H10 Heart Rate Sensor

A fantastic heart rate sensor! I recently had a heart attack and was looking for something to monitor my heart during recovery and walks. Firstly I tried a Fitbit Charge 6 and was extremely disappointed at the lack of functionality with regards to a dedicated HR screen. It's just an overpriced fancy watch with some exercise stuff. So I took a peek at Polar, after a recommendation from a friend (who is in the Navy and uses these for fitness tests). They're far cheaper than a Fitbit, easy to use, have an easy to use app with GPS to track your routes and it saves all the data collected onto your phone to review as time goes on. I've used this a couple of times and it feels okay, doesn't come off while walking, is fairly comfortable and simple to put on/take off. If you're looking for a more HR and ECG based device, definitely choose this rather than a Fitbit!

I have owned this for 5 months now and am glad I chose this over other brands. The monitor attachment is very sturdy/ chest strap fits snugly/ strap clip is super easy to use. I have never had issues with slipping. The sizing is listed as XS-S (20-26 inches) and M-XXL (26-36 inches). If you were as confused as I was by this, it is the length of the strap unadjusted and unstretched. For me the length of 20 inches was just over half of my actual chest size (32inches). I am a UK size 8 and the XS-S size fit me perfectly straight out of the box without any adjustment. It’s difficult to know how accurate the HRM is as I don’t have anything to calibrate it against. Even so saying this, I do get similar results from a setting e.g. aerobics or cycling. It doesn’t seem to be thrown off by lots of jumping exercises, and equally is not confused by low impact e.g. cycling. Which was my main concern (inaccurate monitoring – which I found to be the case when wearing a wrist device). The app is OK. It provides lots of different types of exercise categories to record and voice instructions tell you when you have hit certain BPM etc. It tracks GPS accurately and shows you a little map of your route and where your heart rate sections change. The Bluetooth links well to the HRM – which means you can record your HR without taking your phone with you. And simply download them later to the app. However it does mean you can’t track GPS if you use this option because it’s just a sensor, not a standalone GPS tracker. The biggest negative for me is the app, not the HRM. It has very limited functionality and there doesn’t seem to be any way to export the data that is recorded, or to clear all the data without individually deleting every record (for which I have 100’s now!) I would like to be able to record a weeks’ worth of exercise, and then clear it to start over. However even so - the HRM will connect to a multitude of other apps – strava/apple heart rate monitor so you are not restricted by this. Just needs a bit of investigation to find a better solution. Over all very good value for money.

I bought this to use with my Garmin Fenix 5s and it works perfectly, and connects instantly when I start a work out. You can use this swimming, running, gym or cycling so it is a Triatholon strap where as Garmin have a seperate Tri version and run version. I choose Polar because when it comes to heart rate monitoring they are super accurate, and if the battery on my Garmin dies I can record my workout on my phone and input it later. You can also record your workout/swim session without a phone and upload it later with the Polar strap. I've read Garmin can be akward giving out live under water readings because they use the older ant+ technology which has distance limitations and water affects all wrist sensors, also their tri strap isn't as comfortable. On the other hand Polar uses the 5Khz transmition so it can give live data while swimming (which I can use my Polar RCX5 as 5khz will not work with Garmin). Previously I have had Polar's coded T31 strap and their H2, both were very comfortable, lasted ages and were accurate. This one has Bluetooth so it is compatible with Garmin devises that have Bluetooth, unlike Garmin heart rate straps it is also compatible with gym equipment at my gym, and connects to both the machine and my Garmin at the same. However the H10 can only have one Bluetooth connection at a time. I have used the H10 with the Polar Beat app on my iphone 7 and it works very well. Especially considering it's free I'm impressed, and if you want more features in the app you can pay for add-ons at very reasonable prices. The H10 is very responsive and accurate, when my heart rate drops it drops quick and quicker than my H2 did. It is also quicker and more accurate than the wrist sensors in my Garmin watch, which like most wrist heart rate monitors they aren't brilliant with HIIT workouts. All in all it's one of the easiest 5 star reviews I've made, with the only small negative is that if you want more running statistics when using this with a Garmin watch you might need the Garmin running Pod, otherwise this is an excellent all-round, multi-sport heart rate strap.

I'm a cardiac arrest survivor, and, two years on from the event I need to get moving again. But safely! I used to cycle a lot and have realised that the flat canal paths near me offer a good gentle environment to return to cycling. However I still need to know that I am in the safe zone for my heart. The Polar H10 came with some great reviews, particularly for accuracy. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fitness watch, I wear a classic! Having bought the H10 I downloaded the (free) Polar Beat app to my Android and signed up to the (free) Polar Flow on my Mac. The H10 connects well to the app via Bluetooth so I start the app, cycle, and check the results when home, they are automatically shared to the Polar Flow too so I can see it on my Mac. I use accurate GPS on the phone and the readouts let me run through my journey on a map. It's early days yet but I'm really impressed. The GPS dropped out on one trip but the heart monitor kept reading. I did accidentally delete one of my sessions of Polar Beat, it seems there is no way to recover it which is annoying. However the level of analysis and understanding that can be gleaned from this device is fantastic and on this brief acquaintance I would recommend it highly. We are visiting Paris this week and I typically walk a lot in cities so I will try wearing it for a walk or two.

