Customer Reviews

Polar FT60 Men's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Black with Red Display)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this product right now. The functionality is excellent with this monitor. It does everything as well as or better than my previous two Polar heart Rate Monitors (both F11's).

My complaint is the red background. If you workout outside it's great and I'd give this a full 5/5 rating. Unfortunately I work out in group fitness classes and the display is hard to read sometimes. The red background is great in direct light and OK in moderate light. In very low light the light function works great. It's the "in between" low light conditions that are sometimes difficult to read.

If you workout in moderately low light conditions, get the white background not the red. The display may look nice in the pictures but it's hard to read without good lighting and the "light" function only works when the space is dark enough. In retrospect I would have preferred to have gone with the regular background for visibility during my workouts though.

October 2011. Polar never did responded to the BBB's. The BBB entered comments into the companies file and closed the issue. Polar did send me a replacement watch (black / white) that works but drains the battery every couple months. They did not ask for the red / black watch back (that does not burn up batteries). I really am amazed by the lack of response from Polar. From the times when Polar Service kept sending me back the defective watch (and not fixing it) to no response to formal complaints. I'm still not happy with how they got me to buy other straps / wearlinks when the watch was bad. Buyer Beware. Warranties worthless at Polar.

April 2011. Complaint still in dispute with the new york better business bureau. The bbb contacted me to see if polar had contacted me; Nope. The bbb said polar did not respond to their inquires. Polar did receive the hrm I shipped to them (see march update). They returned it with a paper noting that the hrm is defective. I can not emphasize strongly enough how retarded polar service can be. Beyond stupid, bordering on mean. I believe the next step with the BBB is arbitration. Almost one year since the unit failed without complete resolution.

March 2011. The good: Polar sent a replacement watch, strap and transmitter. For the first time in 6 months I have been able to use it in a workout. To the female that owned it before me: I deleted your data since polar did not. I assume it was used: it was set to female & had some other things set. Anyway, I had a nice workout with it. The bad: polar sent me the black & red watch, I actually purchased the white/black. Can't read the thing. Illumination does not help at all (I tried it in the dark - it is actually worse). If you are considering a ft60, don't get this color. Horrible contrast. When we sent in my to swap for this, my wife asked me how many more times we are going to drive to town for this pos (it's an hour drive one way - out of our way to ups to ship it out). You would think after being in for service twice they would actually look at the watch and send the right thing back to me. I'm going to call (again) and get rid of this red & black; if there is no way in he11 i would ever pay for this, why would they think I would except it in trade for my broke one? God this sucks. How many more times polar? I have not heard back on by complaint on the better business site.

February 2011. Has been into Polar service twice and it is still don't work (since August 2010). Frustrated dealing with polar service and getting back stuff that still does not work and charged for the service. It needs new battery my ass. Dropped to 1 star. Have filed complaints (BBB / et.al) and will see what happens.

August 2010. Dropped a star due to new failure of the transmitter. Durability is questionable. Are all HRM's cheap crap or just this one?

I've owned my watch seven months. I hardly worked out at first. After replacing my elliptical, I logged over 200 hours, averaging 4-7 hours per week. I had to replace the batteries in the watch and strap after a few weeks (bad batteries). Walmart carries the batteries. Be careful when replacing the battery in the strap: the plastic is extremely mailable, easily damaged and provides poor tool traction. Bad design issue number 1. Be careful in replacing the battery on the watch, the design is so you can easily break something when replacing the battery. The strap broke soon after the battery replacement. The fabric folds over and provides a loop to secure the belt on your chest. The stitching to hold this was done improperly and the fabric tore at the stitching. Bad design issue number 2. I contacted Polar about the strap and explained what happened they shipped me a replacement strap. Actually nice customer service. I lost a week of workout in this and it bothered me so much that I ordered a backup strap.

The chest strap is comfortable. It does not distract me from my workout or slip. The watch is too small to fit comfortable on my wrist. I do not have this problem with watches and do not know what they were thinking. Big watch, relatively small strap. Bad design issue number 3. I place the watch on the elliptical rail and don't usually wear it.

I have seen complaints about the watch not picking up heartbeat and have had a couple of issues (all solved). What I have learned to do to get a reliable connection is to use a bit of hand-gel on my chest and wet the strap where the pickup connections are. I also had to disable my elliptical's HRM functions because of some issue where it would prevent this watch to work with the wearlink.

The watch is ugly. I don't know who's idea it was to use those electronic symbols but they deserve to be slapped. It's a $200 HRM and looks stupid. The LCD display looks cheap. I understand about the power load but feel that Polar could do a better job. I had a time when power went out at night. Since my elliptical runs off my power I did a nice workout while waiting for the power to return. While I don't think this watch was ever designed to work in almost total darkness, it will. Poorly. Very poorly. Bad design issue number 4.

The watch stores the last 100 workouts. It tells you date, time, average and max MHR, calories, fat calories and time in zones. Yo Polar. It would be nice to allow me to add data like 'miles' to this . The watch will also tell you one of four opinions it has (nothing, fitness improving, fat burn improving and max performance improving or combinations of those). You choose the program and the watch makes recommendations on how many minutes per week you should spend in the three zones. Also note that Polar / The HRM believes that 60-69% MHR is ideal to loose weight. Most of the experts today seem to not believe that and go for Interval Training. I use both styles and found the watch when set to fat burning a royal pain telling me to not work so hard. The programming is basic and limited in functionality. I think I have it set to improve fitness and do what I please (which includes fat burning low MHR sessions, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), long straight cardio sessions, et.al.) Anyway, the point is the watch has a bad weight loss program. Lacking in flexibility.

