There’s arguably no tech product in my arsenal of products that’s been used as much as the Polar H10 chest strap, yet I never exactly got around to writing an in-depth review on it. Or, even a short review. In fact, it only had cursory mention when it was announced five years ago. For the most part, the H10 predated when I did dedicated general-purpose heart rate strap reviews.
In fact, the H10 has been around so long that they’ve announced features, implemented features, and then those features have reached end of life. Such as the also-announced-on-launch-day GoPro integration some 5 years ago, which never made it past the Hero 4/5 cameras (through no fault of Polar). There have been more important features though, like when Polar added ANT+ connectivity to the H10 (via simple firmware update). That update also included dual-Bluetooth connectivity, allowing multiple connections.
And in fact, it’s been since around the timeframe that they added ANT+ & dual-Bluetooth integration a few years ago, that my usage has picked up. Prior to that, I only occasionally used it, as I generally preferred straps that could connect to multiple devices (which back then, it was limited to a single Bluetooth connection).
But over the last few years, the H10 and its little brother the H9 have crept further and further into my daily usage. Ultimately, earning itself a place in my mental list of acceptable reference devices for heart rate accuracy, as well as my product buyers guides. Which doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Like any device, it has its pros and cons. Which, I’ll dive into.
Note that in this case, this is a device I bought myself. I’ve bought far too many H10 straps, either as a bundle or individually. On my trip last week I somehow ended up with three of them in my suitcase. Seriously, I don’t even know how. It was like snakes on a plane, but with straps instead. But I have H10’s stretching back 5 years or so, and some bought this past year. If you found this review useful, you can use the links at the bottom, or consider becoming a DCR Supporter which makes the site ad-free, while also getting access to a mostly weekly video series behind the scenes of the DCR Cave. And of course, it makes you awesome.
What’s In The Box:
Because I wanted to have this section be up to date, I went out and bought another H10. As if I didn’t have enough already. This one is grey though, and I like it – it looks prettier than all my boring black straps. It’s the same grey material as the Polar Verity Sense optical HR band.
When it comes to sizing, there’s basically two sizes of the H10 you can purchase (technically you can also purchase just the strap portion in an XXXL too):
XS-S: 51-66 cm (20”-26”)
M-XXL: 65-93 cm (25”-37”)
XXXL Strap Portion Only: 76-116 cm (30”-46”)
For each of the H10 kits you can purchase either black or the swankier grey one. I’ve got both, they both technically are identical, but obviously the swankier grey one is sexier. I mean, assuming you can find a heart rate strap sexy. And clearly, since you’re here – you do. In the event you’re purchasing these straps in person in something called a retail store, the color is indicated by a tiny dot on the packaging.
So, back inside the box, you’ve got the strap portion folded up in an origami-style situation that you’ll never be able to replicate again. And then clipped into the cardboard is the transmitter pod:
Also, you’ll find some paper stuffs in there. It’s a manual that tells you not to do unsafe strap things, and to occasionally rinse it off (I usually do so in the shower briefly with water after each workout).
And thus, concludes our unboxing section.
The Basics:
The first thing you’ll want to do is pop the pod into the strap. It simply snaps in place using two little button-like thingies. This by itself does not turn the strap on or off, but rather, the strap sensing electrical activity does. Meaning, there’s no harm in leaving the pod attached to the strap permanently (as I usually do).
Next, you can adjust the strap length using the small clasp towards one end of the strap. You want a strap reasonably snug. Generally speaking, most people wear it on your chest below the nipple, but some men will wear it above if it starts to slip down. The Polar H10 straps are pretty good about not slipping though, thanks to the tiny little anti-slip dots you see on the strap, which are both on the interior sides and back areas (note that the H9 straps lack these anti-slip dots):
Whereas those smooth sections you see on the strap are where the electrical sensors are, which is where it detects your heart rate. In most conditions, you’ll want to moisten these slightly at the beginning of the workout until you start sweating. You can use water, electrode gel, or my personal favorite: licking it. Seriously.
After giving both pads a quick lick, you’re ready to snap the clasp on the strap and put it on. Alternatively, I suppose you can put it on first and then lick, though that’s slightly more awkward as you hold your shirt up to then appear to passersby to be licking your nipples. Obviously, I choose this route each time.
Now, since this is our first time using the strap you’ll want to use either the Polar Beat app or the Polar Flow app to update the firmware. We’ll dive into those in a second in the next section. The firmware update is actually super important if you believe the strap may have been sitting on a store shelf for a while, as it might not yet have the firmware update that adds ANT+ connectivity. So don’t skip out on that!
Finally, the last thing, before we talk apps and such, is the battery. The unit contains a CR2025 coin cell battery, which roughly has a battery life of about a year of usage. To access the battery, simply pop the back door off (a small flat-blade screwdriver works well), and you’ll see the battery compartment.
At this juncture you’ll ponder how the eff to get that stupid little battery out of the holder without splintering your fingernails, and thus this is where I give you a lifetime pro tip on getting coin cell batteries out: Drop it.
Seriously, take that tiny coin cell battery/holder, and just drop it on the table or ground. I can often do it on the first or second attempt if you hit the angle just right, the battery will happily bounce out.
Then, simply pop the new battery into the pod holder the correct way, and snap that into the transmitter pod. Congratulations, you’re now a certified IT professional.
The Polar Apps:
Now as great as the Polar H10 is, it all gets a bit messy here in the apps section. The good news is that for the vast majority of people, you don’t need to use the Polar apps (aside from the occasional firmware update).
The reason I say things get messy is that Polar has essentially two apps that interact with their heart rate monitors: Polar Flow and Polar Beat
Polar Flow is where you can manage the Polar H10 within the broader context of your Polar account. For example, it’ll notify you of new firmware updates, show the status of the strap, and just generally be there for you to gaze at alongside other Polar devices (e.g. watches) that you might own. Further, you can view the workouts you created from Polar Beat, within Polar Flow – as well as training records longer-term. And as of this year, you can now record workouts in Polar Flow as well as Polar Beat.
Polar Beat is their older app that you can do all the same, plus some paid bits for extra features for Polar watch users (that aren’t in Polar Flow). You can toggle settings like ANT+ connectivity, and update the firmware here too. Recorded workouts here end up in Polar Flow. It looks old, it feels old, and in a lot of ways, it acts old. But it gets the job done. Again, most people here are probably using 3rd party apps like Peloton or Strava or whatever to record their data (or a 3rd party device).
I’m not terribly certain which app you’re “supposed” to use as the standard/default app for the Polar H10 as the main firmware updater app. So I’ll start with Polar Beat, simply because alphabetically it’s first. You’ll crack it open and create an account if you haven’t yet. Then, you can tap on ‘HR Sensor’ box to search for nearby heart rate sensors. Assuming you’re a normal person, you’ll only see one in the list:
Tap on that blaringly obvious ‘Pair’ button to get it paired up. That’ll cause your phone to confirm your dating intentions, and then the strap will be paired. All of this will take about 2.87 seconds. Now you’re done:
You’ll see the current firmware version, and be offered an update if it’s behind. More notably, you’ll see a toggle for the straps different sensor connectivity options. This includes ANT+, Bluetooth Smart (dual), and Analog (5kHz). The ANT+ one has unlimited connections, as does the analog one. Whereas the Bluetooth Low Energy (aka Bluetooth Smart, aka just Bluetooth) has a maximum of two concurrently transmitting/receiving connections – though unlimited apps can be paired to it. By default, a strap will ship with it only permitting a single connection, so I recommend toggling that to dual, so you don’t get yourself in a pickle 6 months from now and have to troubleshoot/remember why.
There’s no meaningful battery difference in leaving these all on. The chipset is designed to be super efficient at low energy transmission, so it’s not like you’re saving any appreciable amount of battery by leaving them on. In fact, Polar is the only company that still even leaves this as an option to toggle.
Next, with that all settled, you can do much the same in the Polar Flow App instead. Here’s that same strap showing up after pairing in the Polar Flow app, with the same options. Also, a prompt to update the firmware from Polar Flow for a different strap I have:
In terms of recording a workout with the Polar app and the H10, you’ve got two basic categories of options there: With the phone, and without the phone. With the phone is straightforward, since you’ll just keep your phone handy and then start the Polar Beat app. You’ll choose the sport from a gigantic list of some 100 sports, which have sport-specific calorie profiles. Additionally, the sport will decide whether or not enabling GPS makes sense.
![clip_image001[15]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2021/12/clip_image00115_thumb.png "clip_image001[15]")
![clip_image001[12]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2021/12/clip_image00112_thumb.png "clip_image001[12]")
Once you’ve done that, you’ll see that it automatically connects to your HR strap and if applicable, GPS. Also of note is that in the settings you can connect to Apple Health (and Google Fit presumably like on Android). Whereas on Polar Flow you can connect to 3rd party apps like Strava as well. After tapping start, it’ll start recording the workout and show you some basic stats. You’ll also get a map shown if it’s an outdoor/GPS workout:
![clip_image001[6]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2021/12/clip_image0016_thumb.png "clip_image001[6]")
Afterwards, you’ll get some summary information, including data by zones and a track of where you went:
![clip_image001[8]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2021/12/clip_image0018_thumb.png "clip_image001[8]")
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Now – what if you want to go without your phone? This is useful for scenarios where you want to record your heart rate, but carrying a phone isn’t practical, such as swimming, soccer/football, or perhaps just even running. For that, you’ll need/use the Polar Beat app, as the Polar Flow app doesn’t support it.
To do that, you’ll do exactly the same as above to start the workout, then ditch your phone. The H10 will continue to record the workout in its internal memory. To end the session, simply either get back to your phone and tap the end button, which will cause the strap to sync the missing data back to the app. Or alternatively, remove the pod from the strap snaps, which will also end the workout (and keep it off). Once back within range of your phone, you can either rub the pod contacts to wake it up, or put it back on the strap. The Polar Beat app will download all the missing data.
![clip_image001[1]](https://media.dcrainmaker.com/images/2021/12/clip_image0011_thumb.png "clip_image001[1]")
At that point the data is accessible like normal – both within the Polar Beat app, as well as the Polar Flow app.
Now, this is the *singular* technical area that Polar could really re-work and improve. Specifically, the requirement to use the phone to start it. For example, while swimming that’s messy and sometimes impractical – especially for openwater swimming where you might want to leave your phone elsewhere in a safe/locked place, thus you’re starting the workout unnecessarily early, and the Polar app doesn’t have any way to crop/shorten the activity afterwards to remove the useless sections. Or, just the realization after you got everything ready to start the workout and remembered you forgot to start the Polar recording. The other challenge is the Polar H10 can only remember/store one workout at a time in memory (though doesn’t appear to have a specific duration limitation).
By contrast, arguably my favorite feature on the Wahoo TICKR X (which has downloadable storage as well) is the fact that the strap will *always* create a recorded workout in memory anytime you put it on. It then syncs that to the Wahoo app, and you can simply trim it afterwards in their app (which will even re-upload the trimmed version to 3rd party sites). Like most Wahoo things, it’s mind-bogglingly simple, quick, and clean to use. Unfortunately, I’ve had continued issues with their actual straps (latest version), and thus, I can’t recommend them at this point.
Still, this would be an update Polar could make that would significantly improve the end-user experience, both the recording side as well as the app trimming side. The trimming feature would also be handy just in general for Polar’s platform, so it could undoubtedly be re-used there too.
Of course, the reality is most people are probably just using 3rd party apps/devices with the Polar H10 anyway, so let’s talk about that now.
Connecting to Other Apps/Devices:
As outlined earlier, the Polar H10 supports three basic connectivity types using industry standards to do so:
– ANT+ heart rate (unlimited connections)
– Bluetooth Smart heart rate (two concurrent connections)
– 5kHz analog heart rate (unlimited connections)
For most people, you’ll use ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart, with more than likely Bluetooth Smart for smartphone/tablet/etc apps, and ANT+ for things like bike computers or many watches. In general, if your device supports both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, I’d recommend using ANT+ for the connectivity type. This is because it won’t take up one of your two Bluetooth channels. We’ll quickly iterate through some scenarios here.
First up, is pairing to a Polar watch. In this case the Polar Grit X Pro, but it doesn’t really matter which one – they all act the same here. Polar watches only support Bluetooth Smart sensors, so you’ll go into the sensors menu and search for a sensor. You’ll see the Polar H10 listed, along with the ID:
Speaking of which, the ID that’s displayed is the same one etched into the top of the strap:
Once you tap to pair it, it’ll save it for future use, and automatically connect. In the case of Polar watches, the little HR icon will change slightly to show a strap and the coloring will change to blue:
In fact, Polar actually saves your straps in your Polar Flow account and syncs them to all Polar watches automatically.
Here’s another Bluetooth Smart example – the Peloton (Bike or Tread, both are identical). When you go into the heart rate strap menu, you can see the Polar H10 listed in there. In the case of Peloton, it can pair to both ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart. So you can choose either. The ANT+ one is listed by the ANT+ ID (which is specified in the Polar Flow and Polar Beat apps).
Next, we’ve got an ANT+ pairing to a Garmin Edge bike computer. You can see we can search for heart rate sensors, and then there’s a menu to show the ANT+ sensors. Once we select that we’ll see the ANT+ ID of this H10 strap:
After pairing it up, we can give it a friendly name of our choice:
Next, while not really part of the three standards (we’ll get to analog in a second), it’s worthwhile noting that the Polar H10 is often used for HRV measurement. Here’s an example of it paired up to the Elite HRV app, taking an HRV recording:
Finally, there’s the analog signals. While most companies don’t make devices to utilize these anymore, you’ll find this on older treadmills and other gym equipment. Generally speaking, you’ll move the sensor close-ish to the display, and it’ll pair up. Here’s my older treadmill, connected up to the analog signal, in a photo from a few years ago:
The analog signals were also popular for transmission within water, as those do transmit in water whereas the digital ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart signals don’t transmit through water more than 1-3cm. However, even Polar has stopped supporting that in their watches years ago. So their newest watches can’t connect via analog to the H10 (underwater or otherwise).
In fact, somewhat oddly, their watches (especially for their triathlon watches) won’t automatically download the data from the Polar H10 if in a swim. Instead, you have to use the watch’s optical HR sensor, which accuracy-wise is kinda iffy for swimming. It’s always surprised me that Polar hasn’t enabled an auto-offload of data from a chest strap (specifically the H10) to their watches, as Garmin has done with their premium HR straps (HRM-PRO/HRM-SWIM/HRM-TRI). Seems a no-brainer, especially for the swimming crowd.
