Customer Reviews

Suunto t4c Heart Rate Monitor and Fitness Trainer Watch (Black Volcano)

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

 

 

Overall, the T4c does exactly what Suunto advertises. The heart rate monitor is fairly accurate (I have checked it against the HR monitors on many different treadmills). I believe the coach works well although I often feel like it schedules far too many runs of the slow and lengthy type. If I increase the activity class, the sessions become much longer with little adjustment in difficulty. Suunto should have included a coach that plans for more sprint or interval sessions rather than just plain-old-fashion run-at-a-gentle-pace-for-an-hour-or-more sessions. As it is, I have to pick a day to do sprints and just see how it affects the coach's decision-making afterward.

Another major problem with the T4c is the Training Effect (TE). This feature goes hand-in-hand with the coach. Basically it is a numerical rating of the difficulty of your session. Lower numbers are easy to achieve. Anything between 3 and 5 will require more and more effort. The T4c gives an expected completion time based on your TE goal and current heart rate. However this estimate is wildly inaccurate, bouncing between times that differ by at least an hour.

The T4c menu system is a bit confusing at first but I figured out how it works after just the first run.

As for the hardware, I have yet to see my screen get scratched like so many others on the site. However I haven't removed the plastic film that the product was packaged with. I'm still waiting for my InvisibleShield to come in the mail. That should prevent ANY scratches.

Overall, this is a decent product but I do not believe I will buy another Suunto trainer in the future.

This is a sweet piece of gear. I've been using it for about a month now. It works great and gathers a lot of data.

The watch itself is comfortable the band works especially well, (mine is the black volcano). A friend has a Suunto T4C as well, (his is the black frost), but his band is a little different. I will agree with other reviews that the face is prone to scratching. With this in mind I use mine only for workouts. The interface isn't too difficult to figure out. Had it totally figured out after about 4 workouts. I saw a lot of reviews complaining about the complexity however with all the things this thing does the 5 buttons are easy enough to work with. My Timex was about as difficult to figure out.

The chest strap is OK. About as comfortable as a chest strap is going to be. It took a week or so to figure out exactly where to place the strap on my chest and how tight was tight enough. Once the chest strap placement is determined this thing rarely loses heartrate once it has captured it.

I could take or leave the coach function. It usually tells me to do long low intensity workouts or to rest. I haven't really done much with the coach function as a result.

The data that the T4C can store is pretty extensive. There is detailed workout data available for the 14 most recent workouts. This data includes duration, training effect, average heart rate, peak heart rate, calories burned, and lap times (if using the lap timer). I don't have the PC interface but transfer the infomation manually to a spreadsheet every few days. Long term data is available (totals) for the current week, the previous week, current month, and the previous 11 months. This data includes the number of workouts, total workout time, total running distance (Foot Pod), total bike distance (Bike Pod), total GPS distance (GPS Pod), and total calories burned.

I don't have the Foot, Bike, or GPS POD paired devices.

I've found it most helpful when lifting. I've set heartrate targets for starting my next set so my weight workouts remain in a cardio zone. Prior to having the watch I'd just wait until if felt like my heartrate had dropped enough. Now I have hard data to start the next set.

Spent a lot of time researching before buying. I recommend buying something really cheap that you won't mind throwing away when it fails/battery dies or buy something decent. This is something decent. Things that drew me to the Suunto T4C is a coded system. You won't get crosstalk in a spin class with others using a monitor. With the Suunto you can change your own batteries. Most of the Polar monitors have to be sent back to the manufacturer for battery replacement, (read the reviews). The only other monitor that I considered was the Garmin Forerunner 305. Picked the Suunto T4C based on word of mouth of a friend, and I have no regrets.

That's about all I have to say about that.

