Broken heart rate monitor

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Paul Victory
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Broken heart rate monitor

Post by Paul Victory »

Now that I am back erging regulsrly, I think it would be useful to keep track of my heart rate.

I have a Suunto heart rate monitor that I received free of charge from Suunto as a replacement for the HRM I bought when I was purchasing my Model E. The connection from the strap to the belt had broken on the old HRM and the same thing happened with the new one quite a while back, but as I wasn't erging all that regularly at the time, I didn't do anything about it.

Anyway, I called Suunto today and was told that the belt is only subject to a one year warranty (I got it in 2011) and I would have to purchase a new one as the cost of repair is likely to be similar to the cost of buying a new one. I think was previous belt was also out of warranty when it broke, but it was replaced free of charge after C2 UK contacted them on my behalf.

It seems to me I have three options:

1. Contact the Rowing Company and see if they can help/offer any advice.
2. Try using superglue to see if this holds it together. The catch is only broken on one side, so I could still put the belt on and take it off again.
3. Buy a new belt.

I don't know if there's any point in trying option 1 following the changes within Concept2 in the UK and I'm not sure who I would contact in any event. If anything thinks this is worth trying and has a contact name, please let me know.

Option 2 may be worth trying if the cost of repairing the belt compares unfavourably to the cost of buying a new one. :roll: But I wouldn't really expect it to work for long, if at all.

If I go for option 3, is there an alternative to Suunto that anyone would recommend? What I liked about my current HRM is that it links to my PM4. What I didn't like is that the connection has broken twice, which indicates a structural weakness in the belts that may occur again.

Any suggestions/comments will be gratefully received.

Paul V
M 68 6'1" 124kg (May05), 92kg (Feb06), 122kg (Aug10), 95kg (Sep11), 117kg (Jun13), now 98kg
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nervtoeter
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Re: AW: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by nervtoeter »

Paul I guess the best way is to buy a new one. I'm using a Polar wrist watch, FT60. Of course the disadvantage is the missing connection to the PM, the advantage, and that is the point why I choose it, I can use it for every kind of sport. It includes the calories counter and I'm using the Internet homepage to analyse my training results.

So far as I know the Garmin belts are also working with the PM.
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GrantR
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by GrantR »

I use the Garmin strap. it's the one that came with my model D/PM4. Actually the original kind of became very erratic and unreliable in linking to the PM4 and new batteries didn't help, so I bought a new one, but that one also seems to require me to manually go into the look-for-wireless-belt optione very time I start up the PM4, so maybe it's not the belt that's being problematic, but the PM4.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UO ... UTF8&psc=1

you can probably find the same strap from a UK source. it's cheap, just $34 US. no idea what the UK price is however.
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Paul Victory
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by Paul Victory »

Thanks folks. I'll look into both options.

Grant, I wonder is your problem related to whether you are using a logcard? I found that the Suunto HRM linked up automatically whenever I used my logcard, but not when the logcard was out.
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stumpy
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by stumpy »

Well Lee is on #12 or is it 15 now all free replacements from Suunto I've had 4 now also free replacements well I did pay the postage. So if I was you I would send it off to Suunto and if they try to charge you tell them to keep it and buy a Garmin ( which also works on PM4).
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Paul Victory
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by Paul Victory »

stumpy wrote:Well Lee is on #12 or is it 15 now all free replacements from Suunto I've had 4 now also free replacements well I did pay the postage. So if I was you I would send it off to Suunto and if they try to charge you tell them to keep it and buy a Garmin ( which also works on PM4).
Hi Colin

That was my past experience and how I thought they still operated. But I spoke to someone in customer service in the UK and he told me it was outside warranty. Maybe I should try dealing directly with the Finnish parent company?

Paul
M 68 6'1" 124kg (May05), 92kg (Feb06), 122kg (Aug10), 95kg (Sep11), 117kg (Jun13), now 98kg
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Stan
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by Stan »

It wouldn't hurt to try the parent company Paul, I have always found them very helpful, although I have to admit that was on a software issue with firstbeat (transferring to another computer).
I haven't yet suffered a breakage of the suunto belt, although I have had to replace a couple - possibly due to sweat leakage into the battery compartment on the belt (replacing the battery did not solve the artifacts problems whereas replacing the belt did) The comfort belt does seem more robust than the other flimsy looking belts I have seen from suunto.
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Paul Victory
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Re: Broken heart rate monitor

Post by Paul Victory »

I decided to take the line of least resistance and bought a new Garmin HRM on special offer on Amazon last week. It arrived today after I had completed my session, but I did another 12 minutes just to try it out. Seems to be working fine and the design seems a lot more robust that the Suunto and hopefully wont be as likely to keep breaking on me.

I now have to refamiliarise myself with the various training zones. Does anyone know what should be the training zone for the steady distance rows on the Pete Plan and for warm up and cool down rows. I figure UT2 for warm up and cool down and UT1 for steady distance. Does this sound about right?

Paul V
M 68 6'1" 124kg (May05), 92kg (Feb06), 122kg (Aug10), 95kg (Sep11), 117kg (Jun13), now 98kg
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