Speaking of more triathlete type stuff, the Polar H10 doesn’t support any sort of Running Dynamics or broadcasting of pace/cadence/etc to watches (as the Wahoo TICKR X & Garmin HRM-PRO/TRI do). At least not by itself. You can however use a third-party app/platform, called RaceFox, to get some of the running form/efficiency metrics. However, that requires you use their platform and pay about $9/month, and so while there’s nothing wrong with the RaceFox platform, it’s Polar not following any of the industry standards here around running dynamics. Instead, Polar is sending their accelerometer data and apps like RaceFox can decode the data stream using Polar’s SDK.
In any event, Nemo and Roadrunners aside, the Polar H10 is basically the most versatile strap out there for general daily use from a connectivity standpoint. I’ve never had any connectivity-related issues with it, and if there’s any app that doesn’t work on it, I’m basically 100% sure it’s the app’s fault. After all, Polar was literally one of the first two straps to support the Bluetooth Smart heart rate standard nearly a decade ago (heck, they literally led the Bluetooth SIG that authored the protocol), so that means compatibility through one of the three standards is virtually guaranteed. Though, I also virtually never hear of any other strap company screwing up the heart rate profile these days.
Accuracy Comparison Data:
So I literally have 5 years of accuracy data from the Polar H10 strap, compared to dozens – maybe even a hundred – different devices and other sensors. And realistically, so does 95% of the Internet. This isn’t a new strap, and it’s not an uncommon strap. There’s very little debate the H10 is accurate in the vast majority of scenarios. Still, that doesn’t exempt it from the usual treatment and analysis. That’s why I have a semi-standardized structure – to ensure testing can be replicated and the results replicated as well.
In this case, I’m going to pick from 2021’s greatest hits of review data. This is interesting because I basically just went through and plucked out comparisons against most watches or wearable devices that were announced in 2021. But even more than that, there’s some good examples of when a chest strap, yes, even the Polar H10, can fail (even if momentarily). So, let’s dive into it.
Oh, and for HR accuracy testing I’m typically wearing two watches (one per wrist, never more than one per wrist as it can impact accuracy). Plus then often an optical HR sensor band on either my bicep or forearm (mostly a blend of the Polar OH1 Plus & Polar Verity Sense, but sometimes the Scosche or Whoop sensors). Note that the numbers you see in the upper right corner are *not* the averages, but rather just the exact point my mouse is sitting over. Note all this data is analyzed using the DCR Analyzer, details here.
First up, let’s look at some intervals. Intervals are in theory where most people justify the cost of a chest strap over what’s provided inside their watch with its optical heart rate sensor. Now, keeping in mind that every manufacturer and even every sensor is different. Watch to watch they are different. So bucketizing all optical HR sensors is no different than bucketizing all restaurants as the same. Quality and edibility will differ.
In any case, this run is a pile of 800’s in the heat of Florida, about 4PM on a 90°F day. In other words: It’s miserable. But I’ve got a lot of stuff going on here. I’ve got two watches – the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Garmin FR745 using their optical sensors. Then I’ve got the Polar H10 using the Polar Beat app, and finally, I have a Whoop 4.0 strap on my bicep. Here’s that data set:
What you might notice though in the first minute or so is that the Polar H10 actually struggles to latch on. This is a somewhat common issue for chest straps in the first few minutes of any workout before sweat is produced. In this case, despite moistening the strap it must have dried more quickly than I expected. As you can see, it recovers quickly, but it’s something we don’t see any of those optical HR sensors suffer from. They suffer from other issues, but just not that issue this time. Except the Apple Watch (in purple), but that’s because Apple stupidly (or stubbornly) won’t pre-stage the heart rate lock before pressing the start button. So, every other wearable on earth acquires heart rate once you pull up the sport screen, but Apple waits till you press ‘Go’. It’d be the equivalent of not putting on your running clothes until after the race starting gun has fired. One could make an absolutely well-timed ‘emperor has no clothes’ reference here.
Anyways, after that point, you see all the sensors are basically spot-on. And in this semi-rare scenario, we don’t see any meaningful amount of latency from most of the optical HR sensors, though usually we see a few seconds or so. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to that.
I’m going to start out with what’s been one of the more challenging things for Whoop to deal with historically – cycling outdoors. It’s been ironic because Whoop sponsors one of the UCI WorldTour teams (Tour de France teams), yet the sensors would historically be useless there. Still, this 2.5hr ride with a Whoop 4.0 on my bicep (using the regular strap) proved immediately things have changed. Here’s that ride compared to a Polar H10 chest strap, an Apple Watch Series 7, and a Polar Verity Sense optical armband. Here’s that data set:
I could dive in closer on the above set, but frankly, it’s not worth it. We see only a handful of brief moments where the Whoop 4.0 pod doesn’t match the others, in all these cases undercutting for a few minutes. There would be likely a very minor difference in strain in terms of these short periods of inaccuracy, but not enough to meaningfully impact what Whoop is tracking at the training load level.
Now, let’s take these intervals indoors to a less hot climate for another interval workout on a treadmill. In a nutshell, this was spot-on. We see one tiny couple second bobble around the 3-4 minute marker, but then it’s clean. However, all the sensors had minor bobbles in the first few minutes. Otherwise, the H10 responded very quickly and efficiently. Here’s that data set (compared to Garmin FR745 optical (wrist), Fitbit Charge 5 (wrist), Whoop 3.0 (bicep), Whoop 4.0 (bicep), and Polar Verity Sense (forearm)):
Where you see the Polar H10 (and the Verity Sense too) really excel is one of the last intervals. Notice below how the Polar H10 & Verity Sense, along with the FR745, quickly pick up the change in heart rate? The FR745 (in green) lags by about 3-5 seconds at first, but quickly matches it. We see meandering by the Whoop’s and Fitbit Charge 5 here too. This is a good example of separating good sensors from less good sensors. As you can see, it’s not just about optical or not, as the Polar optical HR sensors near perfectly matches the H10, and the wrist-based FR745 is very close, only lagging for a few seconds at the start, and slightly delayed by a few seconds on the cool-down.
Next, let’s switch to some cycling, so here’s a Zwift workout. This is compared against the Polar Grit X Pro watch, a Whoop 3.0 band, and an Apple Watch SE. In this case, the optical reading of the Polar H10 and Grit X Pro was spot-on with everyone else I trust.
However, this again gives us an opportunity to dive into the slight advantages, once warmed up, of better sensors. Look at this last sprint I did, where my HR popped to 170bpm. Notice here that the Polar H10 (paired to the FR745, in green) and the Apple Watch SE both nail this sprint. Very quick responsiveness, whereas the other sensors lagged by about 10 seconds (including the Polar Grit X Pro’s internal sensor). Despite Apple’s startup stubbornness, once they do get lock, it tends to be one of the best in the industry – able to match a chest strap here almost perfectly.
So let’s shift more towards scenarios that are better suited with a chest strap. And one of those is arguably lifting. For this, I’m pulling some of my wife’s data in, as it illustrates it super well. First, she did a 30-minute hard intensity Peloton workout. Then, she went to start lifting for another 30+ minutes. You can see here all the points in red that are spikes. These are legit spikes during high-intensity reps. However, these optical HR sensors placed on her biceps don’t capture that well. Instead, they just flat-line through it. Thus, all of those higher intensity timeframes are missed on the optical HR sensors, but are captured well on the chest strap.
Essentially what we see is that neither placement nailed the fast high-responsiveness for short high-BPM bursts like the chest strap (just like some people see in running). That said, keep in mind that with lifting, cardio heart rate is usually a lagging indicator, and a lagging limiter in strength. Your muscles are more than likely to fatigue before your cardio system. So one has to consider what they’re using that heart rate for (e.g. calorie burn tracking, training load tracking, the fun of it, etc…).
Anyway, we could literally do this all day long with data sets over the past half a decade – and it wouldn’t change what we already know: The Polar H10 is largely very accurate. And in cases where it’s momentarily not accurate it’s either solved by application of moisture (water, saliva, HR gel, squished banana, etc…) until your body’s own sweat from a workout can take over. Once that occurs, I see very good responsiveness from the H10 across virtually every sport and workout type I’ve thrown at it over the years.
And more notably, I don’t see cadence-lock type issues from the Polar H10 in terms of running workouts where it’ll incorrectly lock to your cadence instead of your heart rate. While relatively rare for chest straps in the last few years, it can happen. And point being, I don’t see it occurring with the H10.
Ultimately, there’s good reason I continue to use (and even more recently expand) my use of the H10 in accuracy-related HR sensor testing: It’s accurate, reliable, and consistent. It’s really as simple as that.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Strap Comparisons:
As usual, there’s always lots of questions between these three models:
– Garmin HRM-PRO
– Polar H10
– Wahoo TICKR X 2020
Now, let’s briefly look at the differences, but first, I’ll just give you the TLDR: If you’re a Garmin user, buy the Garmin strap. If you’re anything else, then probably buy the Polar strap. The reason is relatively simple for Garmin users, because while the Wahoo TICKR-X supports offline workouts, Wahoo hasn’t implemented the data offloading via ANT+ (they use their own internal app offloading process via Bluetooth Smart). And similarly, Polar hasn’t implemented any offloading to watch (nor any running efficiency metrics).
If you aren’t in the Garmin wearable ecosystem but still want data offloading, then you’re deciding between the Polar H10 or Wahoo TICKR X, with an edge to the Polar H10 for stability/accuracy in my recent experience. Whereas if you want more of the TICKR X running efficiency metrics (such as with the Wahoo RIVAL), or because you want their offloading, splicing, and sync to partners. Except, my challenge recently is I’ve continued to have drop-out issues with the newer TICKR straps – something mirrored by regular readers and friends alike – hence why I pulled it from the most recent round-up of strap recommendations. Plus, Polar’s strap is probably a bit more comfortable though for some people.
So essentially, unless you’re a Garmin watch user – go with the Polar H9 or H10 (note: If you’re a Garmin bike computer user, there’s no meaningful difference between a Garmin strap and another company’s strap). But yes, I know, I just pulled the Polar H9 into this fray out of left field all of a sudden. The simple differences are:
– Polar H9 only supports a single concurrent Bluetooth connection (but still supports ANT+)
– Polar H9 doesn’t have onboard storage (remember, that requires the Polar Beat app for usage)
– The Polar H9 strap doesn’t have the little bumpy traction things, though I often use the H9 and rarely notice the lack of them.
Make sense? Good.
Summary:
It’ll come as no surprise that the Polar H10 is an accurate and reliable workhorse in the chest strap category. In many ways, that was never really a question. However, as always, it’s something that’s important to validate, and also to understand if or when there’s any caveats. As noted, the caveats from an accuracy standpoint here are very minor, mostly limited to first getting warmed up and producing sweat. Other chest straps will generally suffer this same fate, and I noted easy moisture-driven mitigation steps to address that gap if you run into it. Wrist-based optical sensors don’t tend to have that sort of start of workout warm-up issues unless your skin is cold, which unfortunately is harder to mitigate.
So if the challenge with the H10 isn’t accuracy, then does the H10 have any issues at all? In some ways the only issue Polar has is Polar’s own product: The less expensive H9. That has essentially equivalent accuracy in my testing, and costs less. It lacks the H10’s onboard storage you probably won’t use (because it’s cumbersome to use), but also lacks the dual Bluetooth Broadcasting (that many also won’t use). And then when comparing the H10 to their similarly priced competitors, Polar is in a bit of a pickle in terms of those higher-end features. If you’re a Garmin user that wants advanced features, Polar can’t fill in that gap. Same goes for Wahoo RIVAL users that want those features, or just want better workout offloading.
Still, for probably 95% of the remaining people out there (which, is a lot of people) – the Polar H10 is one of the best straps on the market, and arguably one of the most accurate sensors on the market, but also one that is comfortable to use and easy to swap the battery without subsequent issues with the strap. And for those that don’t need the handful of extra features, the H9 can be had for a bit cheaper with the same level of accuracy in my testing.
With that – thanks for reading!
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The H10 is always my primary recommendation because most chest straps are accurate, but only the H10 comes with the Polar Pro Soft Strap. Nothing is more comfortable. The only nitpick is the CR2025, which doesn’t last a year with my training volume. Of course, 6-8 months of use is perfectly adequate, but I would be totally fine if they increased the size of the sensor pod to accommodate a CR2032 battery.
I will say that somehow my H10 partially popped out of one button snap during a race, and in my haste to pop it back in, I accidentally popped it out completely and it fell onto the road. I finished the race rather than abandon to pick it up. I’ve since used a Garmin HRM-Dual sensor with the Pro Soft Strap.
I came here to say the same thing about the battery. CR2025?! Arg. I have boatloads of CR2032 spares I keep handy but not 2025.
May only need it infrequently, but when you do it’s annoying indeed (spoken from someone who went to replace my father’s keyfob and it had a similar issue. Maybe it was even a CR2025!)
The HRM-Dual is a functional equivalent of the H9. It’s good except that the Garmin strap is hard and scratchy. The Polar straps are much better and happily compatible.
My gripe about the HRM-Dual (and older siblings like the HRM-3 and HRM-Run 1st gen) is you have to a use jewelers Phillips head screwdriver to remove tiny screws to change the battery. This exposes the entire logic board when you replace the battery. There is a red gasket that you need to be carful not to damage when you separate the case and put it back together.
The Polar system is a pry-open cap. No tiny screws to deal with and no gasket.
I’ve found in life, simply buying one of those coin cell variety pack packages is the way to go. Sure, I have the monthly pallet delivery of CR2032’s, but now especially with kids, having the rando-pack just makes things like this easy.
(In related news, I just tried looking for something on Amazon without quite as much luck, but alas, maybe this is just a Dutch grocery store thing – they have great variety packs of about 20-25 batteries of perhaps 5-8 types.)
You are weird.
In Harare, I can buy either a CR2935 or CR2032 at any pharmacy, grocery store, or hardware store in a 10km radius. Even in Africa in a pandemic.
I had a Garmin HRM for some time, but had problems with it. Like taking a while to give accurate readings, even when wet or using gel, or suddenly getting crazy high readings during a workout. So I switched back to Polar again which is Bluetooth “smart”.
