Customer Reviews

Impact Sports ePulse Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Watch and Calorimeter

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

After reading the mostly positive reviews of the ePulse on Amazon, I decided to purchase the device about one month ago. I work out quite hard and pushed this device to its limits. Here are my general thoughts on the ePulse.

If all you are looking for is a device that gives you a real-time measurement of your heart rate, this device works fine. However, other functionality does not deliver as promised. The minimum heart rate is set to 0. The watch seems to take awhile to average out that 0 heart rate when calculating average heart rate for the entire workout. If you are working out for several hours, this shouldn't be a problem, but the average heart rate will report several beats too low if you are doing a shorter workout (such as 30 minutes).

Also, if you attempt to view other data screens such as maximum heart rate while working out and then go back to current heart rate, it will read way too low. It takes approximately 30 seconds to re-adjust back to your actual heart rate.

At high heart rates (such as 160-170 beats per minute (bpm)), the watch will occasionally stop adding calories burned to the device. For example, during a tempo run where my heart rate was near 170 bpm for ten minutes, it told me that I burned a total of 15 calories over the ten-minute period. When I went back to a lower heart rate in the 145-150 bpm range, the watch started calculating calories burned much more accurately.

I have spoken with the designers of the ePulse, and they told me that they were able to replicate these problems. They intend to fix them for their new model release.

So, if you are looking for a device to simply give you a measurement of your current heart rate and don't care about any other bells and whistles, this device is fine. However, if you want to know an accurate idea of how many calories you burn and what your average heart rate is, I would wait the 6-12 months for the next release.

I put my new ePulse monitor through some tough paces this weekend. I started on Friday with an intense 40-minute workout with my personal trainer, mainly lower body and aerobics, and found the device to be very accurate and reliable. Over the weekend I played two rounds of golf in the heat using my cart but with a lot of walking and climbing around the rocks and roughs, places where one is not supposed to venture during golf. I wore the unit the whole time, both days, and had inputted my personal information to the device. Here are my observations:

1. Golf day one: 4 hr 55 min, temperature range 92-104 F, total caloric burn 833 cal, range of pulse rate was between 59 and 105
Golf day two: 5 hr 1 min, temperature range 90-99 F, total caloric burn of 842 cal, range of pulse rate was between 56 and 102

(Note: I kept the unit on continuous monitor so I could watch the data)

2. The armband is non-intrusive. Once it's on a few minutes you don't even think about it, while on first inspection it looks "bulky" it's actually light and unobtrusive. I actually put it on pretty light and only once did is slip during a wild drive swing.

3. It was hot and I got pretty sweaty. No problems were encountered with the sweat or the armband staying put. Except when I looked at the readout it was out of sight and out of mine.

4. The unit was really easy to read except in bright, direct sunlight. In direct sun and wearing sunglasses one needs to shield the screen with ones hand. Still, it was very readable.

5. I never once noticed a missed beat or had to reset or maneuver the unit to get continuous readings. Seems very stable and accurate. In my case anyway, precise location of the sensor was not required.

6. Battery consumption was about 50% with new energizer batteries each day (again using continuous monitoring not the on-daman feature). Although, it was still running well even after the screen told me to replace the batteries.

My conclusions are that the ePulse has set a new state of the art in fitness monitoring, is an excellent exercise and health tool and is totally usable for anyone wanting pulse rate and caloric burn info. The other functions likewise will be very valuable to many users. Battery life is a bit short but when the unit is used in the "on-demand" mode this becomes a non-issue. The direct sun impact on the readout is not a huge problem when compared to the ease of use and performance. All of this good stuff and NO CHEST STRAP required!

A VERY HAPPY ePulse user.

In spite some of the warnings in the reviews here I bought this because I dislike strapping stuff to my oh so manly chest when I'm sweating gloriously while exercising and the hand pulse sensor on my stationary bike is cruddy.

Good stuff:
- It's very accurate. I've got my 40-hour Red Cross First Aid cert, so I know how to take a pulse, and this thing is within a beat or two over a minute, which is well within the margin of error for it, my timing, and its averaging (see below).
- Since you enter all your personal data like weight, age, and height (if you can figure out how - read the little manual once) I trust the numbers this puts out more than other devices that claim to measure calories (like my bike).
- Once you strap it to your upper forearm it's pretty unobtrusive and light.
- Doesn't require you replace your beloved wrist watch like most other solutions.
- It's water resistant, so easy to wash (just don't throw it in the washing machine).
- The bright red LEDs are a cinch to read in any condition.
- You can indicate whether you want to keep your heart rate in the fat burning zone or the cardio zone, and a little led will indicate when you're in the zone.
- Acquires the heart rate pretty fast compared to other devices I've used, and a blue LED indicates when it's locked.
- Comes with a little sticky velcro pad you can use to attach an mp3 player to. Very nice.

