multiple reviewers say the user manual is not very informative. We also saw a few complaints about reliability.

The Omron HR-100C (*Est. $35) also gets good user reviews at Amazon.com, but it scores lower than the Timex Personal Trainer in independent testing. It measures heart rate through a chest transmitter, sending data to a receiver on your wrist or mounted to cardio equipment with the included mounting bracket. The receiver can pick up data up to 98 feet away, but since it doesn't used a coded transmission, interference can be a problem in crowded gyms. The Omron HR-100C has a high/low heart-rate alarm to help you maintain proper heart rate. The backlit display also includes a clock and alarm. The Omron HR-100C has received more than 500 owner-written reviews on Amazon.com. There are some complaints of erratic readings, and several users claim that the battery dies quickly, but the majority of owners agree that the Omron HR-100C is a good basic heart-rate monitor for the money. It does have a user-replaceable battery. Unlike the Timex Personal Trainer T5G971, the Omron HR-100C does not track or calculate calories burned.

Another Timex heart-rate monitor, the Timex Easy Trainer Analog Heart Rate Monitor T5G941 (*Est. $40), also performs well in independent tests conducted by a British testing organization. Which? magazine says the Timex Easy Trainer is a "good choice for beginners," although it does display some erratic readings when their tester was at rest. This heart-rate monitor has fewer training features than the Timex Personal Trainer, as it doesn't incorporate training zones or track calorie expenditure. The Timex Easy Trainer gets an average of four stars in nearly 70 reviews on Amazon.com, with some calling it a "steal" and a "great value." Most owners recognize that this is a basic heart-rate monitor, and most say it suits their needs just fine. A few reviewers say the Timex Easy Trainer did not work properly out of the box.

The Polar FS1 (*Est. $60) is the most basic heart-rate monitor made by Polar. It tracks heart rate with a chest strap, and you can program heart-rate zones with an audible alarm. The watch comes in orange or navy blue. Like most Polar heart-rate monitors, the battery on the Polar FS1 must be sent to a Polar service center for a replacement when it dies. Polar says the average battery life is two years based on one hour of use each day. While some reviewers find this a major annoyance, the Polar FS1 gets good reviews from owners overall. In reviews on Amazon.com and Buzzillions.com, owners say the FS1 generally suits their need for a simple heart-rate monitor. The device also gets high marks for being easy to use. However, some owners say the chest strap is difficult to secure properly.

Those who hate chest straps may prefer a strapless heart-rate monitor like the Mio Motiva (*Est. $90). To obtain a heart-rate reading, you place your middle and index fingers on two buttons on a watch face. After a few seconds, your heart rate is displayed on the watch. The downside to this system is that you won't get a continuous reading -- whenever you want to know your heart rate, you must stop exercising and repeat the process. Experts normally discourage using strapless monitors, but the Mio Motiva gives accurate readings in one test we saw published in the Los Angeles Times. Tester Roy Wallack compares the Mio Motiva to a chest-strap monitor and finds less than a three-beat difference between the two. However, a few user reviews on Amazon.com claim that the Motiva gives inconsistent readings. The Mio Motiva heart-rate monitor tracks calories and heart rate, and it comes in both regular and petite sizes. Other features include a backlight, exercise timer and replacement watchband. The Mio Motiva has a user-replaceable battery.

If you're looking for something in between the basic heart-rate monitors discussed above and the expensive, feature-packed monitors covered below, we found very good reviews for the Polar F6 (*Est. $105). This model serves a happy medium between inexpensive heart-rate monitors and the pricey versions for serious athletes. The Polar F6 tracks heart rate and time, and it utilizes Polar's OwnZone to create a personalized training zone for your workout based on your heart rate during a short warm-up. The chest strap uses a coded transmission so you won't get interference from other monitors or exercisers in the area, and you can upload your workout data to the Polar website. The Polar F6 gets good reviews from more than 240 owners on Amazon.com, with most owners saying it's incredibly easy to use and a good value. We found a few complaints about reliability, but most reviewers are very pleased with the Polar F6. Like most other Polar monitors, the unit must be sent to a Polar service center for a battery replacement; many users find this inconvenient. The Polar F6 comes in black for men and green, pink or black for women.