Now that I started Zwifting, I am back to using the Garmin HRM again, since Ant+ is more reliable. I had to buy a new strap for that. My LBS only had the Polar “Pro” strap and at first I was a bit pissed because it is €24,95 where the old Polar straps were €14,50. But, since I use the Polar Pro strap with the Garmin HRM it works flawlessly. I have to wet it, obviously, but I have not seen erratic readings with it.
So the strap is an important bit when it comes to HR accuracy.
FYI: the Polar H10 will accommodate a CR2032 cell. I’ve been doing this for years.
To back that up:
The “20xx” part is the diameter in millimetres. (same for both)
The “xx25” versus “xx32” is the THICKNESS in 10ths of a millimetre – they are only 0.7mm different.
This causes the battery compartment door to sit slightly proud of the sensor but the o-ring still seals just fine. If it bothers you, you can file down a small spacer ring in the battery compartment door (ring shaped) – boom. Perfect fit, no need to buy CR2025 cells ever again.
I didn’t even know I was supposed to use CR2025 batteries with my H10.
Have always used CR2032 without any issues.
In the past I used the H10 for running and Garmin HRM dual for Zwift but the latter one lost connection way too often. Now I suck it up and use the H10 for Zwift even if the strap is still wet from the morning run. Way more comfortable than the Garmin one anyway.
While I do know people use the CR2032 largely without issue, I’ll note that just a week ago a reader sent me a note saying Polar denied a warranty request with them for using a CR2032.
Just an FYI….
“FYI: the Polar H10 will accommodate a CR2032 cell.”
Oh great, that comment might cost me 70€!
(difference between a replacement strap for the trusty old HRM1G and the H10 everybody seems to praise as quite reliable. The Garmin that is already clipped to a separately textile band has never worked reliably for me, not even with this party straps. HRM1G is looking like something pulled up from the Titanic, but it’s still reliable)
“In fact, Polar actually saves your straps in your Polar Flow account and syncs them to all Polar watches automatically.”
Garmin need to do this. It’s literally a case of syncing two strings of text per device yet for some reason every time I buy a new device I have to manually add in the many sensors I have (and then manually disable auto-lap for every frickin’ activity type..AGAIN).
And thanks to you and your pesky site, this happens a lot and I have a lot of sensors. I’m already having nightmares about setting the Fenix 7 up and it’s not even announced yet! The worst part is that I only realise that I’ve not done these things mid run or just as I want to start an activity.
Unfortunately, I think Garmin understanding usability is even less likely than Polar adding in music, wifi, maps, nice metal bands, and all the other cool things Fenix has.
To be fair, Garmin is already doing it – when I got Edge 1030 Plus, it was able to get all my sensors that were linked to my Fenix 6 watch. So I expect that Fenix 7 will support at least that much (hopefully more to the point of “I want my Fenix 7 to be an exact copy of my Fenix 6”)
Correct. They kinda-sorta do it on the Edge series. But it’s a one-time copy, so it won’t keep things in sync after that.
On the flip side, Garmin has like 932 different sensor types it tracks with the Edge, whereas Polar has basically four. Not that it should matter a ton here.
But totally, agree, I’d love to see the sensor pool sync concept extended.
With Polar’s Finnish roots I’m actually surprised that they don’t have death or at least black metal bands.
Well played, sir!
Well done, I did literally lol
To bad you bought a new one to review and didn’t review a old used one.
There isn’t much innovation in cheststraps so they last a long time. Which means I can only wear a “new” one a couple of months and wear a “old” one a couple of years.
My garmin tri cheststrap is 4 years old. Still works, but the anti slip spots start to come loose. Now is 4 years okish I guess, but what I want to know for this kind of devices, besides does it work properly, how long will it last?
I bought a new one for the box shots, the data is exclusively from all my older ones through to the newest one earlier this year. I use them interchangeably.
I have both the Garmin HRM-PRO and a few H10’s.
I use them with my Fenix 6x.
I would advise AGAINST the Garmin HRM-Pro. The strap part of the HRM-Pro is the issue. No matter what I do the “protection” label by the clamp actually cut into my skin on long runs. So I rarely run with the HRM-Pro. Apart from that having the sensor “constant” mounted on the strap is not smart IMHO.
I rather take the H10 and a Garmin Run pod if I want the Run Dynamics – but that then often results in the Run Pod taking a dive in my washing machine…
So IMO – the Polar strap is miles ahead of Garmin’s strap. Polar is more comfortable for long distance usage. And it has a better “clamp” to lock it in place. Garmin’s seem cheap and nasty in comparison. And if you want Run Dynamics – then use Polar Strap with the very old Garmin HRM Run. Much better overall.
I agree with everything you say, but Ray has explained the Garmin reasoning in the past and for people who have issues with removable ones I think it’s fine. I would like to see them offer replacement straps though as the electronics could easily be made portable even if the strap is fixed. Realistically though, even before Garmin did that their elastic straps were the same cost as the whole unit and we all bought Polar ones as replacements since Polar considered the elastic a consumable and made it cheap.
This.
I agreed with everything Ray was saying until he said that Garmin people should get a Garmin strap.
They should not. The H10 is much more reliable and comfortable. It’s just the gold standard. If your goal is a ECG HRM that always works and is always accurate without a fuss, the H9/H10 is for you.
Note that when you disconnect at least one of the buttons from the strap, it shuts off the transmitter and stops consuming battery.
The Garmin all-in-one straps are expensive and failure prone and less comfortable. They don’t shut off when they are wet, so the battery dies sooner than Polar and the battery replacement is more fiddly. It is easy to damage the gasket and then the transmitter is toast a few weeks later. The only bonus for all of this is Running Dynamics which are borderline useless. If you want them they are mostly in Stryd (except left/right balance) or the Garmin RD pod.
I have seen so many dead Garmin HRM-Run and HRM-Tri straps that either will no turn on and connect anymore or drop out or have become random number generators.
I also don’t agree with the recommendation to get the H9 simply because the Polar Pro strap bundled with the H10 is so much nicer than the Soft Strap bungled with the H9. Polar also has published a study that shows the Pro Strap is significantly more accurate with reference to a clinical EKG machine — even with the H7 attached. If you compare the Polar Pro strap to a Polar Soft strap or Garmin strap the electrodes are just about double the size.
I have an H9 and got a spare Polar Pro strap with it. I ended up giving away the H9 Soft Strap and getting another Pro Strap. It would have been cheaper to just get the H10 kit and a Pro Strap in the first place.
The Polar Pro strap is great as a replacement strap for a Garmin modular HRM like the HRM-Dual or the original HRM-Run. I have used an HRM-3 pod on a Polar Pro and Polar Soft strap with no issues. I have a training partner who uses a modular HRM-Run with a Polar Pro strap.
Yeah, I guess I’ve used both the Polar Pro and non-Pro H9 strap and really don’t find that much of a difference. But, as noted above, for some people it’ll matter, others it won’t.
Ultimately though, there’s no getting around the reality that if you want some of the Garmin added metrics (such as the Running Dynamics bits, Running Power, or more accurate swim HR), you’ll need the Garmin strap. I don’t think the number of broken HRM-TRI/etc straps is as high as people think it is, for the very simple fact that Garmin sells so many of them, that the overall number of breakages will be higher.
I also think there’s a reality that people using the HRM-TRI/etc straps are spending *WAY* more time in the water (including salt water), and thus, more likely to not maintain it as well as those on land. Which is likely also why we saw Garmin include that fold-out hilarious cartoon “How to take care of your strap” children’s book inside the newer HRM-PRO – reminding people to actually rinse the darn thing off. Add all that together with even comments I’ve seen in the last few days that someone was bewildered I would rinse a strap off after a workout…and I suspect the answer lies in there.
This is somewhat supported further by the fact that generally speaking we don’t see anywhere near the number of comments about the HRM-RUN as we do the HRM-TRI, despite being the exact same physical strap. It’s because HRM-RUN people aren’t spending half a dozen hours each week at the pool. And given Polar killed off HRM strap support in their newer watches for swimming, neither are H10 users either.
Just my two cents…
Maybe it is the pool killing the HRM-Tri straps. But literally I have 3 friends that have killed 3-4 of them in a couple of years. They seem last 6-9 months.
Another possibility is that triathletes are much more into gadgets and quantification than the average runner. Or maybe both.
In principal, I prefer the modular design because little wires break. It is just a better design.
For example, I did damage a Polar Pro strap in a fall in a trail run where I also cracked a rib. When using that strap I started having HR drop from ~150 to ~60 for a minute at a time. I lost confidence in it and threw it out, but kept the sensor. That is less of a big deal than discarding an HRM-Pro that is going flaky.
I don’t see why Garmin changed their design to be all-in-one other than increasing the ARPU on replacement straps.
Yeah, I’ll ask at some point what the advantage is of the all-in-one design over not. I don’t suspect it’s anything to do with financial stuff (Garmin has far better ways to make up that money, and they do).
I know for me, the all-in-one straps tend to cut me less (cut into my chest) than not, primarily in the summer months when I’m sweather.
Cut you? 🤯
That’s no good. I don’t have cutting.
FYI. Here is the research/marketing from Polar about their accuracy claims — which were largely about the Pro strap.
link to polar.com
Yup! Here’s an old post on cutting (and the countless people that run into the same issue): link to dcrainmaker.com
Still works today!
As for the research, yeah, I’d say that’s more marketing. I haven’t seen *ANY* real-world data to support those vast differences in regular workouts (e.g. 2-3x the error amount). Which, is part of the problem with many research claims, they don’t provide the actual underlying data. Sigh…
Huh. Interesting. I never experienced this problem going back to the 90s with HRM straps so I have something to really feel thankful for. My wife does occasionally comment that I have skin like an elephant.
Now that I examine it closely, I can feel that the HRM-Run (red) is is quite rounded on the edge at the middle of the strap. 🧐
Do you have this cutting problem with contemporary HRM chest straps or only the old Garmin ones and by extension the HRM-Dual?
I got cut again back in late October, while I was in Florida with family for two weeks. Basically summer conditions. It was mostly an H10, and at that point, I didn’t draw blood yet, but got to the ‘well scratched’ realm by the time I left. I was varying the position a bit to keep things from getting worse. The Garmin single-piece straps are really the only ones that don’t cut me for whatever reason.
QUOTE: “ Maybe it is the pool killing the HRM-Tri straps”
Hard no.
I had “all the Garmin HRMs” for years. They NEVER saw water of any type – just gym, bike, run.
They all died ignominiously for no damned reason. I love Garmin watches and computers but I’ll never buy another HRM from them. Polar H10 all the way.
FWIW, I never used my HRM-Tri in the pool or salt water and it lasted less than a year anyway.
Pretty sure I messed up that plastic ring during one of the super annoying battery changes.
For a minute I was considering the HRM-Pro but even at 45% off that thing is pretty expensive for something that might brake within a couple of months.
@Brian, thank you for that link
I use the H10 most mornings for readiness/hrv readings. I take it as being the most accurate device for that and for sport when combined with its strap which stops slippage and has a large sensor surface area to touch the body. So I agree with what you say of the H10 over the H9
I use the HRM-PRO (or TRI) as a partner for any high-end garmin watch partly because of habit and partly because of the swim hr caching that is supported to those watches. The accuracy is acceptably fine. As you say, the running dynamics are only of peripheral interest and use to very many people.
Polar, for me, does (did?) have battery issues and either consumed coin cells at a high rate when in use or consumed somehow even when the pod was unattached at one end from the strap
garmin straps (not pods) seem to sometimes have a construction issue where proper electrical contacts are not made until the strap is wet. this happens on some garmin straps but not on others that are identical. I keep buying them but it’s unacceptable that I should have to lick a new and defective strap every time to get it to work.
Regarding @Lusty’s comments about the auto-pairing of registered Polar straps to new polar watches. I find this behaviour singularly annoying (and I expect Ray does too): I get to the end of a oHR test for a new Polar watch and, guess what, perfect results! Why? Because it paired to my OH1/Verity and, get this, it pairs to it on each and every sync so I have to unpair EVERY accessory at the start of EVERY Polar watch test. For that one reason, Polar can NEVER be my longterm main watch…just sayin’. In my testing now I’m using a Coros Pace 2 as a backup recorded of oHR…I don’t want the hassle of using a Polar watch.
As said elsewhere, the OH1/Verity Sense if just about perfect as a reviewer’s secondary reference device except, bizarrely, when testing another Polar watch for the reason above!
If you want something other than wrist oHR for swimming with a Garmin your choice is limited to HRM-Tri (discontinued?) or the HRM-Pro. You just have to accept that they are disposable. The price premium they charge for mediocre build quality irks me.
I think the complaint about Polar watches automatically connecting to the HRM that you are also wearing is unique to gadget testers. For almost everyone that behavior is what you want. The more likely failure case in my mind would be someone putting on a brand new HRM for a run with their Garmin and failing to pair it at all.
Garmin should do a better job of migrating settings between devices. They have improved but the new device experience is crap.
I also went through countless HRM-TRI and RUNs. At least 3 of each. They never survived a single battery replacement. I’m not that bad at things like that so my assumption is the design is just too fiddly. I rarely, if ever, swim with it and always rinse it in the shower.
So true. I actually bought a used Garmin HRM pro on Ebay. It failed after a few months, bought a 2nd one, the same destiny within 2 months. I opened it up for curiosity. I found that the circuit board had corroded must be caused by moisture and salts. The funny thing is that the O-ring looked fine. This was the case for both straps
I would like to know your opinion between H10 and polar verity sense
I have both and the Verity is the one I use more as it’s just more comfortable for things like running and rowing. I’m still of the opinion that you can’t beat a proper electrode strap, but I wear them less and less
I love the Verity Sense (and the OH1 before it). And really comes down to preferences on comfort (where you want to wear the sensor), charging (how often you want to charge it), and whether or not you want the data sync bit (which, the Verity Sense does super well compared to the cumbersome way the H10 does it).
Don’t know why but aches straps don’t work for me. Had the same issues with both polar and Suunto. They’ll be recording fine then at a random point, often 4-5 miles in, my HR will drop to something like 40-70 bpm and stay there a while then it might jump back up and repeat this the rest of the run. Tried reposition the strap up and down my chest and trying extra tight to loose but nothing consistently worked. Gave up and just use the OH1 now. Use H10 for HRV testing though so not a complete waste.
