People are becoming more and more interested in their own health and fitness. To help people achieve their objectives there are more and more different devices being released.

Garmin have released their premium heart rate monitor to help meet the demand for heart rate monitoring. This is not a cheap product as the name implies and it is designed for the high-end of the market for these products. But is the Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor work the extra money? Read on to find out

Specifications

• Type of Device: Heart Rate Monitor
• Release Year: 2012
• Size: 0.4 x 2.4 x 1.3 inches
• Weight: 1.6 ounces
• WiFi Data Upload? Yes
• Battery Life: 6-12 month

The Pros

Readings Accuracy: The accuracy of readings is the most important thing for a heart rate monitor, without this it would not be worth having it. It makes monitoring your performance or trying to keep in your target heart rate zone impossible.

Fortunately, this monitor is very accurate with most customers very impressed by this. And this is so whatever type of exercise or activity you are doing. It doesn’t jump around like some monitors you can get. As long as it has a good contact with your body it picks up and records your heart rate. To ensure this contact you need to wet the surface with water or spit if you like or with a gel.

This makes it ideal for those experienced who want to measure their performance as well as beginners wanting to measure and improve their cardio fitness.

Comfort: Customers find this monitor comfortable to wear with its soft strap. This is important as you don’t want something that gets in the way or annoys you while you are working out. You want to be focused on completing your workout rather than concerned with a device that might be getting in the way or making you feel uncomfortable.

Automatic Updates: With this heart rate monitor you can pair it with another device so that the information it has recorded to your computer so you can see your results over a period of time, to see how your level of fitness is changing as the result of your exercise. This is a useful feature and makes it more than a heart rate monitor. This all helps to keep you motivated to stay on track with your fitness and health routines.

Life Of Battery: Although it does not have a rechargeable battery, this is not such an issue because it has a long life and it is relatively straightforward to change the battery.  You won’t suffer from some of the frustrations you can have when you have a product with a short battery life that needs to be in use.

The only thing you need to bear in mind is to take a little care when changing the battery so that the seal isn’t damaged. This prevents water from getting into the housing and starting to corrode it.

Customer Service Levels: This can be a very important point when buying a product. Most customers do not have an issue with their purchase of this heart rate monitor. But if you are one of the minority of customers you want it to be sorted quickly and without any hassles.

The customer feedback I’ve seen in this respect indicates that Garmin are very good and they take their customer’s concerns very seriously. It appears they do help their customers have the best experience possible and work to resolve any issues.

The Cons

Sturdiness Issues: Some users have had issues with their units failing in only a couple of months. As noted above Garmin appear to provide very good customer service and you are likely to be treated very well as they do stand behind their product and make good any issues. This is very good to see but is still frustrating if you do get one of these monitors.

To Get Up To Date Readings It Needs To Be Paired:  To get the most of this device it needs to be paired up with another device like the Garmin 405 GPS watch. In this way you can have the data sent to your computer for you to look at and be able to monitor your progress over a period of time. Without this pairing the monitor is somewhat limited with only readings of your heart rate at the time being available.

Wrong Readings: For some customers this can be an issue that starts after a few weeks. The reported issue is where it gives readings in excess of 200 beats per minute (which is life threatening). It appears to be an issue with the sensors and can exacerbated with the presence of static. As with the sturdiness issues this appears to only happen with a small number of customers.

Should You Buy The Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor

The Garmin Premium Heart Rate Monitor is a good monitor but it is somewhat limited if not paired with another device. You can get cheaper models but they are likely to be accurate or comfortable. As mentioned above they are some issues with accuracy experienced by a few of customers. So, overall it is probably a good buy but do keep in mind the possibility of issues.

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