Polar RS100 Heart Rate Monitor and Stopwatch

by Polar

• Ideal for beginners who want basic heart rate and timing features
• Helps improve your fitness with personal heart rate target zones
• Displays average and maximum heart rate of each lap (records up to 99 laps)
• Provides accurate calories burned and uses GymLink to connect with compatible gym equipment
• Includes soft fabric chest strap that adapts to your body shape, bringing full freedom of movement to your training

Product Description

Amazon.com

For fitness enthusiasts who need timing features and would like to track basic heart rate information, the Polar RS100 offers the needed features at an affordable price. The device can help improve your fitness by making use of personal target heart rate zones, and displays calories burned in an accurate, easy-to-read format. The RS100 comes complete with a comfortable fabric transmitter and coded heart rate transmission to avoid cross-talk.

OwnZone
Knowing the right intensity to improve your fitness can be a challenge. OwnZone adjusts your heart rate training zone to perfectly match your body’s current physiological condition. By using OwnZone, you can be sure you’re training at an intensity that improves your aerobic fitness.

OwnCal
OwnCal is the one of most accurate calorie counters on the market. It calculates the number of calories expended during a training session based on your weight, height, age, gender, your individual maximum heart rate (HRmax), and how hard you’re training.

Polar's OwnZone feature adjusts your heart rate training zone to perfectly match your body’s current physiological condition.

What's in the box?

• Polar RS100 heart rate monitor
• Polar RS100 training computer
• RS100 Getting Started Guide

Features

• Body Measurement
  
  • Automatic age-based target zone
  • Average and maximum heart rate of each lap
  • Average and maximum heart rate of training
  • Heart rate as BPM or percentage of max
  • HR-based target zones with visual and audible alarm
  • HRmax (age-based or user-set)
  • Manual target zone as BPM or percentage of max
• Data
  
  • Edit wrist unit settings with Polar UpLink Tool and transfer them to your Polar product (UpLink)
• Training
  
  • HeartTouch button-free operation of wrist unit
  • 99 laps
  • User-configurable displays
• Watch
  
  • Backlight
  • Date and weekday indicator
  • KeyLock
  • Low battery indicator
  • Time of day (12/24h) with alarm and snooze
  • Water resistant to 50 meters

Warranty
Polar timing products include a limited two-year manufacturer's warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.

About Polar
Established in 1977, Polar products help you understand and maximize your training. The company's combination of expertise in sports, physiology, and electronics results in an innovative product line of fitness tools for athletes of all ability levels to achieve desired results.

Product Description

The Polar RS100 heart rate monitor provides a smarter training experience. Whether your goal is to improve your fitness or run faster, Polar's easy-to-use heart rate-based Smart Coaching features will guide you to workout efficiently and motivate you to reach your goals. The RS100 is ideal for beginners who want basic heart rate and timing features. It will guide you to train at the right intensity with OwnZone, Polar's unique Smart Coaching feature. In addition, it lets you know exactly how many calories you’ve burned. Includes limited two-year manufacturer's warranty.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FW3Z6O
• Item model number: 90030907
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (297 customer reviews)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

157 of 158 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great features, no overpriced frills December 29, 2008

By C. Brown

Format:Sports

It's unisex, easy to use, and has all of the features a runner needs without all of the expensive frills. I chose the RS100 because it had features that the women-specific watches did not, including interval timers, two zone limit monitors, and a back light (essential if you run at night or cross train in spin class where the lights are usually low). I recommended spending a half hour reading the manual and setting up the watch that way. It covers every feature simply and clearly.

Being able to set my own heart rate and percentage limits is great since those numbers change as my fitness improves. I also like that the running total tells me the percent of calories burned from fat, super essential for proper training.

The total only keeps track of one run at a time, which is fine. I log my runs in an Excel spreadsheet and I've found this to be more useful than storing them in the watch because I can write all sorts of formula combinations and create averages and see a big picture and completely geek out. Other models allow you to upload logs to the Polar website but paying the extra money wasn't worth it for me. I like doing that stuff myself.

The medium chest strap fits me fine once it is adjusted (female, 34" chest) and stays in place. Be sure to moisten the transmitters before wearing, a few drops of water will do, your sweat will take care of the rest ...

My only issue is that the watch is a little bulky for my small wrists, which causes some discomfort at times, but I've come up with a few workarounds to solve the bulky problem:

1. I wear it somewhat loose but not so loose that it spins around on its own. This keeps some of the pressure off. It's loose enough that I can manually rotate the face around to the inside of my wrist if I need to.

2. For longer runs, I sometimes wear the watch strapped to my gear belt or zipped in my pocket. Since the watch has interval timers and warning beeps when I go out of zone, I've been able to keep track using my hearing instead of my eyes. The beep is pretty loud so as long as my headphones aren't cranked, I can still hear it.

3. The treadmills at my gym are Polar ready so they pick up the transmission without me having the wear the watch. While the treadmill doesn't have any logging features, I can at least keep track of my heart rate during a run if I don't want to wear the watch.

Overall, it's a great running computer for the money.

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Product, Decent Value June 26, 2008

By R. Pettey

Format:Sports

Purchased as a replacement HRM, The unit does what its intended to do and it does it well. The quirks of changing face information or retrieving data takes a while to learn and get used to. The push-button sequencing doesn't always seem intuitive, but - the good news is - its easy to learn. I don't use my HRM as a watch except as a convenience after working out, so that feature is fairly useless to me, anyway. One simple improvement would be a strap thats a notch or two bigger - I have to wear my unit at the end notch making it somewhat more difficult to fasten and unfasten.
Given the quirks and a design you have to grow into, its a decent product and a fair value.

65 of 72 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Most Solid HR Monitor September 25, 2008

By Denise K. Jackson

Format:Sports|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is my fourth HR monitor. I've owned a Nike (garbage), two Timex models (one solid and one I returned). I bought this one because it had three lines of information so I would know my total time and my lap time.

Some points:
- For the first month the watch never gave me an inaccurate HR. Since then I've had two instance when it's been whacky (you know, shows you at 185 when you're at 145). My previous HR monitors were MUCH worse than the Polar on this account.
- The three lines is nice, however it does not allow you to swap the lap time with the total time. I would much prefer the lap time to be in the middle or at least bigger (it's hard to read when you're doing a hard run and you're bouncing around).
- There is a lap number. I like that a lot.
- If you press and hold the button a little too long it will pop up Limits and adjustments and whatnot. This is annoying and happens too easily.
- If you use the light/indiglo while using the stopwatch it will automatically light up whenever you hit lap/stop afterwards. This is a great feature. Often I'm running in the dark and this feature is a lifesaver.
- Getting the information from the watch is just OK. Not terrible, but not as streamlined as the simple Timex HR monitor I previously used.
- I don't use the totals. I have a database for that.

The bottom line is that HR monitors are pretty unreliable generally. After 2 months, this model has been solid. I would still like a tweak here or there because of my personal preferences.