It’s likely short circuit between two electrodes, caused by strap getting soaked in sweat. Optical HR is good and more durable solution. EKG strap lifetime is quite limited due to extreme conditions it has to work in. Optical HR sensors are closed designed, much more sweat resistant. I myself use H10 for HRV related measurements too. The main HR sensor is Wahoo Tickr Fit, very reliable for over 2 years of heavy usage.
Just a quick info: Polar has added the ability to record exercises and to perform a fitness test in Flow app quite some time ago:
Recording as of Feb 2021: link to support.polar.com
Fitness test as of Aug 2021: link to support.polar.com
The only reason for still using Beat is one of the advanced functions: Benefit Target, Running Index and Energy Pointer – these are only available with a Polar watch (the last watch featuring Energy Pointer was the A300 however).
Ahh, that’s right, I forgot about the new recording button there. Well, now people have both ways covered above. :)
How long do Polar straps typically last? I the strap that came with my Edge 1030 lasted about 18 months of heavy use, then it’s replacement has barely gone over 3 months before I’m getting low heart rate readings again. I’m thinking of getting the H10 instead of wasting another $30 on a short lived strap.
Garmin user here but I replaced my old Garmin Tri HRM with a Polar H9. The fact that you can snap the pod off makes it much better longevity wise. When the strap goes south you just buy a new one (could even buy the H10 one to replace it). In my case I had to throw the Garmin when the strap went unusable.
Another advantage is that taking the pod out is a way of shutting the band off. No battery discharge that way. I always noticed my old Garmin strap (and also my new H9) to be on even when I was not using them. That happens because of weird contacts (when rolled over for example) or because they are still wet from the exercise or the rinsing in the bath. You even get random HR beats that way if you start an activity, freaky! So by taking the pod out the battery will last a year even with frequent use. Otherwise it’s usually spent after 3-4 months. YMMV.
The Polar H9 battery lasts about 9 months for me. The strap is good for a few years apparently unless you have a mishap that physically damages the wires inside like a crash or excessive bending or folding.
I have both the 9 and 10. I started with the 10 but I found I was burning thru the battery every 2 weeks or so. The reason, it kept turning itself on whether it was connected to the strap or not. I don’t know if I got a bum unit or what, but I got sick of constantly getting the low battery warning and changing it. I got another polar because I have tried both the Tickr and Garmin straps and the suck balls compared to polar.
Its the best the Joker I travel with it very assured that all the gym equipments with work with it and that a big difference between the H10 and the others,
Yes I use my H9 with gym equipment, it has the 5.5 kHz link too.
Not totally relevant but I’m still using the same old Garmin HR strap I got bundled with a 705 in Aug 2010. I’ve replaced the elastic strap a number of times and had to open and bake it out on the dash of my car once, but it keeps working reliably.
Had the Garmin HRM-Dual before. The Polar H10 is much better. Strap is so much more comfortable in my experience.
H10 owner for over 2 years. Have you needed to replace the strap at all? I’ve just replaced my one due to some drop out issues and general crazy reading within the past 2 months. I’m assuming and hoping it was just the strap getting worn out
Just had to replace mine after ~2.5 years. I noticed the very occasional weird reading while running in the last couple months which could have been the beginning of it failing. Last week it finally gave up and I kept getting sporadic readings and dropouts during a workout, even with electrode gel. Switched the sensor over to an old H1 soft strap and it worked fine. Polar told me the average life is 12-18 months for the electrodes, but of course that depends on usage.
Hi Ray, thanks for this review.
I currently use the built-in sensor of my 945 (for jogs) or a OH1+ (for tempo, intervals…).
Do you think a chest-strap would be an upgrade in the reliability of Garmin’s algorithms? I think about those based on HRV (recovery, mainly). Are they more accurate when a chest-strap is used during workouts?
A year long battery life! I wish. If only 🙄
I average 16 hours per week training and every 5 weeks or so I’m replacing the battery.
A very fair feedback on the H10, but couldn’t stop thinking of the battery life comment.
On my 3rd H10 strap, been best purchase to use across Suunto and Wahoo devices.
16 hours a week is heavy use but even so you should be able to get more life out of 1 battery. Next change try to keep the pod off the strap when off use and see if that increases the total hours.
Any thoughts on this or the hrm pro vs. the viiiiiva?
What I’d like to add to the review is that some improvements can be made to the strap. First of all the length of the strap. The M-XXL strap is more like a S-M strap. I’m of average length (1,87m) and weight (79kg) with an athletic/sprinter build and for me the M-XXL strap is (to) short. Annoyingly, that means that I have to buy an additional strap as Polar doesn’t sell the H10 with a ‘XXXL’-strap (which is obiously actually a L-XL strap). I’ve seen quite a few other people sharing the same experience about the length of the strap.
Furthermore it would be nice if the strap would be a bit more stretchable, so it’ll adjust more to the size of the chest when heavily breathing. Making the electode strips a bit less long and/or making the rest of the strap more stretchy could do the trick.
Coming from several straps that have the connection of the band on the front (wahoo) or near the front (old skool straps) I find the location of the connection of the band not very pleasant, for me it’s to far to the back.
I do love the silicon dots on the back against sliding.
Would be so great if they would improve the offline recording so that you wouldn’t need your phone to start it! I use this for speedskating.
Finally I’d love a fancy blue strap!
Color-wise there’s a choice between black, grey, orange and turqoise – but blue, nope. But what’s the point of having it in a color, any color, if I might ask? For me, the strap goes under a shirt and the color seems pretty pointless?
#1 color is fun.
#2 I have a rotation of 3 straps and I take the strap in the shower with me and give it a once-over with soap and a rinse after a workout and leave it to dry. I have 1 or 2 workouts daily. I always start with a new strap. This is for sanitary reasons.
I live in the tropics and I am prone to get fungus outbreaks and rashes. The note that Ray made that most people probably never clean their HRM straps is horrifying to me.
The colors make them easy to distinguish: grey, orange, and turquoise.
Exactly like Brian says: it’s fun and it helps distinquish your strap from the strap of your other half, in the dressing those of you friends or your own if you have multiple. Furthermore in some circumstances you won’t wear a shirt, so it’s visible and thus a bit of fashion. Or you don’t want it to shine through your shirt, so you colormatch them. (For none match my skin color)
Hello Ray, do you have any experience or thoughts on using HRMs like Polar H10 to measure HRV? It seems to be na interesting method to evaluate fatigue, but I am concerned about accuracy and reliability of such measurements.
H10and H9 actually broadcast the R-R intervals in millisecond accuracy, not just the “BPM” value.
I can’t remember the app, but here is an HRV app that talks to the H10 specifically in this mode (HRV4Training, maybe, also Kubios (started googling a little)?). (you can also record HRV/RR with a v800 watch, but that only helps those few of us that own one, LOL)
For consideration – most HR pods broadcast once-per-second and simply broadcast the HR recorded during that “frame” of time. The app receives and records this number, which is variable to it’s recording frames, and does calculations to derive HRV from x to y is z.
In addition to broadcasting standard heart rate “89, 91, 90” each second, the H10 and H9 actively broadcasts the HRV/RR that it internally calculates on millisecond accuracy internally to the receiver, so the receiver doesn’t have to “estimate” it.
The H10 (only, with suitable app/v800 watch) also broadcasts ECG data in micro-volts if the SDK enables the advanced ECG mode. (The only one of the common sports sensors that I’m aware of capable of this but I could be wrong). How is this useful? Ask a doctor, LOL, I don’t know, but it’s basically converting the sports strap into a true 2-contact ECG device.
Polar H10/H9/H7 are regularly used to measure HRV and usually regarded as the gold standard of mass market chest straps. You can count on it to be very accurate regarding HRV measurements.
What gets me about all this is Ray says wrist based HRM is poor in water, so then I’d like to use a strap for swimming maybe. However, Polar straps won’t download to my Garmin watch, so that’s useless. Then Garmin has different straps for pool and open-water and I don’t really want to buy 2 (not sure why Polar can have one that works for both).
I have a Polar OH1 that is supposed to record HR for later when attached to my goggles, but then it’s only stored in the Polar app.
It doesn’t help since Polar dropped it, but their creme-de-la-creme combo was the v800/H10 combo. You could triathlon with that combo (swim, bike, and run) uninterrupted recording, recording each phase, transition, etc… that was the last watch model they released with GymLink, and it simply works/worked perfectly. (Garmin’s “sync after the swim” option was not bad either, but also, past-tense)
I’ve kept 2 v800s and just replaced the battery on the older one (myself, not paying the $240 Polar wanted to do it!!!), because as you point out, no other brand’s combo works as reliably and accurately. Everyone (brand, not end users, LOL) wants to use watch-OHR for swimming, and it’s crap, and they don’t seem to care anymore. All Polar had to do was keep the GymLink broadcasts in their (at least top-end) devices and they’d be super-competitive, but with their poor OHR (and GPS) in swims… it’s just a mess, all the ecosystems are right now, IMO, at least for a triathlete if nothing else.
Hi Ray,
we all know that you’re Garmin Edge 530 user so I’ve question connected to Polar H10 and Garmin devices: when I’ve connnected H10 to Edge 530 I see in the workout analysis “Breathing” data. When I connect the same strap to Garmin Venu (1st gen.) watch I don’t have those data. Do you know which watches support “Breathing” data during workout when connected to chest strap?
Check if “Breathing” is an item in the comparison database, then you could look at multiple devices
link to dcrainmaker.com
A few notes to add (I haven’t read to comments, at work and all that, apologies for any repeats)…
1. Regarding leaving the sensor snapped to the strap when not in use. Many users (myself included) will find this greatly impacts battery life (not just the H10, but all “H” series pods/straps I own)… not always, but sometimes apparently the strap, through either static, or electrolytic (salt in the strap reacting with the snaps/matrix potentially) reactions, will “stay on” or “come on”… no way to really notice it if you aren’t watching 24/7 with one of their apps, but it kills the battery in weeks instead of months (still not too dramatic, but…) solution is simple, unsnap ONE side of the pod and swing clear of the strap, this leaves it “open circuit” and still keeps them together.
2. The “H9” comparison… I keep seeing this repeated in reviews, and you hit MOST but not all of the differences… and missed the key one that usually gets missed (conditionally)…
– If buying a first-time H10 or H9 “new with strap”… the Pro strap (H10)… is a $15 upgrade over the “basic” strap… 2 crucial items you didn’t mention are:
— that the Pro strap has extended contact points. Especially for larger chested people, this can be a huge factor in certain workouts like CrossFit, pushups in general, or anything where the chest is flexing away from the strap… on no-Pro straps, I often would have lift-offs that caused “dropout spikes” (0 bpm) during some motions (like planks)… not the end of the world, except instead of my “min HR” being 80bpm, it becomes 0bpm (which then skews graph scales, annoying)…
— The Pro strap in most people’s usage, lasts at LEAST 3 years before starting to get unreliable… the basic strap lasts roughly 12-18 months for most people before starting to get less reliable, thus for every Pro strap, you end up having to buy 2 “basic” straps… (or buy a Pro strap to replace the basic, which you could have had in the first place and put off the repeat purchase another year or two)….
So, for the $30-ish dollar difference between H9, and H10 (packaged with respective straps), you get – onboard storage, extra BT connection, more reliable strap connectivity (extended contacts, and you did mention the grippy dots which also do help a lot) better “future-programmable” device (RaceFox mentioned for example) that the H9 doesn’t have (I don’t typically bring up the esoteric programming differences, but the H10 as you touched on, has a full SDK around it that can extend the extra onboard features that the H9 simply doesn’t have electronically)… and most important, by year #3, you will have actually had to replace the first strap of an H9 at LEAST once, which means really the difference works out to like $15 (or if you buy the “Pro” strap to replace it, then it’s a wash, and you had to buy the replacement 1-2 years earlier than you would have with the H10).
The H10 really is a hands-down better value proposition when you put ALL the features, AND the strap replacement costs into the mix, within 3 years you’ll be out the same, or close, money anyhow, but have an inferior pod and have been missing all those capabilities and extra quality.
OH! I remember the other item… the ability to “turn off” broadcasting, in particular ANT+ and GymLink… isn’t just to be aggravating to remember to turn them on.
Technically with new health regulations, the HR straps/devices with either old-school GymLink or ANT+ are broadcasting HR which is considered “Health data”… and while I personally don’t care who records my HR, technically by law, leaving open broadcasts on by default, is putting the user at risk of “releasing health data publicly”… a violation of most countries health regulations nowadays. So that option may seem to most of us users as silly, but it has a very legal legitimate reason to be there nonetheless. Eventually I won’t be surprised if “new” models (or revamped existing models even) of other brands have the option to at least disable/turn-off the open protocols (I’m sure there is some grandfathering clauses to allow previously shipped models to continue, but I’m not a legal expert on those matters, I just work in IT and in general know that every system that has health data, has to have a way to allow users to “secure/prevent release of” that data)
@ChrisTexan, thanks for your posts. I enjoyed the added information en knowledge.
And Ray thanks for the review, forgot that in my previous post
Thanks for the review Ray! I guess if tounused it for 5 years it was a form of review in itself, but now you can check that off your to-dolist ;).
I migh have missed it, but a while back you said you had a review of several newer wrist/arm straps (such as Scosche Rhythm+ 2.0, the nw one from Myo, etc…) in the works and I would be really interested in getting a comparison. For now my Scosche Rhythm 24 is still going strong after 3 years, but I’m looking for options for when the battery life while inevitably start to decrease.
A merry Holidays to all!
Thx for another comprehensive review.
Your overall recommendation was Garmin HRM-Pro for Garmin users, and Polar for everyone else. Yet – you also describe limitations of the Polar H9/H10 for swimmers.
What would you say for a triathlete/open-water swimmer using a Coros Pace-2 watch, interested in getting more accurate HR data during swimming?
Yeah, honestly, there’s no good solution there. Basically, there’s an ANT+ standard for offloading data (in this case swim, but realistically the sport doesn’t matter) – and other platforms could leverage that. So technically COROS could do that, but I think most companies (including Polar/COROS/Suunto) kinda figure that their optical HR sensors check the swim box (despite generally be non-awesome in water) and that whomever is left isn’t worth the hassle.
I know a handful of people use an H10 (manually triggered by a phone), and then manually merge the HR file after the fact. But honestly, that seems like a mess. I wish Polar would just support it on the H10 or at least Verity Sense (as it has a darn swim mode).