Bad stuff:
- Requires 2 AAA batteries and doesn't come with any. Good thing I'm a nerd so always have spare NiCads.
- The buttons are water resistant, which makes them rather hard to push. See below for my suggestions.
- Who designed this UI? I could certainly do better with 3 buttons. But once you get it set up you can just use the left one for the most part.
- Could really use an audio indicator for when you're out of your preferred zone so you don't even have to look at it.
- Assumes you're using this long term every day, which I suspect is not the model most of us are in. Not many people are Ironman Triathletes. So the running average can take a little while to catch up. Luckily there's an easy way to reset it.

So here's my take on how to use it:
- The first time you turn it on READ THE LITTLE BOOK and set up your personal info, then just use the left button after that. Make sure you set whether you prefer fat burning or cardio mode.
- The buttons are hard to press normally, so slip your index finger under the band to act as a firm surface (the battery pack makes it easy) and use your thumb on the same hand to push the buttons - now it's easy!
- Hold the left button for 3 seconds whenever you start your exercise to reset all the daily stats so there's no issue with long term averaging.
- Give it 10-20 seconds to find your pulse (blue LED on the left lights up) and then average it out. That seems like forever when you're watching it, but is very reasonable for a device like this.
- Watch the LED on the far right. If it's on you're in your fat burning or cardio zone for your age.
- Press the left button once to see your workout time and twice to see your calories burned, then once more and you're back to pulse.

With that I find it's a great little device. Seeing your heart rate really does provide great biofeedback.

I bought this monitor because it was the only non-chest strap monitor that had good reviews. I was not disappointed.

I checked the accuracy against a known source, and found it to be accurate to the beat. Also, it kept pace exactly with a two-handed Stairmaster heart rate monitor.

During my normal 90-minute weight workout, it never missed a beat. It's apparently not affected by sweating, or by bending of the forearms.

This has been a valuable tool, allowing me to stay above my ideal workout heart range while lifting weights...not always easy.

I also use it to create aerobic workouts in unknown environments, such as climbing sand dunes.

I used some of the other functions (such as total calorie burn) and they worked fine...but after the novelty of those wore off I had little use for them. I needed a heart rate monitor, and that's what I use it for.

I'd recommend it.

I recently became much more interested in my heart rate during exercise, and decided to make the plunge and buy a heart rate monitor. Several years ago I used one with a chest strap, and wished to avoid a repeat of that experience- so this product attracted me.

First things first- It absolutely gives accurate readings of heart rate when it is attached to your forearm. I have used it in combination with an hospital style EKG system with multiple electrodes attached to my chest, and the readings were within one point of each other. So given that the one thing that you want a heart rate monitor to do is accurately monitor your heart, it works great.

My problems with the unit are numerous. Listed in no particular order:

1. The whole thing looks cheaply made. The strap is made of some non-breathable nylon, with vinyl trim that has numerous rough edges. It looks like something a 10 year old would wear with a GI Joe label on it.

2. There are wires running down the inside of the strap-sort of tucked into a pouch. I do not have a good feeling about this unit being very robust- and expect it to fail when these wires manage to work their way loose. They should be secured inside of the strap and not visible/exposed.

3. The buttons are pretty bad. It is very difficult to reach over with one finger and press the button hard enough to make it function. Curiously there was an addendum sheet in the instructions that suggested pressing hard with your fingernail to overcome this problem. I also expect these to fail fairly soon.

4. The instructions leave a little bit to be desired. This is a $100 product, and the instructions look like they came out of a box of crackerjack. The little book is incomplete, and so is the little folded up sheet that also comes with it. Together they almost are complete, but not quite. Not that you can't figure it out, but again, this is a $100 product.

5. The LED based screen is a disappointment. It is tough to read in bright sun, and it sucks up battery power. The unit is powered by AAA batteries, and I am getting about 10 hours per set- even with the LED's in power saving mode. Power saving mode only enables the display for a few seconds when you press the left button. I can't imagine what the battery life would be with the display on full time.

