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In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
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Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Oooh, very much looking forward to this review!
Yes, me too waiting strongly this watch’s test!
Dito..I got this product and I love it so much, but I am interested in what you think about it! In my mind it’s clearly better then Garmin Swim and Swimsense (and I loved my Swimsense!).
Hope of a good review ;)
I hope you will test whether the heart rate chest strap slips down below the chest which is the problem with other heart rate monitors for swimming
So far in my testing, it’s slipping down like every other strap.
(Thus, making the product more or less useless.)
Hello,
From the Swimovate FB page I found this exchange:
A few reviews report that the PoolMate HR heart rate strap slips down below the chest like other heart rate monitors made for swimming. Does Swimovate have any comment about this?
Like · · June 6 at 11:41am
Charles Jessee I’ve had good luck strapping it on tightly and using a safety pin to hold the double loop end together. I find it’s mainly the outer band of the loop that flaps out and catches water to pull the strap. I might even just add some duct tape.
June 11 at 5:09pm · Like · 1
Swimovate Pool-Mate If you do have problems we recommend wearing inside a trisuit. However we have only heard of a couple of people have had any problems, as long as it is on tightly you should be ok.
Yeah, I’ve tried twisting as well as pulling it as tight as it will go. That said, I’ll give the pins a shot.
Thanks for sharing!
I overcome this by using a shirt. Also i use my t4 hooked to the hrm strap so It reads the hear beat.
Thanks. That takes care of that. Same problem as the RCX5.
Yup, pretty much exactly like my RCX5 experience.
Hi,
I’m very kean on the new PoolmateHR but like to know how big (compared foer example with Garmin Swim) it is and if the easyjet readable as the other Poolmates are so small that they are practical useless…
BR
Morten
i’m really looking forward to this review….
any estimated date for the review?
Thx in advance…
No, I don’t have a date for it currently. I would have poked into it more, but with it slipping down on me, my interest is waning a bit – thus it’s behind a number of other higher priority items.
How accurate is the strokes and lap counting compared to garmin swim, 910XT, or the tomtom multsport?
Interested in seeing the results. I had one, and a replacement, and I could never get it to consistently detect my swim stroke even though I used a PoolMate Pro for a year with no trouble. I eventually returned it because more often than not it was missing laps and the stats were erratic.
Yes the strap sipped off unless I had it so tight my heartbeat became irregular because it was restricting blood flow.
I meant to add that I switched to the Garmin Swim about 3+ months ago and have had no troubles with the Swim.
The PoolMate HR is as big as the Swim or maybe a touch bigger (I don’t have the HR anymore). The HR is definitely not the svelte device the PoolMate Pro was.
IMO they should drop the HR function and add GPS for open water swimming although they said GPS was unreliable in the water but they continue to look for viable solutions.
Hello Ray
any news on when this review will come up?
I have purchased the garmin swim, but it really is by default. I am interested in the HR feature, but with all the comments we read, it is not that obvious that the upgrade is worth it…
thanks
6co
I believe the HR monitor is relevant. I would be curious on how it work in OW (with a wetsuit) and also if wearing a speed suit in the water is a good option or not.
I have trouble with all HR bands and wonder if using a string or something around the neck would work. I don’t care if it looks stupid, I just want to train.
Looking forward to learning if this watch has a decent amount of matrix it tracks and how it compares to the Garmin swim.
Thanks. I love your thorough reviews.
Maybe this is ‘tip of the day’ stuff but I’ve found a way to stop any HR monitor from slipping down. I always race with HR strap on because it just takes too long to strap on in T1. That’s never been a problem. However a HR step in a pool slips down after the push offs from the wall. Just too much resistance against the water I guess. So for full dress rehearsals starting with pool swims I had to find a way to stop the strap slipping. The solution has been to use a couple pieces of narrow strapping plastered between the straps HR ‘brain’ and my chest, That’s also the downside, because as a complete sook I need to shave a narrow path of hair away to avoid a painful removal procedure. But it works.
Oh and would love to see a Poolmate HR review as I’m comparing it (+ bike computer + 305 on other arm for the run) to the 910XT as a single product. But how do you yank a wetsuit off the XT? Your reviews are always so thorough so I understand if it’s not an easy thing to do.
To get the wetsuit off the FR910XT, the trick is to simply ensure the FR910XT isn’t on top of the wetsuit. It sounds willy but it comes off pretty easily as long as the FR910XT isn’t overlapping the wetsuit. I included a short video of it within my FR910XT review.
Is this one off the queue completely? Still looking for a decent watch that can track HR under water that doesn’t break the bank.
It’s more or less off the queue. It’s just that when I play with it – it’s clear how far it is from the competition. Both in terms of software, but really the fact that for me I just can’t keep the strap on my chest.
What do you recommend, then? I’m looking for a way to monitor both my swim metrics and my heart rate while swimming indoors. Don’t really need much of anything else.
Honestly, I’d focus less on the HR and more on the swim metrics (and look at the Garmin Swim). There just isn’t (at this time), any great single solution. Ideally we’ll see optical HR in swimming devices that will solve this, but I don’t foresee that happening this year.
If I buy a separate HR watch can I combine that data with the garmin Swim data? What I would like is to see SWOLF and HR overlapped in a graph.
With Training Peaks you could overlay two pieces of data.
Does the Swimovate Poolmate HR software have the ability to export the data to TCX files?
The Pool Mate HR is better than Suunto Ambit3 Sport for multi-sports?
What do you think?
Sunnto Ambit3 Sport = $ 450 …. Pool Mate HR = $ 250
It’s advantage to pay more for sunnto?