Sadly, I would say to them “buy a high end Garmin tri watch”.
I came to that conclusion several years ago after spending VERY MANY hours and days looking at every weird and wonderful alternative. The conclusion won’t change unless Polar or Wahoo sort out caching.
How is the durability on the newer Polar straps? With the Garmin soft straps, I find the conductive pads peel off within a matter of months (had one replaced under warranty, then I gave up). I bought a Polar strap several years ago (which fit my Garmin pod) and the same thing happened (not as fast as with the Garmin straps, though).
Frankly, my Garmin hard strap has held up the best, been using that (now for indoor workouts) for maybe 20 years now.
Do you know if that in-built accelometer is one day planned to put in use?
There is a sdk:
link to polar.com
Race fox uses it: link to racefox.com
Sleep tracking: link to sleep.urbandroid.org
Thanks for covering HRV. Would be interesting to see Alpha 1 numbers for a workout when based on different straps (in that its a hrv based metric so the calculated value would be different if it gives different hrv numbers)
No mention of the Polar equine app? Best way to get a ekg reading from a polar strap. Guessing fda limits Polar from claiming it can do it for humans so only available on the equine app
Have you looked at the Polar Sensor Logger app?
@Eli I believe Marco Altini and others in his twitter group have produced that info.
their best solution is H10 pod, H10 strap connecting over Bluetooth. That’s probably correct IMHO
They recomend Polar because they get good data from it but haven’t really tested that many others. At least from what I’ve seen other then saying Wahoo’s is generally not good
All I can say is it’s about time. Thanks Ray! This was long overdue. I have had issues with transfer of memory data to iPhone. But after a few firmware updates it has been ok.
Used to be Polar Beat for recording workout and Flow to collate data over time. But now you can record workout on Flow app, too.
And don’t forget that swimming with H10 and the trusty old A300 watch is one of the few ways to see HR in real time. Apple Watch is ok for this too.
I will preface this with that I only use a HRM for running. I have used the H10 and the HRM Dual one after the other in the same conditions. The HRM Dual is the more comfortable option for me and it’s not even close. The H10 chafed, the HRM Dual did not.
After that I wasn’t using the H10 and my wife said she’d give it a try. She’s training for a marathon and I do most of her runs with her. We bought her the smaller pro strap as she is smaller and required it. She does not complain of chafing but the HR drops out constantly. She wets the strap before use and has it on properly.
In summary, the H10 has been garbage for me, the HRM Dual is amazing…… until it dies on you 7 months later. But hey, Garmin will just send you a new one.
Yes sometimes that’s the roll of the dice. But don’t worry, if it it’s not working properly Polar will send you another one too.
Sorry that should say HRM PRO not Dual. The HRM Pro is infinitely more comfortable than the H10.
Very happy with my Polar H10 strap. Best HRM strap for my use of CrossFit, running and on the bike. I’ve actually more than one H10. They’ve held up well. I do also own a Garmin HRM Pro, Dual and Wahoo Tickr X2. Since I use a number of different devices (watches, bike computers, etc), I like Polar H10 as my typical goto HRM strap.
Thanks for the report. A few quick questions.
Can all radios except the ANT+ be turned off?
How does the 4iiii sensor compare in accuracy (latency)? I like Garmin for running but sometimes it feels like there’s some latency, thoughts? suggestions?
Is there a best strap for HRV measurements?
Movesense Medical HR pod is certified for medical use, but is much more expensive, and the number of apps not as great as Polar H10.
Blog link link to muscleoxygentraining.com
This blog is fascinating if terse. He seems to have discovered later that ANT+ retransmission causes artifacts when doing his high data-rate precision collection at but with Bluetooth there is high agreement between the Suunto Movesense pod and the Polar H10.
You can’t really buy these Movesense pods at retail. They are available as dev kits for developing a product or apparently for medical research.
He seems to find the H10 and Movesense medical are equivalent-ish in his testing when using Bluetooth for transmission. The Movesense does not support ANT+.
Another interesting tidbit is the H10 has different sample rate for ECG mode vs RR mode. (R to R wave peak interval is HRV.)
link to muscleoxygentraining.com
– The Polar H10 with bluetooth transmission is a reliable, artifact resistant device for DFA a1 recording.
– The Movesense Medical module closely matches and agrees with the H10. It has the advantage of tracking arrhythmia and manually correcting noise artifact in Kubios.
link to muscleoxygentraining.com
– H10 in RR mode (1000 Hz)
– H10 in ECG mode (130 Hz)
– Movesense in RR mode with new firmware (125 Hz)
He also goes into some depth about why the Garmin Firstbeat running VO2max estimate is garbage. Which I love.
link to muscleoxygentraining.com
Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve seen some of that before – and it’s clearly incredibly deep and generally well done.
Except, then you get to peculiar statements like this: “So a source of error would be in the measurement of running speed (the equivalent of watts in cycling) from faulty GPS coordinates. If you can’t track your position with certainty, speed precision will suffer. Unfortunately, this is a major issue with wrist-based units and the Garmin forums are loaded with complaints of poor GPS performance.”
Umm, this isn’t 2007 anymore. And frankly, even in 2010, most GPS units were more than accurate enough distance-wise for estimated VO2Max based on that data. If we look at the VO2Max estimates in Garmin (Firstbeat), we know that it’s not really tied to a very short-term duration, but longer period of distance. So short of us trying to pull this test off in Manhatten, it’s perfectly fine.
Undoubtedly, there are limitations in GPS pace/distance in edge cases these days, but I’m pretty sure the literally hundreds of millions of people using GPS devices for pace/speed/distance in running have more than proven that in the overwhelming majority of cases it’s more than accurate – especially in this context where it was established ballpark accuracy was more than enough. If we were talking “Must be within 0.5%”, then sure, room for discussion.
Thus, the statement multiple times that GPS speed/pace/distance is entirely useless causes me to pause and wonder how many other things are connecting dots that don’t exist…just my two cents.
It’s more than just error from the GPS pace input. It’s the VO2max extrapolation algorithm itself has inherent limitations in precision that are significant. And it is worse for different pace ranges — it’s better at threshold than Z2. (You may notice that Garmin often lowers your VO2max for Z2 efforts.)
I don’t think that Garmin accurately represent the the confidence interval of the VO2Max estimate to users. From their own Firstbeat white paper you can deduce it is in the ballpark of +- 4-6 mL/kg/min depending on sources of potential added error (such as incorrect max HR) when using a HRM strap.
The difference between 46, 50, and 54 is huge (+-4). I have seen a study that show the VO2max estimate is ok on average across the study group but for individuals the deviation from measured by gas exchange can be significant.
Many people noticed that their VO2max estimate changed a lot when changing from the f5 to the f6 or when different firmware comes out. I think this is also evidence that the estimate is not comparable across device generations and even firmware revisions.
I think it is fine for what it is but I’m not sure what this very rough VO2max number can be used for. Kind of like the Running Dynamics, I this number is useful mostly for bragging over beers. I would like to be able to remove it and also the productive/unproductive/peaking/retraining assessment page from the end of workout summary.
I think a bunch of other Garmin training numbers are driven by this number which is fine but it’s all a very rough guide. A lot of people I know fixate far too much on the “Productive” or not assessment.
Definitely – there’s lots of variability there in VO2Max – and how accurate it can be. As noted, +/- 4 units is a lot, but in some ways it’s not for ballpark. If someone scores a 62, I know that even in a 58-66 range (which is vast), that they’re a more capable athlete. If someone scores a 48, then, I know very ballpark wise what they are.
I think it was kinda dumb for Garmin to put VO2Max on the MARQ bezel. But hey, that’s just me. Just as I think it’s also dumb to focus on VO2Max, since in most trained athletes, that’s basically a stable number.
But my moment of pause was that specific line-item in that post being such an odd statement to make. Neither true in real-life, or even specific to Garmin.
A phenomenon I see a lot is Joe gets and Bill do a workout together. Joe struggled a bit to keep up. At the end his f235 says 54, yay! But then Bill has his f6 that says 47. A third training partner may see 50. Hmmm.
And further Garmin labels Joe as having Superior VO2Max while Bill is Excellent or Good.
Actually those numbers are all within the same confidence interval but its not at all obvious because of the way that Garmin presents them.
Garmin doesn’t try to present the uncertainty of the numbers. Instead, it presents false precision and the Good, Excellent, Superior gauge. The entire Excellent band is within the confidence interval so it’s entirely possible to be judged Good over Superior due to the lack of precision in the algorithm.
I think that is a problem. Garmin needs a seminar with Edward Tufte and then a hard rethink on how they display information that is otherwise somewhat reasonable.
It’s a tough one because I know people want to see the tenths place on the VO2max estimate. Nobody is going to be happy to see VO2max +- 5 presented as a smear or all the other derived Firstbeat data represented with huge uncertainty. Especially when the other manufacturers don’t represent the confidence interval either.
In the current implementation VO2Max is mostly used as a way of checking if the the user is getting better or worse. Is he running with higher HR for the same GAP or lower? Based on that every run will make VO2Max go a little bit lower or higher. Very rarely will you go up or down more than 1 point because of that. Then depending if the training load is increasing or decreasing you get the status: productive, overreaching, etc.
Polar is like… eh, normal. Choosing it over maybe more detailed Garmin or more robust and battery – wise Coros. Maybe not the most feature – packed but “it just works” and now with grit x pro looks cool.
Long story short:
DFA a1 is the future
Only movesense and polar are reliable.
Buy the Polar H10 because you can run fatmaxxer with it.
out.
Buy Polar H10/H9. Over and out!
I have paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia which happens sometimes during exercise. Basically my heart rate will speedup beyond what it should be based on my activity level or lack of activity. For example, I may bend down in the shower to pick up a shampoo bottle and it will shoot up to 140 bpm. My normal resting hr is around 55 bpm. I purchased the H10 because it is supposed to be superior to Garmin’s HRM, of which I have several. In my experience, the H10 seemed to get stuck when I experienced an episode of PSVT while on my treadmill. I was using one of polars apps to record the activity and my heart rate literally flatlined until my heart was back in a normal rhythm. Is this normal or to be expected? My old Garmin strap captured in real time, with my Fenix 5 plus, my abnormal heart rate as it went from about 140 to over 200 bpm in less than a few seconds while having a pretty bad episode of psvt. Should not the H10 be able to read that great of a jump also. I want something accurate that I can keep an eye on my heart rate when I exercise so I know when to do a vagal maneuver so I can go back into sinus rhythm.
If you can try the polar equine so while you have an episode. See what your ECG looked like. Should look like: link to litfl.com
If it doesn’t the strap doesn’t have a good connection or isn’t reading right. If it does maybe the peaks in the middle makes it hard to read your heart
I always get these dips with my H10, via ANT+ and BLE. Hasn’t really bothered me so far but it messes up DFA alpha 1 threshold assessments greatly. Because of the smoothing I don’t know if these are complete drop outs or not. I get these on my phone as well as on my win 10 box and my Bolt.
Does anyone have an idea?
Did some more digging on this. I think I’ve figured out what causes these dips: electromagnetic disturbances. I do not see these dips outdoors as often as indoors. And if I see them they occur in the vicinity of power lines.
My pain cave is in the same room where the main electricity connection (or however this is called in English) is located.
What I find puzzling, these are no drop-outs but dips. And BLE and ANT+ is affected equally.
Interesting. The chest straps measures the electrical signal produced by your heart beat, so it certainly makes sense that there could be electrical interference from nearby sources. And it makes sense that BLE and ANT+ are affected the same; the interference is affecting what the strap is sensing, rather than the data connection between the strap and your device.
I wonder if the dips coincide with something turning on/off in your house. I would experiment to see if you can reliably reproduce the behavior, but it seems like you’ve done that when being near power lines.
How old is your strap? Has this happened since new? If this problem just started recently and the strap has seen a lot of use, it could be the strap is just more susceptible to interferences. Also, you could try using electrode gel to create a stronger electrical connection between the strap and your skin. A stronger signal coming from your body means less chance of the strap picking up interferences.
hi Ray,
i thinke product life of the Pro strap is 12~18 months. it depends on how often you use it. so you should change the strap once the data is unreliable.
polar used more conductive rubber in Pro strap, maybe its the reason why data stability period of Soft strap is longer than Pro.
My original H10 strap just started to act up after 2.5 yrs of pretty regular use (I’ve replaced the battery once and it’s currently “half full” to give an idea of usage). I inquired with Polar and was told the same life: 12-18 months. So I think I got pretty good life out of it and already ordered a replacement pro strap for $25USD. I confirmed the strap is faulty by putting the sensor on an old H1 soft strap I have.
Does anyone keep the H10 sensor connected to the strap all the time and notice poor battery life? I asked Polar about this and was told “Leaving the sensor attached to the strap will drain the battery and harm the device.”
Is this true?
My original H10 strap has finally failed and I’m curious if it’s the electrodes themselves or the connection between the sensor and strap. I disconnect one side of the sensor after every workout and always worried about the constant pulling on the snap button and possible damage. But I got ~2.5 years out of the strap so I suppose that’s pretty good.
With the new strap I’ll experiment with the sensor connected all the time to see what kind of battery life I get.
I think the booklet that comes with it says to disconnect the sensor when not in use and this will turn off the H10. It makes sense that disconnecting it would turn it off and that would save power.
You’re correct, the manual states “…store the strap and the connector separately to maximize the heart rate sensor battery lifetime.”
In his review, Ray said:
“The first thing you’ll want to do is pop the pod into the strap. It simply snaps in place using two little button-like thingies. This by itself does not turn the strap on or off, but rather, the strap sensing electrical activity does. Meaning, there’s no harm in leaving the pod attached to the strap permanently (as I usually do).”
It does make sense that disconnecting it would turn it off and save power. What Ray said also seems to make sense as well.
Depends on what you mean by “harm”. It definitely wastes the battery.
I suspect it also has potential for galvanic corrosion of the electrodes — depending on how voluminous and salty your sweat is that might or might not be much of a big deal. I always remove and rinse the thing because I sweat like a looney toons character.
I live in a tropical climate and Ray lives in Amsterdam. That may influence a difference in our perspectives.