If you want a heart-rate monitor that includes traditional watch features like a clock, alarm, lap timers or split timers, see our companion report on sports watches.

Heart-rate monitors for serious exercisers

You can spend a great deal of money on a feature-packed heart-rate-monitoring sports watch, but most watches designed specifically for monitoring heart rate don't exceed $300. If you want a wrist-top computer, complete with GPS tracking, altimeter or barometer, check out our companion report on sports watches. We cover the popular Garmin Forerunner and Polar RS products in that report, since they have a variety of uses beyond heart-rate training.

Among dedicated heart-rate monitors for serious athletes, we found the best reviews for the Polar FT60 (*Est. $215). Unlike Polar's inexpensive monitors, this heart-rate monitor tracks calories burned in addition to heart rate. You can add optional pods to track more information, including speed and distance with the G1 GPS Pod (*Est. $140) or the S1 Foot Pod (*Est. $130). The Polar FT60 has another benefit over cheaper Polar monitors in that it is one of their few monitors that has a user-replaceable battery. Other monitors must be sent to a Polar service center for a battery replacement. The Polar FT60 also uses an adaptive target program that increases your target heart-rate zones as you improve your fitness. You can set weekly goals for heart rate or calorie expenditure.

Danielle Belopotosky at The New York Times enlists the help of several marathon runners to test the Polar FT60. Overall, Belopotosky recommends the FT60 for athletes who want a "virtual personal trainer," but she finds the watch difficult to set up in the beginning. The Polar FT60 gets high marks from both Runner's World and Bicycling magazines. Liz Reap Carlson at Bicycling calls it one of her "favorite training tools," thanks largely to the training program that adapts to your current fitness levels. A tester at Runner's World also finds the FT60 surprisingly motivating, and it helped her discover that she was running many of her workouts too fast. The Polar FT60 comes in men's and women's designs.

Polar's main competitor among heart-rate monitors is Suunto. All Suunto monitors show time with dual time, date, alarm and stopwatch with split times and laps. The Suunto t4c (*Est. $215), offers many of the same functions as the Polar FT60. The Suunto Coach monitors progress and makes recommendations on frequency, duration and intensity of workouts. The Suunto t4c can also be used with pods to track more data, including a foot pod (*Est. $100) and bike pod (*Est. $50) to measure speed and distance. The GPS pod (*Est. $130) can also be used to track speed and distance. The Suunto t4c is included in the 2009 buyer's guide from Outside Magazine, where reviewer Will Palmer calls it "intuitive." Jason Mitchell at FeedtheHabit.com also writes a lengthy review based on personal testing. Mitchell says the chest strap is "by far the best I've ever used." He says it's comfortable and transmits data quickly to the watch. He did, however, find the menus confusing and the glossy watch face can be hard to view at certain angles. Mathew Honan at Wired.com says the chest strap is very comfortable, but the clasps can loosen easily during workouts. The Suunto t4c is available in both men's and women's versions, and it has a user-replaceable battery.

The Suunto t6c (*Est. $400) also gets good reviews, although Runner's World finds it a bit difficult to use with so many features and menus. The t6c claims to measure physiological parameters that used to require a sophisticated sports laboratory. Suunto developed this heart-rate monitor with the help of Firstbeat, a company that developed a way to extrapolate a host of training-specific information from heart rate alone -- such as energy consumption, ventilation, oxygen consumption, respiratory rate, training effect and EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption). The heart-rate monitor includes the Suunto Training Manager PC software (not available for Mac users) so you can analyze the data collected. Like the t4c, you can pair the Suunto t6c with the optional pods to track speed and distance. Even though it's expensive, owners give the Suunto t6c high marks at Amazon.com. Many reviewers say they see a noticeable improvement in their workouts after following the monitor's training recommendations. However, several reviewers complain of problems with the backlight -- either it flickers or doesn't work at all.