Bike reviews

Polar F4 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Blue Ice)

Decent watch, lousy instructions

My problem with this unit is that the instructions for setting the watch did not match the actual behavior of the unit. That is, displays that were supposed to appear when pressing the "ok" button did not - others appeared instead. I did manage to get everything set up after experimenting with it for about half an hour. An email to Polar customer service didn't help. They responded by sending a PDF copy of the same wrong user's manual. The watch itself seems solidly made, and the readings seems to be accurate. If it weren't for the setup problems and poor customer service, I'd give it four stars.

Extremely disappointed

Polar F4 Heart Rate Monitor Watch I purchased this monitor through Amazon in January '08 and had really looked forward to receiving it and being able to monitor my heart rate along with calorie expenditure. It was fairly easy to program especially with the on line tutorials from Polar. But, what a disappointment. After a couple of uses, I noticed that the heart rate seemed to stick in one place no matter how hard or easy I exercised. Even adjusting the chest monitor didn't help. Then sometimes the bpm would suddenly jump as much as 30 bpm or suddenly drop. I contacted Polar and was advised to return the watch and monitor at my own expense, which I did. After three weeks, I received my heart rate watch and monitor along with an invoice saying that the battery had been replaced and that there had been loose parts in the monitor that had been fixed. There was no charge as the item was still under warranty. Two days after receiving it back, it started doing the same thing. It will stick at one rate, even when I discontinue exercising altogether. And sometimes it will just 00 out with the heart beat symbol still beating. I reported this and my disappointment to Polar via email whereby after several days they replied suggesting several "fixes". These "fixes" did not help and the watch/monitor still do not work properly. There were some things that I did like about it, but what good is it, if it doesn't perform the primary function as advertised? I am out $89.95 for a useless piece of equipment. I would NOT recommend this product, nor will I purchase any other from Polar. Also, I have the black with amber face, and it is very difficult to read. There is not enough contrast between the face and the numbers.

Love it

I'd been trying to use the heart rate feature on the equipment at the gym, with limited success. This monitor has been great and I've been able to do more challenging interval training. I love the color--it's not black and it's not white. If you like tracking your progess and performance over time, it has some great feature. I haven't used them yet. The only thing I miss is having a back light. It's sometimes hard to ready in spinning class.

polar F4 heart rate monitor

I've only had this for a month but so far so good. I haven't had a problem at all.I was looking for a basic monitor that counts calories, time,and HR, this one has been great.

Good product

I have been using this heart rate monitor for 1 month now and I have no complaints. My heart rate is always accurate (against the machines at the gym and taking my pulse manually) and the information on the wrist unit is easy to read.

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