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Heart Rate Monitors Comparison

When comparing heart rate monitors there a few things to consider. The main thing is the features - what features do you want or need. Also the brand and the price, if you are on a budget.

For a basic heart rate monitor you don't really need lots of fancy features. One that will display your heart rate is fine. Many simple ones will also show the total time you exercised, and also your average heart rate while you were exercising. Water resistance would be important to consider if you plan on doing lots of swimming with it.

Heart rate monitors that are a bit more expensive tend to have a way to input your lower and upper levels of your target zone. Then an alarm goes off to let you know when you are in this zone or to let you know when you exceed your upper limit. This can be really helpful.

For people who are interested in losing weight while exercising - some give an estimate of how many calories you burned while exercising.

Other features to look at and compare are things like a light on the display, if that is something you think you would need. Some are made specifically for women too.

In addition to looking at specific features you may want to consider the brand too. Polar for example seems to be the industry leader in heart rate monitors, but another brand may be more suitable for you.

And of course the price. There are not too many monitor for much less then $50. Although you can get basic one for around $45. But if you go much lower than that, the quality may not be as good. Between $50 and $150 you should be able to get one with quite a few features. The really high end ones can be as much $300 or more!

Here are a couple other articles about heart rate monitors on this site:


Strapless Heart Rate Monitors

Swimming and Heart Rate Monitors