| | |  | Polar Heart Rate Monitors | | Home » » | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | The Polar® F55 heart rate monitor gives you a complete exercise session by adding new features like Body Workout and OwnRelax. Body Workout, a muscular strength-training guide that can be adjusted according to your progress, provides basic guidance for strength training. The new OwnRelax feature checks the body's state of relaxation, and helps you "listen" to your body, an essential component of fitness. | | | Features: | |
• Heart rate monitor designed to help you hit training and fitness goals
• Polar Body Workout feature provides basic guidance for muscular strength training
• WearLink Coded transmitter made from a soft, fabric material, eliminates interference from other heart rate monitors
• Keeps U Fit Workout Program gives you personal exercise guidance
• Large easy-to-read, backlit display with split screen; water resistant to 30 meters
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 6.9 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.1 inches | | Product Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.15 pounds | | Package Length:
| 6.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.85 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 15 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Good monitor, poor case!Jul 17, 2008
(Note: The item being reviewed is the "Bronze Rock" version. I have been using this product for slightly over a year.)
This is a very good and full-featured heartrate monitor, and has been great for helping me tailor my workouts and track my overall performance. However, it has NOT held up well when worn as an everyday watch. I only had mine for a few weeks when I bumped it against something and the chrome bezel that surrounds the watch face broke in half and scratched the face. Having invested this much, I was very disappointed. However, I mailed it to Polar (at my expense) and fortunately they replaced the crystal (which is NOT glass and feels like polycarbonate plastic) and the bezel.
I was again pleased for a while until a few more months went by. I had been VERY careful when wearing my watch/monitor and tried to remove it when I thought it might be in "danger". However, I managed to once again scratch the face... while putting up my Christmas tree! Since then, the chrome bezel has been bumped a time or two in the course of normal exercise (mainly cycling and weight lifting) and the chrome is now coming off. It is NOT an aluminum bezel, but "chromed plastic".
For the price of this watch, I think they could have used a REAL crystal face and an aluminum bezel, which would have significantly increased the durability and value of this watch/monitor without sacrificing much in terms of weight or production costs.
Edit: I also agree with the previous review by "Rene Briceno" with regard to the weaknesses of the fitness monitor product. If you are a SERIOUS weight lifter, you will quickly outgrow the workouts included on this watch. That said, I have had no problems with it from a functionality standpoint and do consult it regularly for tracking my performance.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Gave this to my out of shape brotherJul 10, 2008
I have the top of the line Polar. I gave thisone to my dentist brother who needs to workout. I gave it to him for his b-day in May. Never heard that he is even using it!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 LONG TIME USER REVIEW: FOUR MAJOR ISSUES.Jun 18, 2008
I got this HRM after using several other versions of Polar in the past. So I am not new to HRMs. Have been using it for 2 years now.
There are four major problems with this product:
First issue is the chest band. It was simply created for people with chests below 38 inches. If you have a wide chest measurement like me (41 inches) the band will be so tight you will hardly be able to breathe. I make a clarification here: I am not overweight, I just happen to have a wide chest. The solution: stretch the band to its maximum for a couple of minutes before exercising, until you wear it and feel comfortable.
Second issue, and the most critical one, is that you are limited to the 17 body workout exercises that come preloaded on the unit. This is a major issue, considering the fact that any good fitness-trainer will have you do at least 4 movements for 1 single muscle group, sometimes combining two movements in 1 single series. Hence, forget about inputing your own body workout program in the unit. You can't, period. For me, this is a MAJOR design fault. Polar, if there are more than 1200 workout movements and each person adjusts different to each movement creating their own personal workout, why did you limit your customers to 17, yes, 17 movements? It is simply unacceptable. A good fix in future versions of this unit would be the possibility to create your own movements and store them in memory and even combine them to create combo-series of movements. In the meantime, my solution was to create a second, long aerobic exercise to record my whole workout for the day. Hence, the whole purpose of the unit was lost with this.
Third issue, and this is something you don't think about until you need it, is that you can't erase daily exercise records massively. Instead, you have to go on a day by day basis. This is annoying and if you want to erase any records bigger than two months, you are better off disconnecting the battery and re-programming the unit all over again. (About 20 minutes once you are used to doing this).
The final issue about the F55 is that the main button (center right button) is considerably bigger than all the rest. This is OK because this is the button we will push the most as users, but there is a problem here as well: if you wear the unit too close to your hand, the button will be pushed against it and the exercise recording will activate without you even knowing it, effecting all your exercise records. This also happens when you take the unit off and store it with the mentioned bigger button facing down.
So overall, a fairly good attempt to create a fitness-workout compatible HRM, but it is not worth the money for the mentioned limitations. Don't even bother looking for the F55al (Aluminum casing) for they are the exact same product.
5 of 7 found the following review helpful:
F55 Heart Rate Monitor - new strap is not for those with 40" + chestsJan 18, 2008
The strap that is included is different than my previous Polar heart rate monitor that this replaced. For whatever reason Polar chose, the strap is not replaceable as prior versions were; the battery pack snaps onto the strap, which does not allow a different strap to connect to it (the front is sewn into the part of the strap that goes around you).
Although the fact that is is nice to see that the battery on the chest strap could be replaced, the strap, although indicating that it adjusts from M-XXL, was loosened it to the maximum size and it was still snug. I have a 40" chest and if that is XXL, they won't sell many of these units with that chest strap.
Watch = 5 stars
Strap = 1 star
1 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Not recommendedOct 22, 2007
The documentation was not appropriate to the product version. The product is unecessarily complicated and filled with silly features, for example, customized exercise routines. To measure heart rate, you have to wear a belt with transponder to get your pulse into the machine, and the belt that you have to wear you have to douse is water periodically. The installation and use of the belt are not documented. Readout is in a bizarre font. Amazon, of course, took it right back for full credit.
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