Ray,
Long time Polar user and obviously H10 (and before that H9) strap user as well. I was intrigued by this quote of yours “The unit contains a CR2025 coin cell battery, which roughly has a battery life of about a year of usage” – we get no where near that length of use. Granted we are probably heavy users in the 7 – 8 hr range at a minimum per week, with longer weeks with long bike rides or xc-skiing sessions topping 20 hours. At the most we get about a month out of a battery.
Steve
I have that kind of load but I get around 9 months of battery life.
It seems we are replacing batteries about once a month or every other month. Two units being used at that level in the house – my wife and myself.
Steve, do you disconnect the sensor from the strap in between uses? This may answer my question about battery life with leaving the sensor connected all the time vs. disconnecting after each use. It’s unlikely you have two faulty units, so this has me curious.
No – we have been leaving the unit connected to the strap. Is that a suggestion to prolong battery life? If so that is easy to impalement, but units might get mixed up! – easily fixed with some colored tape! :-)
Interesting! That certainly does suggest leaving it connected does deplete battery life like Polar says in the manual. In his review, Ray says he leaves his connected all the time so I would be curious about his battery life experience.
I would definitely suggest disconnecting after each use to see if your battery life improves. When I am done with a workout I just disconnect one side of the sensor to keep the sensor attached to the strap but electrically disconnected. You could do the same to prevent mixing your units up.
You can just disconnect one side. Disconnecting turns off the unit. Otherwise if the strap is saturated with electrolyte and water (sweat) the transmitter won’t turn off until the strap dries enough to stop conducting electricity.
And rising the strap in cold water after each using (with sensor disconnected), and once a week at < 30º Celsius – 86ºF with soft liquid soap. Not using deodorant or using one that doesn't stain or leave marks, helps also in keeping it in perfect conditions for longer.
Thank you everyone for your input. So helpful!
I bought a H10 sensor less than a year ago. In this time period I trained regularly, about 5 to 8 hours a week with the strap on, and chewed though at least 4/5 batteries.
Also, in recent times I started to experience mid ride/run drops, although to be precise, they aren’t exactly drops in the sense of no HR, rather, I get readings that are way off. E.g. running a 10%+ slope, actual HR in the high 170s and the monitor shows 90 something.
It might be also due to the fact that in winter I tend to run with a belly warmer, that I “hook” to the sides of the strap to keep it from falling, but in that case I would assume the readings to be off for the whole duration of the workout, which isn’t the case.
Igor,
Do you disconnect the sensor from the strap when not in use? If not, doing so will likely improve your battery life (see the thread above started by Steve Fleck).
Regarding the poor readings, this is what I started to experience with my strap when it began to fail. At first I noticed the occasional “hang” where the reading would freeze for 30s or so, but eventually recover and work normally (not sure if this is related to the strap or my device but it was one weird behavior).
Then I started getting low readings like you describe. e.g. running at 150 bpm but the reading would slowly decrease down to 120 bpm. When that would happen I would shift the strap around on my chest and it eventually started working again. I never experienced that before, but I was getting into colder weather so thought maybe it was lack of sweat causing bad skin contact.
I picked up some electrode gel to use and that seemed to help for the next few runs. But then one day on the indoor rower I couldn’t go more than a couple minutes without it acting up, even with the gel. Swapped the H10 unit over to an old H1 strap I have and worked flawlessly. That confirmed my H10 strap had failed.
If you have good electrode contact with adequate moisture and you’re still having this issue, there’s a good chance the strap is beginning to fail. I managed 2.5 years out of my strap, but in that time probably only averaged 2 hours/week. It seems a little premature for yours, but not out of the question. Polar says 12-18 month life on the straps, but of course depends on usage.
Unfortunately straps can’t be damaged or just wear out physically. This is a big problem for the Garmin all-in-one design. It’s a feature of the modular design that you can replace the strap.
The pod itself has no moving parts and should be robust over time.
Hi jsl,
regarding disconnecting the sensor from the strap I now do, religiously. But to be honest this started recently, after some digging about the sensor’s expected battery life. Before it was a bit hit and miss. The current battery has been there for a while now, so yes, that probably played a big role.
I didn’t know the life expectancy for the strap was so low. That’s a shame to be honest, as I don’t believe these can be recycled in any manner.
I just checked a run done yesterday, I had my belly warmer secured by the back of the strap, so no way did it interfere with the reading, and you can see how it drops towards the end of the ride at 80/90BPM level, which isn’t something I would experience while running . It might well be as you suggest a matter of lubrication. It was a descent section where I was taking it easy, and the day was coldish, about 6/7°C so it’s plausible that my skin was generating much sweat.
You can make a note to be gentle with the strap. I think they have fine leads internally that are susceptible to fatigue failure and shorting. It’s not just Polar but the whole flexible ECG strap concept. Try to avoid bending the rubberized sections sharply.
The good thing about the design is that you can replace a failed strap at a relatively modest price. With the HRM-Pro, it’s a whole new strap and sensor at a premium price. That’s just frustrating.
Hi Ray
My usage for H10 is running and HIIT sessions, and it tracks my HR flawlessly even during colder months, which is the issue I had with Tickr V2. The Tickr V2 sensor doesn’t work well when it’s below 10°C and produces a flatline result when working out, and it is not a strap issue as when training indoors the Tickr performs as normal.
hi
the following refers to h10 monitors, the last 4 weeks in a row i hit 191 doing the same work out, today i used my spare h10 that i have had in the cupboard for around a year, it read max 186 but i was going harder , why such a difference / now i am going to have to go and buy 2 more and do my own expeiment.
That is about 2% error, which would appear to be within the expected range, depending upon what activity you are doing.
Check out the Polar white paper
link to polar.com
(NB: this does not appear to be peer reviewed, so the comparison potentially contains bias, however even Polar consider 4% accuracy as ‘Excellent’).
Hi,
Do the straps loose the rubber conductivity? is because of that? Because visually I can’t see any harm but my Wahoo always need a fresh strap while my Viiiva runs perfect on the old ones.
Sensor should go to sleep mode after a while without electrical signals. You can check this on the sensor settings of your device. Status goes from connected to searching, meaning the sensor is no longer radio transmitting.
But my Viiiva does consume battery out of the strap and in sleeping mode (second in a row with this problem) which makes me have to take battery out every day… real mess.
I’m getting tired of problems with HR sensor mid workout…
I was about to buy a H10 but after reading this tread I’ve just realized it the same sh…
regards,
Marcos,
I’m not sure what the mechanism of failure is of the electrodes. My guess is the repeated flexing eventually causes some damage/change in resistance which throws off readings. Or perhaps the interface between the electrode and rubber pads begin to break down/separate which causes bad connections.
I experimented a bit with my H10 and the strap to see when the unit goes into sleep mode and when it stays ON. Here were the configurations and results:
1. H10 sensor disconnected from strap = Sleep/OFF
2. H10 sensor connected to DRY strap & DRY rubber pads = Sleep/OFF
3. H10 sensor connected to DRY strap & WET rubber pads = ON
4. H10 sensor connected to WET strap & DRY rubber pads = ON
Based on this and configuration #4, I can totally see poor battery life as a result of leaving the H10 sensor attached to the strap after a workout. The unit will say ON until the fabric strap dries out completely, which could be multiple hours. Your best bet for optimal battery life is to remove the H10 from the strap in between uses. I just undo one side of the sensor so it stays attached to the strap, but electrically disconnected.
Personally I have been very happy with the H10 and would recommend it to anyone. It has worked flawlessly for me up until a few weeks ago when I was getting bad/inconsistent readings, which I determined was a result of the strap failing after 2.5 years (2-3 hr/week avg use).
Follow up: 3 hours later and configuration #4 is still activating the sensor. The strap has been sitting in a warm house and feels ever so slightly damp.
Anyone have experience with the H10 not working properly after a battery change? I ask because I’ve had this HRM since April 2021 and it is no longer working properly. For about the first 15-20 minutes of a ride it works fine but then the readings start to drop dramatically until the signal drops off completely.
Is this a maintenance problem on my end or do this things just not have a long shelf life? I ask because I have a handful of dead sensors here at home that all seem to stop working properly not long after I changed the batteries in them.
There’s one big thing missing in this review. It literally takes me from 30 minutes to an hour to pair it with Polar beat, and pairing it with flow does not work 9 out of 10 times. No matter how hard or how many times you moisturize the electrodes or wether you use the latest firmware or not, making a successful connection with the device basically comes down to luck. The fact that you need to struggle with the app for as much as an hour makes this device a paper weight. Who wants to spend that amount of time tinkering with the device when you had your workout planned out? (2022 batch)
Yeah, something is clearly wrong with either your app, phone, or unit. I’ve never heard of that issue before.
My question is does it last? I am on my 3rd tickr this year. They go bad or whatever after a few months. Also can I use this with my Garmin 945
They tend to last pretty long.
And yes, you can use it with your FR945.
Cool this is where it all started with Polar, heart rate straps. I recall the flexible plastic straps with the Polar ProTrainer XT.
I love my Polar Vantage M muti-sport watch, but switched to a 4iiii Viiiiva Heart rate monitor for the CR2032 battery requirement. Otherwise I would have opted for the Polar without any doubt.
Cool that you also keep on reviewing the essentials Ray !
// Remo
I need a new Polar chest strap HR Monitor, and plan on buying the H10.
But at this time 02/20/2022, I went to Walmarts online store and typed in Polar H10.
What struck me was a “New” H10 for $155.00
No details, no Polar ID number, no comparison over the other H10 models. Nothing on the Polar site either.
Here it is:
link to walmart.com
Are you aware of this?
Robert K
I think what they mean as “new” is that it is a new unopened item. As opposed to a refurb, or used one.
It isn’t a new model.
Hey Ray!
Have you every delved into HRV heart rate variability as a useful training metric?
thanks
Alan
Yes, I’ve poked at it a fair bit.
In genera, while I think it’s an interesting component to consider, I think far too many people/platforms put too much emphasis on it, from a singularity standpoint. Some say “trust everything in just your HRV number, it tells all”, but even the minute to minute variability of that, as well as the lack of context in why a number might go up or down is often lost in these discussions.
Further, HRV was never intended to predict sports recovery levels. It started as a way to determine whether or not someone was likely to die in an ER. That’s it. Yes, there are aspects of it that do carry through to sports – but it’s not the end-all-be-all that some want it to be.
And I think we’re starting to see more and more people in sports science actually realizing that, especially in the last 6-8 months. It’s a number to consider, but nobody should be training purely by it. They should be taking all inputs and be willing to say “Either that number is incorrect today, or, simply not representing reality”- else, most people would never train or race if we just trained by HRV values.
What about DFA alpha1 to estimate lactate turnpoint 1 (aka aerobic threshold, aka zone 2) and VO2Max? HR at alpha1 0.75 is predicted LT1 and 0.5 as VT2 (aka VT2, aka lactate threshold).
I note these algorithms require very good HRV data from a very good ECG HRM. The difference in dropped packets from ANT+ vs Bluetooth introduce enough noise to break the algorithm.
This seems to have the potential to actually do with high confidence what the Firstbeat algorithms pretend to do. There are caveats:
There is no chance an optical HRM can capture an ECG trace than can be used to derive DFA a1.
It seems like only Polar H10 and the Movesense (spun out of Suunto) Medical sensors have a reasonable hope of achieving the necessary data quality outside of a clinical ECF machine. And the HRV logging feature in Garmin devices needs to be enabled or a separate recording device/app used.
The best software is still mostly unapproachable: Kubios.
Thanks for a most informative article. I use the H10 with an M460 bike computer. I only get 2 months battery life before the M460 tells me the battery is low. I am wondering if the M460 is the issue as I dont get the battery warning from the Beat app on my phone. Any thoughts?
Further to my previous post, Polar support advised that battery life of H10 should be 400 hours. They said to separate the strap from the fob after finishing workout. This will extend battery life.
Grant,
If you weren’t separating the sensor from the strap before, doing so will definitely improve your battery life. If you scroll up in the comments you’ll see a little experiment I did where I looked at how long the sensor stayed active as the strap dried out (the sensor won’t shut off until the strap/electrodes are dry). I was still getting an active sensor 3+ hours after initially wetting the strap. I stopped monitoring after that. If the strap is sitting in a cold garage or gym bag where it would take even longer to dry out, then no doubt the battery life would be horrible. I separate the sensor each time (just undo one button so you don’t lose the sensor) and would guess the 400 hours is accurate. I’ve had my H10 for 3 years and replaced the battery twice.
Great review. I still have a question about using the Polar H10 without your phone. If you pair it with the Apple watch that has mobile connectivity and go for a run, will it sync all your positional data too?
My H10 worked flawlessly for about 18 months until it started showing significantly inaccurate data (mostly low drops, but sometimes high spikes; never lost connection w/watch). So I replaced the original strap with the same Pro strap and the problem was resolved…for a couple weeks. Unfortunately my second strap began showing those same inaccuracies after only about four months usage (running only; ~500 miles). This happens whether paired to my Garmin FR245 and/or my treadmill, and connected via both the BLE and/or ANT+ options. I’ve also tried conductive gel with no improvement. That said, is there any reliable way to “test” whether the problem in fact lies within the strap or the H10 module itself? I’ve seen videos using a multi-meter to test the strap, but it’s difficult to know how to replicate how/why the strap would malfunction mid-activity while still at home. It certainly seems like it’s a strap malfunction to me, but four months on my second one just doesn’t make sense even on the low-end of the reliability spectrum.
Unfortunately I would say the only way would be to try another strap since, like you say, trying to replicate the problem while using a multimeter would be difficult. If there is a bad connection inside the strap that is temperature, moisture, or position (strap flexing/bending) dependent, then it is going to be tough to troubleshoot.
It took me months to figure out my strap was bad because the issue was so intermittent, but then one day it gave out completely. Fortunately I had an old H1 strap to confirm it was indeed the H10 strap that was bad.
It’s completely possible you just got a defective strap. I would get in touch with Polar support and let them know what is going on. It certainly sounds like it’s the strap to me since you were able to resolve the original issue and run without problems for 4 months.
I’ve been getting a lot of ads for the Frontier X2
( link to fourthfrontier.com )
Anyone have any experience with this company/product. Seems like a polar h10 with whoop / oura ring like features.
I just ordered the Fourthfrontier and will let you know what I think in a few days.
Another good and thorough and very helpful review as always.