6. In PS mode, the LED's randomly flash-like some 10 year old's cell phone. It will get you some strange looks. There are also a series of blue/yellow LEDs across the bottom of the screen. No idea what these are for, except that the blue LED is supposed to come on when the heart rate is detected and the unit is ready to go. Except that if you have enabled PS mode, this doesn't work.

7. The unit is bigger and heavier than I expected. A good chunk of this is the batteries. Make sure you are comfortable with 2 AAA batteries strapped to your arm when you exercise-plus the weight of the unit. I don't especially mind it, but others who have tried it out have complained.

8. It does measure calories, min and max heart rates, but without any time base. It really should have a 24 hour clock so that you can get these results by day...and maybe even store them for a couple days? I have a $15 pedometer that seems to be able to do that.


In short, it works great as a heart rate monitor without a strap. I would have much prefered a simple, LCD unit with a nice comfortable strap and a smaller battery. This unit tries to do too much, and the fit and finish are just not where they should be for a unit of this price. The decision to use LEDs seems particularly short-sighted, probably an effort to avoid a custom LCD design.

I am especially concerned about how well the unit will hold up, especially the buttons and previously mentioned wires. However it works just well enough that I will hold on to it and not return it.

I started on a path to weight loss in January 2009. I bought a scale, a pedometer, and fell in love with www.sparkpeople.com. I bought a few games for the Wii and in June I purchased the ePulse. All of these tools have helped me to lose 73 pounds so far. It's amazing. And this wonderful gadget is perfect for giving you accurate information regarding the calories you burn.

I wore it for a week straight (about 10 hours a day) to record & learn what my "normal" activity rate is. With that information I was able to come up with the right number of calories I need to consume in order to lose the weight. It's been a great success. I have used it to tell me how many calories I burn while gardening, housecleaning, painting, washing the car, working out with the Wii and countless other activities. It's become a huge part of my weight loss journey.

Impact Sports Technologies is a great company as well. I had a question on how the ePulse figures the math and when I called customer service I got the information I needed right away. Last Saturday a sensor on the ePulse went bad. I emailed the company & they quickly replied that they would send out a replacement and a SASE to return my ePulse. I got the replacement in no time flat & I couldn't be happier. This tool has helped me not only lose weight, but it's helped to keep me motivated to do more. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a reasonably priced, accurate & effective caloriemeter and heart rate monitor.

Impact Sports Technologies (IST) is really onto something here, but they need to do some tweaking. I'm not a fan of wearing a strap around my chest to monitor my heart rate (HR) during exercise. You have to lift up your shirt, wet the electrodes, get the strap going the right way, attach it to the monitor, etc... I love having a good quality HR monitor (mine's an 11-year-old Phoenix from Sensor Dynamics that works as good as the day I bought it). I just don't like fussing with the chest strap.

Before IST came with this model, the only strapless HR monitors were those watches that you had to put two fingers on to obtain your HR. That's not practical. This is. I just never fell in love with this finished product like others have though. For $100, you should get a high-quality HR monitor (my old one still costs $80 or $90 to this day) that gives you consistent readings and stands up over time. I just never had consistent results with this IST strapless monitor.

It's to be worn on either forearm. I wore it on my right arm, as that's easier for me to look at every so often. You're supposed to remain still until the series of lights on the monitor turns blue (usually about 10 seconds). Then you're getting a consistent HR reading, as long as the blue light stays on. If it moves back to the yellow series of lights, it's trying to regain the consistent reading (and will when it turns blue again). I couldn't get the blue light to stay on steady. Even if the sensor was on the perfect spot of my forearm, I would lose the blue light more than I should've (when it does that, the HR reading jumps around or disappears altogether). I think the position of the sensor on your forearm is supposed to be slightly arbitrary (you can put it here or there and it should work). For me it wasn't. Like I wrote, I had to have it in the perfect spot, and even then it wasn't always consistent.

Another negative is the LED display. They write that the display is clearly visible, night or day. That's not even a little true. When I was out in the sunlight working out, I always had to reach over and cover the display with my left hand in order to read it. If you wear it around the house you can see it plain as day. I could see it well on the trails at my local state parks too (another reason trees are great). But anytime I got out in the light, I had to shade it with my hand to see it. That's an inconvenience. My other HR monitor has a plain display, like a digital watch. I never have problems seeing that.