So the H10 is very good heart rate monitor. Works well during exercise, stretching, running, hiking and martial arts - generally fits nicely and snugly on the chest during all physical activity - that you can forget that it is on. Connection with smartphone during recording exercise - it is very well, it can loose connection if you are using other app requiring the GPS access, then you need to refresh the app (polar beat - just refresh) as other wise it will stop working due to some issues with multitasking and sharing processing at the smart phone. Alto it is work well if you use option of the recording the exercise with the H10 heart sensor and download after you finish. IT works well with watch, no problem at all, no loosing signal, very accurate. The software and app is extremely good and user friendly, providing very good analytical data, and information which you need in nice easy to read format. Compared to the Sunnto, and Garmin software - the way how the data is collected and presented was winner for me to choose the Polar chest heart rate H10. As did not have chance to test it in the water as the swimming - can not comment on that. It works well at the rain and storm weather when you are completely soaked tho :) The strap itself is good size with length regulation. Is has some silicon bumps which helps to keep it nice and comfortable in one place, so it not move around during the high activity exercises. It is very easy to change battery - which make this product last very long. Tested it connected to the watch and smartphone at the same time as it support simultaneously twin connection into the two devices at the same time!!! as well as it can work with one device, and on its own, no need to take phone with you - if you click in the app start recording with the sensor rather life recording with the app, then you can just go with the sensor and when you finish just download the information to the phone. So yes I would recommend it.

****Review update**** I originally gave this product 3 stars - I was having mixed results with it. I assumed that this HRM was not able to maintain and record bluetooth and 5Ghz "gymlink" connections at the same time. I would switch the app on (polar or wazoo) in my gym. The PRECOR gym kit would show my HR, but when I checked the app, it showed significant drop outs. I RESOLVED this. It transpired that this was a power management issue on my phone, if I was using Spotify/Netflix at the same time, my phone was not running HR tracker apps in the background. My phone is a Huawei P30 Pro - I went to settings>Battery>App Launch and turned off "Manage Automatically" for each fitness app. Now it appears to operate flawlessly. Both for CV and resistance workout. Now - I give this 5 STARS The Polar H10 features a suite of connectivity options as follows; - ANT+ - which is a Garmin product, and I've yet to find a use for it. I own no compatible equipment. - Bluetooth - great - can support 2 devices simultaneously. - 5ghz "gymlink" - which can connect to some gym equipment eg. Precor In the Polar app you can switch each of these off - I guess this would save power. I cant comment on battery life - not used it for long enough but polar app shows it as "FULL" after 8-10 hours training. The strap is not one of the generic ones, has a plastic clip to connect it together, which I hope will hold up. The cheaper ones have a metal clip. The Polar app is more than sufficient for me - provides a number of profiles for different activities. And a good HR readout is provided at the end, and you can easily see the HR zones as you train. Ive also tried it with Strava, MapMyRun, and Wazoo. All with good results. I cant comment on water resistance - others have commented on this, but I do not swim with this on.

I bought this, plus the strap in July 2022. Initially it worked very well but had the odd data hiccup where the heart rate would drop from say 144 down to 135 for about 30 seconds then restore itself. I thought that was acceptable, not ideal but acceptable. All I’m trying to do is keep an eye on my heart rate and not over do it but also record the average heart rate over the session on the Polar Beat App so I can compare sessions fairly accurately. Recently, say over the past 12 weeks or so, the data drop out has gradually become so stupidly severe the transmitter is totally useless. The problem I think is that a decent quality battery now only lasts about 4-5 30 minute sessions if that. The voltage of a new battery is usually say 3.31 Volts. Once the HRM has been worn a few times, as soon as the voltage drops to about 3.00 Volts, the data recording becomes totally unreliable. I’ve just tried some Duracell Procell batteries and they are producing exactly the same results as the Duracell batteries so I really don’t think there is any issue with the battery. I should also mention that there is plenty of saliva used on the strap to help conductivity. At the moment, I feel it would be far more accurate simply guessing your heart rate. Also, irritatingly, the Beat App sometimes produces a message saying it can’t connect to the monitor because another App is using it. Well, it isn’t and I can’t get rid of the message without unpairing and repairing. That’s a pain in the arse if you’re out and about doing a run and you want to split it and restart. Last night was the final straw because I was using a new battery, without a tee shirt on and the transmitter was about 15 – 18 inches from my phone and the recording was utter rubbish – see picture. Additionally, the cross trainer should pick up the signal and display accordingly but it never displayed at all for the whole session. I’m going to try to contact Polar customer services to try and resolve this and if the situation improves drastically, I’ll amend the review. If it doesn’t, I’ll ask Amazon if I can review with zero stars, add some nice comments about the Polar Support and start investigating Garmin HRMs.

Excellent price and glad I went for this model. Easy to use and took my training to another level.