Customer Reviews:
 A Helpful Tool October 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this product mainly for use in my spinning and weight training classes. I confess that I rarely read directions for anything, and I haven't read these. But I intend to. The basic setup is easy, and you can easily find the calories burned, maximum heart rate, heart range, etc. without hassle. BUT there appear to be many more settings that I should really figure out...what is the little "you've got mail" box? And what is that infernal and incredibly irritating beeping? (I solved this mystery by turning off the volume.)
What I'm saying is, it's pretty easy to set up and you can find basic info. There are some advanced settings that would probably be helpful if I get around to reading the directions.
On the down side, the strap is somewhat awkward. I discovered that if you put the strap on below the sports bra, the strap wanders around and down your torso until your heart rate reads zero. So now I put the sports bra on over it to keep it in place. Seems to work pretty well.
One complaint I have is that it doesn't "talk" very well with the computer on our spinning bikes. This isn't a huge deal to me, but you pretty much have to decide to trust one or the other, because they rarely agree.
The watch itself is rather blah and feels pretty huge on my arm. My only other complaint is that anytime my heart rate jumps signficantly (like going from warmup to sprints), the monitor takes several--and I do mean several--seconds to reboot. I'm not sure if this is because it's a cheaper model or if that's just the way all monitors are. But I'm pretty sure my heart doesn't go from 130 to zero and back to 145 again.
Overall, I think it's a decent product and it is worth $100. And yes, I have found that my actual heart rate does surprise me sometimes.
 Polar Heart Rate Monitor Review October 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
At first, it was a little difficult to understand how to use the monitor, however, once I determined how to access the additional menus and data on it I have gotten great value from using it in my workouts. It is very useful to get this information while working out. I like the lightweight aspect of the watch. I also thought the price as compared to the features offered was a good deal.
The watch is great for swimming September 22, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I purchased the F6 watch for swimming. It works great!!
My husband bought me a higher model of the Polar watch for biking and running a few years ago, that I really like. (I can get obsessed with tracking exercise data.) I started swimming and wanted to keep track of my heart rate, but was afraid to ruin my good watch in the water. (I've changed the battery in both the watch and chest strap and thought the seal may no longer be water resistant.)
So, I purchased the F6 watch for swimming. It works great!! The chest strap is comfortable under my swim suit. The heart beat monitor is accurate. I haven't experienced any issues with the watch data. I did change the settings to not beap if I'm above or below the target heart range. The beap was a bit annoying at the gym.
Now, I find that I use the F6 watch more than my original watch. It's smaller and ligher. It also shows the calories burned on the display. My original watch didn't, I had to download the data to see the calories burned.
I haven't tried to download the exercise data to the polar site yet. So, I can't comment on that aspect of the F6 watch.
Love(d) it September 10, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have owned my F6 for about a week, and I've really enjoyed testing out its features. It has brought a new awareness to my workouts, and I love having the fantastic feedback with the push of a button. I wish I could have given it 5 stars, but there are a few drawbacks:
1. I like the clock feature, but it doesn't display in exercise mode. I read another person's feedback about putting the watch near the chest strap so the clock will display for a second or two, which works ok, but I would still like to see a screen where it could be displayed during exercise.
2. All of the ads I have read say the F6 includes a stopwatch...there is NO stopwatch!! There is a timer, which counts down from a programmed time, which is NOT a stopwatch. This was one of the features I was looking forward to, and I'm really bummed not to have it.
3. Polar's website is not very user-friendly, and worse, they just made a horrible "upgrade" to their polarpersonaltrainer.com site. One of the F6's selling features was the ability to instantly upload data to the online diary, which was fabulous for a couple of days...until the upgrade. There are many glitches with uploading, and the diary went from fun and informative to cumbersome and frustrating.
Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the F6...and the chest strap is much more comfortable than I'd anticipated.
Works Great! September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This heart monitor works just great. I like that it keeps track of how much exercise you get in a weeks time. The only thing that I don't like is that it is difficult to see in the dark without my glasses as the light makes the numerals green. Other than that, I think it is well worth the money. Strap is really comfortable, don't even know you have it on.
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