I bought this and it is probably the best HR strap I have ever owned, very accurate (comparing it to an optical HR armband) and stable logging, no spikes or dropouts. Real nice device and super-comfortable.
The only negative I can say about this review is that now every time I put the H10 on, I have an indelible mental image of DC Rainmaker licking the sensor section on his H10… ;)
link to youtube.com
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. May i know if the Polar H10 is compatible with Garmin Fenix 7x where it can push the heart rate data to the watch during activity or swimming (after surfacing). thank you
Has anyone had issues with the H10 and Duracell batteries with the bitter coating? I’ve gone through two batteries which started >3.3V and discharged to 2.78V in days.
TLDR version is bitter batteries dork up sensors.
Quarq actually did a thing on it a few years ago: link to dcrainmaker.com
I suspect the Polar H10 doesn’t like my sweat. I replaced three Polar Pro straps in less than a year, always because of the same issue: strange hr dropouts after the first 20-30 minutes of every run. I rinse the strap every time I use it, clearly it’s not enough to prevent electrodes oxidation. Do you wash the strap regularly after use, or just every now and then?
I am waiting for a new strap, maybe this time I will wash it in the shower after every use.
Can one buy a replacement battery cover for the Polar H10 transmitter? I cannot find one on-line.
Just a heads up. Polar are sending out some H10s with H9 firmware – so they look like H10s but work like H9s, if anyone is having any difficulty with their H10 working properly. It will appear as an H9 in bluetooth.
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has anyone managed to make the comparin with edge 520plus?
Yes, pairs just like any other device and works great. Have been using it for months on the 520 Plus.
I’ve downloaded Polar Beat (vers.3.5.5), but doesn’t solve problem. I can sync the HR10 with my Samsung A33, but not with my Garmin 520 plus. How did you do ?
Thank you!
Make sure the sensor pod on the H10 is snapped into the chest strap part, moisture the sensor erea of the strap, put the strap on your chest.
On the Edge go to MENU, SETTINGS, SENSORS, ADD SENSOR, HEART RATE. After a few seconds it should find it. Click upper right button to add it. Now it should automatically connect whenever you are using your Edge and the H10.
Thank you for another helpful review. I am on my third Wahoo strap, which has proven as unreliable as the previous two. Why persist with a third you may ask. The third was a warranty replacement but is as hopeless as the second.
I am using it with a Karoo 2, with readings that shows HR of 170 bpm when experience tells me HR is about 130. I am slightly paranoid as I have SVT that kicks in every few months, sometimes while riding, sometimes while doing nothing.
So I will complain again to Wahoo and expect nothing useful.
It seems Polar is worth a go, based on your review.
Many thanks.
Peter James-Martin
Hazelwood Park
South Australia
+61 417 387 773
Hello everyone. Can you tell me which edge garmin connects bluetooth with the polar h10? 520plus no (my Edge) .
530 ? 820? 830?
The 520 Plus connects to the H10 just fine. Been using it for quite some time now. The H10 should connect to anything with ANT+ or Bluetooth.
Here is the definitive reference for what connects to what – link to thisisant.com
As you can see it shows it shows that it is compatible, and it works fine with my 520 Plus.
It’s not true. The Edge 520 plus does not connect with bluetooth (BLE).
link to garmin.com
As you can see it shows that it is compatible only 830.
I want to know if someone tried to do pairing BLE with 830 and it works.
Thanks
link to garmin.com
link to garmin.com
As you can see shows is compatible BLE (polar H10) only 530 and 830.
I’ve used it with a 530/830, however, the Polar H10 is both ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart compatible (simple firmware update if you have a much older H10). So you can use it either way. And in fact, you can use it with the Edge 520 (or any other Garmin ever made), via the ANT+ method.
I suppose it is a language barrier but I didn’t say that the 520 Plus connects via Bluetooth but it does work with the Polar H10 just fine using ANT+, just as I said. It connects to it just fine, and I have been using the H10 for a year now with the Edge 520 Plus.
The H10 has both Bluetooth and ANT+ so it works fine with most any of the Edge models, even if they just have ANT+.
OK. Many thanks.
I had the Polar H10 for 12 months, I run 4 times a week. I always followed all the care instructions given by Polar.
The first strap lasted three months before going crazy with incorrect readings. Polar replaced the strap keeping the sensor, the new one lasted just two months. This time they replaced the whole product, less than two months and again the same issues. Polar replaced the strap, it lasted 6 weeks before the hr dropouts appeared again.
Summary: I had four Polar Pro straps in 12 months, they never lasted more than three months in the best case.
How this is possible?
I just got my first polar H10 and downloaded the Polar flow app to apply firmware update.
It took me a while to find out where to pair it with my iphone. It’s not explained in the instructions and the app’s front page (diary) ‘s cog icon in the top right doesn’t allow you to pair. You need to go to the Start page and then click the cog icon in the lower left.
So far, it feels very comfy.
Hello! I’ve seen countless reviews, comparison videos, and reddit posts this past week about sports watches and chest straps (I’ve really enjoyed you being so thorough!). I finally decided on the Garmin FR955 and I’m still undecided on the chest strap. I’m not really interested in the power dynamics since running isn’t my main sports, but CrossFit (which is why I need the chest strap, since most workouts would require me to remove the watch). Now, I’ve seen people mention the Polar H10 can record 1 workout but I’ve also seen that it doesn’t support offloading to watches? I like the fact that the H10 is cheaper and the strap is replaceable, and since the running dynamics isn’t a plus for me, is there any reason why I should get the Garmin Pro Plus over the H10?
The Garmin Pro Plus can also act as a footpod which would improve accuracy for a treadmill and possibly improve accuracy/responsiveness over short distances for current pace — kind of like Stryd’s ability to stabilize current pace but I doubt it works quite as well. I have not seen anyone extensively test this feature.
I personally use an H10 and find it the gold standard for reliable HRM. But it is hard to also recommend someone cough up for a Stryd (if you don’t already have one) if that current pace / treadmill accuracy is important to you.
Thank you for your response Brian. The thing is I don’t use a treadmill and the increased accuracy for that is useless for me. I am basically only torn because I need the capability of training without my Garmin watch on, and I’m not sure if using the Polar H10 without my watch will record all of the metrics during my workout and then offload them to the watch or Garmin Connect app. I know the Garmin Pro strap works, but I’m trying to figure out if the H10 can be used just as well with a Garmin watch for a lower price and (seemingly) more long-term use design.
I have not tried using the storage feature but it exists in the H10. You can use the Polar Beat app to download the data after you are done.
link to youtu.be
Everything I have seen says that the Polar H10 is also the most accurate commercial HRM you can buy through a normal channel. If you just want reliable and accurate HRM, the H10 is the gold standard. The Movesense Medical might be a bit better at twice the price. FWIW, I have also read that the connecting to Garming by BLE is more accurate than Ant+ because of the data rate and dropped frames with ANT+. This probably only matters if you are analyzing HRV during dynamic exercise such as for DFA alpha1 .
What the H10 does not do is store and forward swim HRM with a Garmin watch the way that a Garmin HRM-Tri or HRM Pro does. (Although I think it does do this with Polar watches.) It can capture the data from a swim but it would then be in the Polar ecosystem and not automatically in your FIT file in Garmin Connect.
Yeah, the thing is that I don’t want to use the Polar apps. If what you say about BLE being better than ANT+ is true, then it comes down to the range of the BLE connection between the strap and the watch. If it’s only 3-10m, then I can probably make it work but it may be a bit of a hassle ensuring I always stay in range when I’m working out at the gym (I don’t really swim). If the range is like 20-30m then it’s perfect and I can use the H10. Otherwise, I pretty much *require* the Garmin Pro strap so that if I go out of range, the data isn’t lost and it can sync with my watch after I’m done working out and put it back on.
Yeah, ultimately, the choice is honestly pretty straightforward here:
A) If you have a Garmin watch, as you do with the FR955, you should buy the HRM-PRO Plus. The integration level of the HRM-PRO Plus simply doesn’t exist on the Polar H10. While the Polar H10 can store data on it, it can only offload that data to the Polar app, and in that scenario, it won’t be part of your Garmin workout file. There’s no reasonable workarounds to this. Polar could support it, but they choose not too (the standard is open, so this one is in Polar’s camp). I can say, pretty unequivally, that the Polar app offloading of workout files from the H10 is one of Polar’s worst designed features. I can’t think of a worse way to do it. The Polar H10 strap may be awesome, and I may use it a lot, but I wouldn’t wish upon even my worst enemy having to use the app offload feature from the H10 (mainly because of how miserable it is to start, which requires the phone app every single time).
B) I don’t see any meaningful difference in accuracy between the Polar H10 and the Garmin HRM-PRO Plus series. Nor have I seen any reviewer that’s showing any meaningful difference in regular HR workout accuracy (or, any standby type HR either).
Again, I’d love to be able to recommend the Polar H10 for Garmin users, but the simple reality is that if you plan to do any data offload type stuff (swim, soccer/football/etc…), or, any Running Dynamics stuff, or XC ski stuff, or treadmill running, or whatever Garmin decides to add next, all of that requires a Garmin strap. If however, you don’t need/want any of that, then the H10 is where it’s add for slightly cheaper.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed. I guess I knew it all along but was trying to give the H10 the benefit of the doubt haha. I will definitely get the Garmin strap. I just hope it is very durable so that I can just replace the battery instead of the hole thing for a few years.
Has anyone used the ECG apps to see the actual ECG?
Does anyone know the size of the snaps?
Is there a way to use 3m ecg dots instead of the strap?
Alan
My H10 no longer stay connected to my phone. Have tried with android and iPhone. I use the polar flow app and it says monitor is connected but doesn’t show a heart rate. Many times it says device has disconnected. Piece of junk. Same issue with Verity sense. I contacted polar and their response was automated and said I should send device in. A two second google search shows I am not alone. Disappointing.
This is my second Polar H10m, both don’t connect to winter wear. I threw away the first one because it turned out to be full of water after swimming.
My old Garmin had no problem with winter clothing with some layer, but the Polars won’t connect. When I open my jacket and pull up my shirt, it connects, but loses it when I put everything back on.
I have reported this to Polar and they will look into this
One thing I never see in the heart strap reviews is the issue of reliability v accuracy.
I’ve had a Bontrager strap, 3 Wahoo Tickrs and 2 Polar H10s over 3 years. All work for a few months and then become unreliable. Accuracy is great when they work, but accuracy is not helpful if there are regular dropouts where I’m getting nonsensical data for as much as half the ride.
I’m fairly certain its the straps as the only time I replaced just the unit and not the strap, the problems started immediately rather than the usual 3 to 4 months. I live in the tropics so my straps are literally saturated wet with sweat after rides 4 to 5 times per week. After every ride they are always rinsed, dried and stored separately. I’ve never seen any sign of corrosion or ingress into the unit. However, they can be left a few hours before I get home to do the cleaning.
I saw a note from Polar somewhere in DCRainmaker comments that the straps are consumable and the electrical sensitivity of the pickup area eventually deteriorates due to the sweat. This may not be visible. Perhaps, in the constant sweaty conditions that I ride, this happens much quicker than in cooler less sweaty climates. It would be great to get further input on this if anyone knows more.
I guess I could just keep replacing the straps, but the originals can be expensive compared to the whole setup. I could get a box full of cheap generic ones which would work with the Wahoo Tickrs. Unfortunately they don’t seem to fit the Polar H10 and original Polar straps are more than the price of a Tickr with strap here in South East Asia, so its not really economical.
Anyway, I’m considering an optical sensor next. I understand it might be less accurate, but would it be more reliable over the long term? At least I might get useable data to track things like HR Zones and HR Decoupling on my longer Z2 rides.
Any thoughts or further information greatly appreciated.
I’m sorry you are having a bad experience with chest straps. It is very frustrating when your sensors or workout gear are unreliable.
I was living in the tropics for the last 12 years, so I also understand those conditions.
The Polar Pro straps should not be becoming unreliable after a few months. They should last a couple of years. I actually have multiple straps and after I use them, I remove the H10 transmitter and take the strap into the shower with me. I give it a once-over with some soap and rinse it thoroughly. I understand that instructions are something like rinse it once a week but I think that is nonsense. I am a voluminous sweater and have a tendency to skin outbreaks. I wash them every day and use a different one for the next workout so that stuff does not grow on there.
I have had one fail and the symptom was irregular heart rate like going up to 180 while jogging slowly and then going back. This happened after the strap got a good whack in a tumble during a trial run and I tossed the strap.
But otherwise, they should be good for a long while.
Note that the H10 will immediately shut itself off when disconnected from a strap. Otherwise, it doesn’t shut off until electricity stops flowing through the contacts which probably means when the strap dries out.
Thanks Brian
Interesting to know that yours are lasting for years in similar conditions. At least it helps me rule out some possibilities.
Polar are suggesting putting the strap in the washing machine on a regular basis as sweat and gel can still build up on the contacts. Nothing visible there, but I will definitely be giving it a try.
Agreed on keeping the transmitter and strap separate. Have always done this to avoid battery drain.
BTW, added a screenshot of my last workout. I rarely get spikes, just reading too low or dropping out completely
Cheers Peter
I agree that doesn’t look right. If the leads in the strap are corroded internally, no amount of washing now will correct it, unfortunately.
I know several people who had problems with Garmin strap reliability that have had success with H10.
Sounds like you might want to try one of the old Garmin straps if you can find one. The electronic/sensor package is completely integrated plastic. The elastic part is there only to hold the strap on your chest and has no sensors. I’ve had 3 over the years, and they all lasted at least 10 years. (I live at mid latitudes, not the tropics, though.) I’m using an HRM Pro now (we’ll see how long that lasts), but the plastic ones rarely fail and are easier to deal with. All the old style ones do is HR over ANT+, though, nothing fancier.
As for optical, Scosche recently had a sale on its Rhythm+ 2.0, and it looks like it still on (it chased me around the Internet for weeks). I use my Rhythm24 for cross country skiing and occasionally when I forget to put my HR strap on when cycling (very easy just to grab it and slip it on my arm rather than removing clothing to get the chest strap on). It seems accurate enough, and the few times I did a direct comparison with a chest strap it was very close. This site has lots of comparisons you can look at in Ray’s various reviews of HR things.
Ironically I have found the HRM-Pro Plus to be flaky and dropping out with my watch. I think it is a software problem with the fancy stuff that isn’t strictly about HR. Hopefully watch and/or HRM-Pro Plus firmware update will fix it.
