Customer Reviews

Polar F6 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Pink Coral)

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Easy to set up, accurate, user friendly. Just took it for a test drive this morning. Shipping was fast and friendly. Nice user manual. Very explanatory.

Put in your vitals, adjust the strap around your chest and put the pedal to the metal.

I burned 511 calories -- 45% from fat. For 49:51 minutes of work, I spent 14:46 minutes in the 144-160 beats per minute range; with my heart rate topping out at 178 (93% of my maximum for the "moderate training zone"). My average heart rate was 151 for the duration (79% of my maximum). The alarm cued me when to step it up and also when to back it down so I could keep on a better training track.

Apparently, I've been working too hard in the past. Because just as the HRM was yelling at me to back down, I was thinking, "Geez, touchy thingie! I can go way harder and higher than this!" But if it improves my stamina, all the better.

I would recommend reviewing the product manual and setting up your customizations the night before if you are an early morning exerciser. Setup and familiarization with the product/material takes about an hour.

This is the first heart rate monitor I have used during my workouts. I started walking at least one mile a day several months ago, but didn't seem to make any progress in conditioning. Since I began using the F6 last month, however, I have noticed a pronounced increase in my stamina and strength.

I think the change is that with the F6 I began working in my cardio zone instead of above it. In effect, I had been working out "too hard." By backing off a bit, I am now experiencing a reduction in heart rate and can now increase the difficulty of my workout gradually as my body requires.

In general, the F6 system is easy to use and comfortable to wear. There are only two issues that I have had with the system:

First, the chest strap sometimes takes a while to begin transmitting after I first put it on. The first time it happened (after I had used it for weeks), I thought the battery was dead. I found, however, that if I moisten the electrodes a bit, the monitor begins transmitting immediately. Also, the chest strap is surprisingly confortable for an inch wide piece of plastic. Although it can be a bit cold when you first the strap on, I soon forget I am wearing it.

The second issue concerns the watch. I believe that the exercise menu could be laid out a little better. When I am in the process of exercising and want to change my Heart Rate Limit from Light to Moderate or Moderate to Hard, the first menu item the cursor brings me to is the "HR Alarm", not "HR Limits."

At that point, I have to fiddle with the up and down arrows to arrive at the proper menu line and sometime in my haste, I overshoot the "Limits" line and have to repear the process. I don't know why anyone would want to change the "Alarm" in mid-workout, but that's what the designers have made the default selection. Perhaps there is an easier way to change the HR Limits in mid-workout, but I haven't yet found it.

All in all, for about $100, I think that the F6 has all of the features I want and has improved the quality of my workouts making real, quantifiable progress possible for me, for the first time.

I purchased this HRM back in Aug 06. Terrific features and fairly easy to use. However, over the past past two months or so, it has been stopping cold, sometimes reflects an off the charts heart rate or takes 3 mins or so to detect my HR. There are two other girls at my gym that have also purchased it and they are having the same problem.
When it's working properly (which is most of the time) it's an awesome piece of equipment to help keep you from slacking off.

I can't exercise without this thing. I've had it for over a year now and the batteries have not died yet. It tracks all calorie expenditure and heart rate activity. It not only gives you your high and low heart rates during an exercise, but the average you were at for the duration as well. Before I got this HRM, I didn't realize how off I was on my exercises. I wasn't exerting myself enough. This thing tracks where you are at no matter how you feel and tells you if you need to increase or decrease your intensity. I haven't had a problem with it and I've dropped it several times on accident. It's waterproof so you can soap it up and wash your sweat off of it. I love this thing! Can't say enough about it.

I use this to run and also at the gym. The Polar transmitter belt works with most treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers and bikes at the gym so that is really nice to have your heart rate displayed on their screens. I like to be able to set target zones for my heart and it beeps once I've reached that. Helps me to know where I am and how hard I'm pushing myself. The color of the band is not my favorite pink shade and it's not as feminine of a shape as I would like (Nike makes one that looks better, but it doens't work w/ gym equip), but to me the look isn't what's important. It displays the calories burned, avg heart rate, max heart rate, and time of exercise and the end of your workout. Very handy for the workouts!

I purchased this heart rate monitor because my doctor didn't think I was working hard enough at the gym. So, to prove to myself and him, I got this watch. First, the instructions were pretty easy to follow. I am not technically savy and I figured it out. The strap fits around nicely. A couple of times that I've worn it, the watch didn't start working right away. I didn't have the strap quite moist enough. Once I started sweating, it picked up my heart rate. I was surprised that it took more work to get my heart rate up. So, now I have to push myself harder which is a good thing. I like that it keeps track of how long you've actually been working out and the calories burned during your workout session. I have found that I keep my heart rate up and burn as many calories lifting weights as I do on the elliptical or treadmill. I don't use it for running, so this particular model might not work for split times, etc. But, for the middle aged female who wants to get a good workout and stay fit, it's perfect.

This is my third polar and probably last. Bought this one in July 06 and it got condensation under the face and then died. Disappointing for having it only 9-10 months. I rarely used it for water sports and it did this after working out on a hot, sunny day. The same thing happened on the other two.

Compared to the dinosaur heart monitor I've had for years, I just LOVE this new one. It gives more information than I'd ever need, but it tells calories spent. The one downfall for me is I can't really see it during spin classes in the dark and the print is small, so I need to wear reading glasses in order to see it (the light is good, but still, too small). Overall, LOVE IT!

This is my first heart monitor. I selected it because it was highly rated and, since I have a very tiny wrist, I needed something sized for a woman.

I really like it, but find the instructions very hard to follow. I have trouble getting past the simple time of day and heart rate screens (those were easy). I find myself randomly pressing buttons trying to get to any display more sophisticated than those. I'm a PhD research scientist so I _should_ be able to follow these instructions. I've also been a technical writer and believe that when the user is confused it is the fault of the documentation.

This is a very nice monitor, but it shouldn't be so difficult to use past the basic level.

The Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor is a fun little gadget to help you get motivated to work out. You can track how many calories are burned, and check that you're in your fat burning heart rate zone while you work out.

WIth regards to fit, my wrist is 5 3/4 inches in circumference and this watch fits perfectly. The watch can be adjusted as small as 4 1/4 inches to as big as 7 1/2 inches. The spacing between the adjustment holes is about 1/4 inches apart and there are 19 holes, so there is a wide range of adjustment options. The face is about 2 inches tall and 1 1/2 inches wide.

The stock transmitter is just fine, it came in medium. It slips right under the band of my work out bra and stays there during cycling, running, and Tae Bo. I haven't had a problem with it slipping while I work out, and I work out pretty hard (average 450 calories per workout) and have been working out with it for about 7 weeks now.

The only downside is that the program Polar uses to download your workout information to your computer is not Mac compatible for the F6. So if you have a Mac, make sure to check that the Polar you are purchasing is Mac compatible, as Polar has made some of its newer Heart Rate Monitors Mac compatible.

I would order from this seller again. I ordered my product around midnight on a Saturday and got my F6 the following Monday! Quick!