I also would like 4 cardio zones and not three (55-65, 65-75, 75-85 and 85+). The 4 zones work better with interval training than 3.

The Polar Fitness Test (if it is truly VO2max) is a extremely valuable item to the watch. Track this with your weight weekly. I don't have enough data to track this yet but understand the importance (it provides a number to your fitness).

I do not have the polar flowlink device. Two reasons: The flowlink is a pos (read the reviews here and at the polar web) and also the watch only records a few data points per session. I built a spreadsheet that records and evaluates over time my workouts. I tried to use the program at the polar web site but the interface to input data is the worst bit of programming I have seen these last 20 years. Who ever built that interface should also be slapped. Hard. It is almost like they made it as hard as possible to input data so you would be forced to buy that pos flowlink. Polar, you need a new programmer.

Through all this, I still rate the watch four stars. It was 3 stars plus the fitness test. It works consistent most times keeping in mind that the $50 straps fall apart and there are some serious mechanical, electronic and programming design flaws. The biggest benefit I got in the beginning is that I was able to limit my workout until I was fit enough to go the distance. The watch provides almost enough critical information that is extremely beneficial to anyone's plan. It needs improvement.

I read all of the reviews before I made my purchase. I use a HRM at least once a day for over 10 years now. This is probably my 6th hrm (I had to return a couple). I also collect watches.
I've found that Polar seems to be the only company that makes hrm's that give me consistent readouts, as opposed to I'm jogging and getting a reading of 250 bpm. The hrm's seems to last a year or so, then quit receiving or something. Changing batteries helps sometimes for a bit, but I always know when it is almost time for a new one. They usually look goofy and you have to pay $140+ to get ones that do the personal training stuff I like.
This model appealed to me because it looked very different and even now, I'll wear this watch as a sport watch. It is kind of retro-funky, almost Russian-made or something. I definitely have nothing else like it.
It works just like the other models I've appreciated, like the F11 and looks a lot better.
The bad news: It is just like the other reviewers have said, in some light it is very hard to read....although I would say there were times like (early evening) when I would run outdoors with my F11 and had a hard time reading it. Too dark for the regular display and not dark enough for the lighted display.
That was not a deal-breaker for me, but it must have been for a lot of people, because the FT60 I got today was not pristine new...and I was not pleased. The ad should clearly state it when you are buying returned merchandise. A call to Amazon and the problem was solved within 5 minutes and I am very happy...but just realize you are paying a lot of money for something somebody else hated enough to send it right back.
So the good news is that you're doing business with Amazon and they will make it right, but be prepared for an opened box with the parts tossed in.

I have now had the FT60 for about a month and have used it quite a lot, a least 4 or 5 times per week for training/jogging/exercise sessions. It general, it's a decent all-purpose HRM, but I have found a few issues with it -
1) the red-on-black face is difficult to read unless you're in very good light.
2) the 'night' light is not a night light, press the button and the text color changes from red to green, which is only visible in near total darkness.
3) there is no timer, count-down timer or stop watch functions (even the cheapest watches available have these features).
4) the new HRM needs a software upgrade, and the only way to do that is to ship it to Polar.
5) the text/numbers sizes are rather odd - text, ie Pause or Start, is large, while at the same time the numbers for the HR are too small and difficult to read. This is a HRM so the HR should be the biggest text, after all, that is why we buy one of these, right?
6) for as much as this unit costs I would expect it to have 5 HR zones, but it has only 3, which for my use is not enough.

For general use, by an unconditioned person, this HRM would probably be fine. For use by an athletic/conditioned person, this unit is probably not what you are looking for.

The watch arrived even earlier than scheduled and it's great. I'm giving 3 stars because the package (outside and inside) didn't seem to be brand new (maybe used? Maybe old and used for display?). There was no protective plastic on the glass and there was data already plugged in. The battery was very low and needed to be replaced after only one time of use! The warranty says that you need to bring it to a Polar store to get the battery replaced otherwise you loose the warranty. There was supposed to be a protection on the battery cover but there was none.
We did replace the battery and now we love it. For almost 200$ we expected to buy something new (as the store advertise!).

Work for a year only, then the wattery stop working, replace for a one new and work for a day only, is a Polar problem in all hear rate monitors

GREAT PRODUCT I HAVE TRY IT FOR 1 MONTH AND WORK PERFECTLY!!
HIGHLY RECOMENDED

I really like Polar Hear rate monitor
this is my second Polar Heart Rate Monitor Watch.
The desing in this watch is really great, I like the red display concept, but in practice is hard to read the display.
But overal this is a great product and work pretty good.

I like it can be connected to the Polar Footpad or whith a new strap to Nike +.
What i don't like is that you need to get the USB Polar base to syncronize with the PC, my prior Polar was the F11, and in that model you just need to put the watch near the PC mic to syncronize the data.

Purchased this to replace a basic monitor. This is great! The training program is very motivational and has helped improve my workouts.

I gave this to my husband for his birthday, ever since he has improved his work outs and increased his cardiovascular capacity, plus he is less prone to get injured and he has lost over 10 pounds in 2 months! The Polar FT60 will coach you to fulfill different programs, as increasing your fitness and others, and will make a training program specific for you.

The red display can be hard to read in dim lights, but it is not in bright lights (day) or darkness, so it is not really too bad, especially considering that this color goes for much cheaper. The one problem we had was that the data erased itself once, when it should have not. But that problem has not been repeated.