H10 is completely reliable for me, but it doesn’t offer running dynamics or pace/distance features.
FWIW, my routine with my Polar strap is to wash it with dish soap and water once a week at least. I have worn it into the shower a few times too. Anyway, I always press dry in a towel and then put it on a dehumidifier that I have going pretty much 24/7/365 in my house (it is humid where we live). Oh, and I always take the transmitter off the strap as soon as I am finished working out – save the battery and leaves the connectors open to the air to dry. When I don’t wash it, I still usually hang it on the dehumidifier to dry quickly. Seems to work as I get an average of about 2-3 years out of a strap that I wear twice daily every single f*ing day.
Big issue with my H10, it’s draining the battery after few days. very bad.
If that’s the case, I’d try changing the battery in case there’s just something amiss in that specific battery, else, contacting Polar to swap it out, as it’s likely simply a bad unit – either pod or strap portion.
I had the same issue and Polar did a swap out after checking I wasn’t leaving the sensor on the strap, etc, etc. A quick Google search and it appears to be a known issue. Sadly the new unit still has frequent dropouts and nonsensical readings, but to be fair so did my Wahoo and Bontrager units after a few months. Looks like I’m the common factor 🤣
trie with multiple batteries, looks like the pod is faulty…. Polar is not responding to my requests :(
Polar also didn’t initially respond to my emails and I had to phone them. Even then I got bounced around alot and it took about 8 to 10 days of chasing to get a proper response. To be fair, they did then courier a replacement unit very quickly and without argument.
If I continue to get issues I will probably go back to Wahoo. I’ve had similar issues with various units, but the support from Wahoo has been by far the best.
Best of luck chasing Polar!
Great review! Any compatibility issues with the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt?
The Polar H10 is absolute garbage. My first unit failed it would stay connected but stop reading a heart rate. My replacement unit failed with the same issue. I wash it after every ride and changed the battery both times. Cheap ones on Amazon are far more reliable. I hope I can get my money back.
I’ve had my H10 for over 6 years now with no issues.
I have mine for at least 5 years and no problems.
Anfang April 23 gab es ein Firmware Update für den Polar H10 Brustgurt. Verbessert wurden die Blutooth-Verbindung. Dadurch wurde auch die Verbindung zwischen mySASY und H10 störungsfrei
on my 3rd warranty claim for an H10 in a year, 1st was a delaminated strap, then a sensor replaced with moisture damage listed as the cause of failure. Waiting to see what Polar says the problem is with the current sensor and/or strap. Each one started giving erratic readings followed by prolific battery drain due to the unit not shutting off despite being disconnected from the strap.
Hi there,
I’ve an older, but still great indoor bike ICG IC5, it connects with analog heart rate 5.5 kHz (the new version bike connects with Bluetooth an ANT). Does anyone knows, will it work with a H9, it says 5kHz? Is that the same?
I’ve been using the H10 for a few months and I don’t think the strap is going to last for a whole year—even the larger size was already too small for my chest and, frankly, I cannot understand why Polar has three strap sizes, but only sells the smaller straps bundled with the device. Also, the adjustment ranges of these straps seem utterly perplexing: the smallest strap has a range of 7″, the medium 13″, and the large 17″. For example, had they picked a range of 10″ for the small strap (i.e. 20-29″) and 18″ for the large one (29-46″), they could have omitted the medium size completely. I just find this a bit irksome, because I don’t think I’m that much of an outlier in terms of chest size.
The other thing I don’t understand (although, if I had a better fitting strap, this might be less of an issue) is, why does the strap have to be so awkward to put on/take off? I feel like I’m putting on a dress every time, because the only way I can put it on without stretching out the strap is by stepping into it (i.e. pulling it up, like a pair of pants—except, way up, so more like a dress). I’ve tried to put it on like a shirt (slip it over my head), but it’s very clearly at its limit of elasticity, and I want to get at least some utility out of the original strap (like I said, it’s already showing sings that it has exceeded its maximum elasticity—the elastic band is no longer uniform in shape, i.e. sections have become distended and won’t return to their original shape).
Other than that, the H10 itself has been performing flawlessly.
There should be a release clip at the end of the adjustable section, push down on the Polar logo on the rectangular black plastic bit and it separates to take it off and on.
I’ve found the H10 to be unreliable when it is connected to BLE and ANT+ devices at the same time.
Initially, it seems to be working fine but as intensity (heart rate) rises)the transmitted heart rate falls. It works fine when connected to two BLE devices. In my case a Polar Vantage V and a Hammerhead Karoo 2. I recently bought a CORETemp sensor and when it is paired via ANT+, the system works fine at heart rates up to about 110-120 but above that recorded heart rate drops.
I’d seen this previously when I first got an ANT+ power meter and contacted Polar who eventually said they passed the issue to the technical team and I heard nothing. I speculate that it is a power issue. I ended up buying a Northpole CABLE to bridge ANT+ to BLE and also got around the hassle of merging two data streams to get power into Polar Flow.
I bought the H10 in February, however I just went through my third battery, so I’m only getting 2-3 months per battery, not something that I can live with. Yes, I detach the sensor from the strap after every ride. Yes, I use a name brand battery. I’m going back to Garmin or Wahoo, bye, bye Polar.
Fed up with TICKR issues and random disconnects (my original TICKR X was the best one I think, which got replaced multiple times and was out of warranty at one point, now I have a TICKR v2) resulting in rides with no HR data. Weekend’s half-a-HR ride was the last straw and finally made the plunge to an H10 with the grey strap. Looks nifty (technical term). Surprised the BT device info/profile is pretty weak (my Garmin will just say H10 and that’s it… and also shows up as the MAC address and not a “named” device) but hoping it’ll have stable connections and longer battery life which is more important.
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Long time reader maybe 2nd time poster.. When my Tickr strap broke i went with the polar H10 based on this and other reviews. I have not been happy with it at all. The strap is uncomfortable, the battery life is poor even with disconnecting the sensor from the strap after every use, and the worst part is reliability. I’ve had connection issues over bluetooth, and data drop outs in both ANT+ and Bluetooth. I’ve tried wearing the strap in several different positions and orientations but nothing seems to work consistently. i’m fed up with it and just needed to get it off my chest :D. I think i’m going to try a Garmin strap
My h10 drops out every single km on my Garmin 245. Then reconnects until the next km chime.
Anyone have the same issue?
I’ve been happily using H10 band for months (with my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro) but just been unhappy about having to change its battery every other week or every 3 weeks. I have a 5-7 hours volume of training per week, not super active like some other people. After having read majority of the comments, learned that trying to disconnect the sensor and the band may help some, but I’d like to know which brand and model of CR2025 batteries do you guys use and be happy with its lifespan?
That is not normal battery consumption. I use an H10 with about 10 hours a week. I last changed the battery months ago — long enough that I can’t remember exactly.
I am currently using “Amazon Basics 12-Pack CR2025 Lithium Coin Cell Battery, 3 Volt, Long Lasting Power, Mercury-Free”. I just checked and I purchased a 12-pack a year ago this week. I am on the 2nd cell.
I have also had good luck with Varta CR2025 purchased from a random pharmacy in Zimbabwe.
I have had less good results from Energizer and Duracell in my experience. I have also heard that any batteries with a bitter safety coating have poor life.
I decided to go for the cheap Amazon batteries because the name brand ones from my local hardware store or pharmacy were not lasting very long and if I recall the 12-pack from Amazon was was in the same ballpark as a single from the pharmacy. But it turns out that the cheap Amazon brand ones are much better.
you absolutely should disconnect one of the leads from the strap when done. my battery can last a year even if I use it an hour a day. any name brand maxell or duracell battery would be fine. I have also had good results with Amazon basics in this and other items that take these batteries.
You’re not the first to have this problem. My H10 was fine for 7 or 8 months, but started going through batteries in 3 to 5 days after the first battery change. It seems it wasn’t turning itself off after being disconnected from the strap, even though it was carefully dried and stored. I raised a ticket with Polar and they sent me a replacement. One forum suggested that it could be humidity getting into the unit when the battery was changed. I live in the tropics so now only change battery in a room that has been dehumidified by a few hours of air-conditioning. Not sure if that was the real cause, but trying to eliminate the possibilitied.
I’m suffering really poor battery life with my H10 now. The unit is always disconnected from the strap after use. I’m using it for roughly 20 hours per week.
Had this issue in the past and sent back to Polar who diagnosed I’d not been looking after the strap well enough.
And fair enough the battery life improved with a new strap, which I took more care of but recently battery life was dropping to say 3 weeks.
Bought a new strap in case this was the issue again and with a brand new duracell coin cell this has lasted a whole 2 weeks before my Garmin started giving low battery warnings. In the past I’ve had perhaps 1 ride before the sensor stopped working so these aren’t false warnings.
Will contact Polar to see what they say, I like the design of the H10 and ease of battery changes compared to the Garmin HRM-Dual but as someone pointed out in an earlier post the screws holding the case together are very fiddly and I’ve found the screw posts break with time and you end up having to take the sensor up to hold it together
I owned 3 H10s which all suffered from this battery drain issue. Disconnecting it from the strap doesn’t work (and more importantly… if built correctly, this shouldn’t be a requirement to begin with).
H10 started well, but one year on it has become totally unreliable. It will suddenly start reading 20-30 beats below what I know I am doing. Battery change sometimes improves it even thought the app says the battery is still full. Going through a battery every few weeks. Needless to say I am very careful looking after it – rinsing according to instructions and removing from the strap.
Very disappointed in the durability and reliability of the H10.
I wish my H10 worked flawlessly, but it drains batteries very fast. I’ve had mine since July and I’m now onto my 4th battery, and I do disconnect it from the strap after every use! I’ve got an old Garmin strap from years ago and it works without fault. So much for modern tech!
This has happened to me as well. There is a way to reset it. It might help. Otherwise you should insist that Polar replace your unit.
link to support.polar.com
Open up the battery compartment.
Take the battery out
Press the metal snaps that attach the H10 to the strap with your fingers for 10s. then wait 30s to replace the battery.
It is still the most accurate way to monitor HR. I wish they still had a wrist receiver that accepted the 5Khz gym link signal to see real time HR while swimming. Although I think my Apple watch does a reasonable job even in the water. And I can challenge myself to exercise to a HR target.
Thanks I’ll give it a go! But what concerns me is the original battery died quickly. It’s very strange how some people have a flawless monitor, while others have this battery draining problem. The battery draining seems to be a common problem as there’s is loads of comments on the internet!
Just an update, after a long drawn out trouble shooting process with customer services (UK), it took weeks! They have sent me a replacement, so hopefully this will last longer in the battery department.
The original is still eating batteries. I replaced the battery (Duracell) again, February 7th 2024, and today it’s lost 10%. I do remove it from the strap and check via the Polar Flow app that it’s not transmitting.
Polar told me “When it’s time to change the battery, our recommendation is to use Panasonic or Maxell batteries – only CR2025 is allowed. We have found out, that at least those have good mechanical and operational quality, when used with Polar H10. It might be good to check the ‘Use by’ date of the batteries when purchased.”
Same issue mine eats batteries for breakfast.
I wear it for 2 hours a day and I am now getting under a week on a battery. Last battery change must have been 10h of riding before I got the alert on my garmin edge.
I take it off the strap when not in use and I have started checking via a bluetooth scan that it has switched off.
Have just written to Polar. I bought it in Jan 2023 and its easily on its 10th battery. Never had this with Garmin sensors they last years at a time.
My question is – if not this sensor – then which one to trust for accuracy, ease of use and ? Garmin HRM Pro ? Which ones are dual bluetooth, what I like with the h10 is I never have any connection issues when swapping around across apps and devices , my other sensors I always had to figure out which device I need to disconnect before I can start my session.
Had the Polar 10 for 18 months and the strap broke. The part that snapped in completely came apart. Only use it three days per week. Filed a warranty claim and they denied saying “wear and tear”. Since when do you produce a product with a life span of less than 24 months?
I train using a TacX Flux S Smart Trainer and TacX Training Software and am missing HR data because Apple Watch doesn’t play nicely. Does anyone know if you can use a Polar H9 or H10 with a Mac or iPad without a ANT+ adapter just over bluetooth and have it bring in HR data to TacX Trainer App while using that Smart Trainer? Would it go over bluetooth without problems or would it have to be ANT+ connection and therefore need a dongle?
Yes, both the Polar H9 & H10 support standard Bluetooth Smart, which you can easily pull in on your Mac or iPad (no dongle or such required).
Enjoy!
Thanks! In reading your reviews you seem to recommend the polar ones for most people that are not Garmin device owners. At the moment, The Garmin HRM is the lowest cost option of the bunch on Amazon. Polar reviews seem to be very negative about battery drain so I lean to the Garmin but I understand the garmin hrm dual doesn’t connect directly to an iPhone app so I feel like I wouldn’t have a way to do firmware updates or anything. Would you spend more and get polar or less and get hrm dual and it will just be fine?
Actually, the Garmin HRM-DUAL will connect to an iPhone app (the dual name comes from dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart).
Also the HRM-Pro and Pro+. I’ve used both with Zwift on a iPad and MacBook Air, and both are connected to my iPhone and AW Ultra. They’re also paired with various Garmin devices via ANT+.
1.The straps wears out. You keep your snap on HR monitor module and buy a replacement strap when you start to get dropouts that are not battery related. Not sure what DCRAINMAKER’s experience is with this. My first belt failed at about 1000 hours.
2.Polar H10 strap, call PRO strap, is (according to Polar doc) more sensitive than the H9 strap. But H10 strap/pro strap is completely compatible with the H9, so H9 users should get the upgrade strap for better sensitivity when the original H9 strap starts to drop out.
3.ROWING/ERGING is tougher on wrist based optical than cycling or running. If you want to see drops on a watch’s HR sensor find someone who ergs and have them do short intervals — the watch will flatline over them.
If I pair the H10 with my Garmin Epix 2, do they synchronize after a swim, so I can have my heart rate while I was swimming? Or is it only done via polar app? (And if so, all the other swim data is shown at the app?)
I would love to know which is the most accurate calorie burn algorithm between the polar h10 and the garmin instinct 2x did a 60 minute hiit workout with both my average heart rate was 148 but my polar h10 says I burned 862 calories and my garmin watch said I burned 720 total and only 658 Active calories .