This unit runs on two AAA batteries. That's both very wasteful (disposable batteries) or very inconvenient (if you use your own rechargeable batteries, you'll be charging them every few days...if you use disposable, you'll be changing them all the time). I think the battery life is supposed to be 24 hours or something. I never got that long with mine (I used Costco's Kirkland Signature batteries, and they're pretty good). I'd wear it for an hour or two a day, and I'd be lucky to get a week's worth of use out of the two batteries. This monitor should definitely have a chargeable internal battery, or at least something that lasts a while (like the watch batteries used in other HR monitors). I didn't have a problem with the battery box like others did. It's annoying, that box resting on your arm. It wasn't painful or anything though. I agree with a previous reviewer who wrote that the company must have thought of the battery power at the last minute, and then just stuck that on wherever they could. It's not very well designed.

The sensor this monitor uses is based on the infrared monitors used on your fingertips at hospitals. Those (hospital) monitors are very accurate. This was too, when the blue light was on. When that light was on, I would consistently get the same readings as I got on my chest strap HR monitor. That's impressive. Whether I was increasing or decreasing my HR during my workout, this monitor would stay right on the button, just like my other one does. It really helped me to keep my arm straight. You're not supposed to have to do that. You're supposed to be able to bend your elbows and do any activity (other reviewers mentioned tennis). That wouldn't work for me, as bending my elbow 90 degrees would cause me to lose the reading. It may make a difference that I'm not in shape right now. I have a higher than average percentage of adipose (fat) tissue. I don't know if it does or not, but that could effect the reading (harder to pick up HR through more tissue?). Ironically, that's a big reason I don't like chest strap monitors and wanted to go with this product. Unless you're fairly lean, the chest strap can easily fold over on you. It still stays put and the chest strap version works, but it's annoying. That would be moot with this product.

I think IST has a great starting point here. If they can perfect the technology (steady, consistent readings), improve the display (see it in direct sunlight), and change to a rechargeable battery, I'll be the first in line to buy one.

I may be behind the times but I think a more than $100.00 price tag should get you more than this. It works very well as far as monitoring heart rate but the buttons are hard to activate and the battery box looks like they had it all ready to go and suddenly realized that they needed power, so they sent someone to Radio Shack to grab a battery box and then had to stick it on any where they could to get it out the door. I was trying to establish total daily caloric consumption and it became quite uncomfortable after awhile. It also eats batteries if you use it for such extended periods. If you only use it to monitor your heart rate during exercise and are willing to deal with semi-unresponsive buttons it works OK, but come on guys even my $30.00 head lamp has a better battery holder than this and the on/off switch turns it on or off with the first easy push.

I purchased this product to use instead of a Polar type device that reads electical signals. I have a pacemaker implant and was getting false readings from the Polar device as well as the handles on the aerobic equipment at the gym. I have used this almost daily for the last month and find that it is very accurate, its much more comfortable than the chest strap types, and the large LED display can be read without reading glasses. If you want basic heart rate functions, this should be considered. If you have a pacemaker, the Polar company does not recommend their device because of the transmitter next to your heart, and you will not get false readings from the pacemaker electrical signals.

As a new technology at $90, I carefully read all the reviews to date, and even with all the grips I decided to purchase it. The medical dude who said that he put it on, pushed the button and it worked, and match up to his other equipment was the one that sold me. I would like to add my 2 cents on the complaints that I read:

1) it is uncomfortable or the batteries are too heavy: maybe a bit noticeable in both departments during the first minute or so, but that is about it. You don't need to wrap it too tight.

2) it does not calibrate quickly: In my tests it calibrated just as fast as the Planet Fitness machines I use, a tolerable wait of about 20 seconds. I did notice that if I turned it off while on a fitness machine, and then turned it back on when I was already in the "red zone", it does take longer to catch up to a peaked heart rate. No big deal to me, I will turn it on at the beginning of a work out. PS: it was right-on with those machines throughout my interval training.

3) The manual was not adequate: I did have a bit of trouble figuring out demand mode described on pages 10 and 11 so I wrote an e-mail to user support and got a well written response the same afternoon. That is great user support in my book. Their response is pasted at the end of my review.

4) sun light make it hard to read: I have not tried it outside yet but I am sure it is no worse then my car radio which I do have to shade with a hand from time to time.

User support response:
To switch from "Continuous" to "On Demand" mode you must go into your personal data settings. This can be done by rapidly double clicking the "data" button (about as fast as you would double-click a computer mouse) and scrolling through the settings until you reach "view". From there, press the "mode" button until it reads "demand", press the "data" button again, scroll back to the main read out and your pulse will no longer display continuously. I hope this helps, feel free to email again if you have any further questions. Also, we suggest using the ePulse with Energizer Lithium batteries which will give it a 70 hour life in continuous mode.