Product Description

The Polar FS3c Heart Rate Monitor is a fantastic, stylish and easy to use training companion designed to give you instant and accurate feedback on your training session to keep you on track. With a full range of fitness tools to assist, the FS3c is a intuitive and constant workout aid to help you get the most out of heart rate training, and achieve results fast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5332 in Health and Beauty
• Colour: Dark Grey
• Brand: Polar
• Model: 90027129

Features

• Time of day, Date and weekday indicator and stopwatch
• Easy to use product with one button functionality
• Backlight
• Coded transmitter
• Wireless ECG accurate heart rate
• Automatic determination of your age-based heart rate target zone limits
• Target zones with visual and audible alarm
• Average heart rate of total exercise
• Maximum heart rate of total exercise
• Exercise date and time (total)

Manufacturer's Description
POLAR FS3 Fitness heart rate monitor.
Entry-level excellence that comes with a coded transmitter belt to prevent crosstalk with other heart rate monitors when exercising in a group. It includes all the necessities for safe and effective fitness and gives a brief exercise summary for a better follow-up of the workout sessions.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Good value HRM
A heart rate monitor is almost essential for running, cycling, Spin classes, and treadmill work. I bought my first heart rate monitor - a Polar Pacer - in 1990 for £126.45 and it lasted years of running,cycling, and much later, 3 years of Spin classes, so Polar build quality is good. I came back to exercise in 2006 after a long break, and bought an FS3C for £39.50. So much cheaper than the Pacer, yet it incorporates a stop watch, maximum heart rate, average heart rate, a single log, and time/date, none of which were in the Pacer.

Once the stopwatch function is running, the FS3C must be held next to the chest strap to change the display (time / stopwatch / pulse), as pressing the button below the display will halt the stopwatch and the data recording. I've inadvertantly wiped out data by pressing the button. Note that the stopwatch doesn't have a pause function.

Minor negative points for me are:
* only one log, and a new session overwrites the existing information;
* when fixed to handlebars, it's not practicable to toggle between the display - for example between stopwatch and pulse - as it has to be next to the chest strap, so it has to be worn on the wrist, or used in conjunction with a separate stopwatch if the FS3C is mounted on the handlebars. The single log isn't an issue, as the details (duration, average pulse, and maximum pulse) can be written down before starting another session. Some people may miss the option to pause the stop watch;
* it only displays beats per minute and does not have an option to display the percentage of the maximum heart rate - for Spin classes, I use a card that gives percentage heart rate for beats per minute.

I wear glasses for reading so I need large digits in the display as I don't wear glasses whilst exercising. The digits in the F3C are 9mm high x 1mm wide and I can see them whether in daylight, the gym, or a studio with lighting.

I haven't had problems with interference from people close by who were wearing heart monitors; the C in FS3C refers to 'coded'and signifies that interference shouldn't be a problem. The manual says that the watch unit is waterproof provided that the button is not pressed; having inadvertently worn the watch in a gym power shower, I can confirm that it is waterproof! The Zone calculator is based on age and gender; it appears to be of the 220 - age variety, and therefore the limits will be too low unless you are unfit. If you know or can calculate your maximum heart rate and the heart rate limits that you want to use, the cheaper F2C may well suit you. The chest strap is narrow and plastic covered, but is just as comfortable as the Polar Wearlink+ or the Garmin Forerunner. The narrow construction is a bonus in the gym, as I've worn the Polar F3C chest strap at the same time as the chest strap for the Garmin Forerunner so that my heart rate would be picked up by the treadmill and elliptical. Polar chestbands are compatible with Star-Trac and Life Fitness treadmills and ellipticals in my local SLM run and Fitness First gyms.

The FS3C doesn't have lots of features, and isn't compatible with Polar speed and distance footpods. However, this is a really good buy for the average person.

Unfortunately, the T31C chest strap is not compatible with the Oregon Scientific WM100 data logger.

Beware the expensive replacement battery
Polar heart rate monitors work by recording the tiny radio signal emitted from a belt that attaches around your chest, a bit like a cupless bra in effect. I bought a Polar device last year; it is excellent but the transmitter battery died and, since the battery is sealed in and irreplaceable, I was left with little choice but to buy a new transmiter strap for £30. Polar, when contacted, were exceptionally rude and arrogant in their reply to my suggestion that the battery should be a £5 stand-alone replacement item. The cost of spares is a rip-off!

Don't buy you'll get stung when the batteries need replacing.