I love the watch. It's really gives a great idea of the intensity and rest needed to improve performance. My only issues are that it takes a while to catch up to your actual level of fitness and training level. It starts you off at the lowest intensity level even if you select a starting fitness level that puts you at 5+ hours of training per week. One other thing I noticed is that it's good for use as a single sport watch, but if I use it for all of my workouts (I'm a triathlete), it gives an unusually long rest period (3-4 days in some cases). I'd suggest using it as a means to improve your weakest event if you're a triathlete. In that respect, it performs exceptionally well!

Garbage. Sent back 2 of these and all were returned with the same problem. The HR monitor doesn't work, or best works sporadically. Terrible menu design and the manual is worthless. A $20 Casio digital watch is much easier to set and work functions. It's like government workers designed it on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend. You can buy mine for $60. I haven't sold it on Craigslist just because I would have the same kind of feeling a guy might have after spending a 3 day weekend in a $2 Thailand brothel without a condom, and then coming home and sleeping with his wife.

Any of the Garmin products function better. I have the 305 and 310XT. Both are a bit bulky but have solid performance and user friendly menus.

We purchased two Suunto t4c in around April 2009 having read generally good reviews. I have previously owned top line Oregon and Timex HRM, and Polar (lower level model) devices. While I like the Suunto HRM, and find it overall easy to use, unfortunately we have had a series of problems with the devices. Both have had to be returned and replaced (the first immediately after purchase because it wasn't picking up HR consistently - the replacement has worked fine), and the other because one of the sensor pads on the comfort belt detached and the belt no longer worked. Suunto's customer service and efficiency of replacement have been fantastic and cannot be faulted, being almost hassle free. It's just a shame we have had to return both.

The major problem since the belt has been replaced is that my heart rate is measuring consistently 20-25 bpm below my actual heart rate during exercise. I don't have a good explanation for this, as it picks up accurately at low heart rates (can't be explained by outlying heart rates either, as my max and exercise range HR are well within normal limits). Sadly it does make the HRM of limited value, particularly as I am currently pregnant and would like to keep a closer watch on the values during exercise (also makes the TE hopelessly inaccurate, as it thinks I am working in a range well below max). The previous belt was better, but still always tended to read on the low side during exercise.

SO...the overall pros and cons:

Pros:
1. Very comfortable to wear, and the sensor sits in a really sensible position for men and women.
2. Lots of features on the watch and pretty easy to use once you get used to it (although not particularly intuitive at first). Good graph of exercise levels over time.
3. HR display and timer display that is easy to read in low light and large enough to see at a quick glance
4. Suunto customer service and replacements

Cons

1. Variably inaccurate HR pickup
2. Face scratches very easily (we knew this from other reviews and put screen guards on at purchase which have been great)
3. The comfort low profile sensor pads are probably more vulnerable to deteriorate and detach
4. Battery runs flat much faster than other HRM
5. Start/stop very easy to knock on and off, which starts the stopwatch and runs the battery down, and you have to remember to put the lock function on when putting it into a gym bag.

Does what I want and sooo much more. I can't wait to add the foot pod and pc connect. GPS pod is pretty cool, wasn't sure at first but it tracked my distance perfectly on three long runs that I've done now (verifed with [...])

I agree with most of the comments. This is a solid product and I have only good things to say except.... how on earth do you adjust the chest strap?

Clever product with some nice features. Instructions could be a little better written. Price was very attractive for the features included.

i have seen huge results in my cardio performance by using the coach and following the workout that it adjusts on a daily basis for me. i would really recommend this product to anyone serious about there performance, people have said it scratches easy, so i wear my when i work out and put it in a case when i am done.

I took this watch out of the box and put in back in within a half hour, after realizing that you had to buy a separate $80 accessory to upload your workouts and not being able to clearly see the watch screen and finally unable to link the separate foot pod I purchased. I currently own the Garmin 405 and I think that Suunto and Polar are both far behind in the running watch technology. Garmin seems to be the only one to offer a true all-in-one package for running including GPS, Heart rate monitoring and uploading workouts for a lower price than the other two top brands based on buying a lot of additional items that come with the Garmin 405.