Customer Rating:  
Summary: Go for the Garmin 405
Comment: This is a good product, but who wants something hanging off your foot, and who wants to remember to turn off the foot pod. I've gone through too many AAA for this costly mistake.
You may be skeptical about the accuracy too, which is the main reason I had to go and buy the Garmin 405. I can not say enough good about the Garmin product and for just 70 dollars more you will like that you don't have to rely on a foot pod and your watch is recharable. Take it for what it is worth, I own both, yet only use my Garmin 405.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good value
Comment: Sorry to hear others had problems with their units, as I haven't so far, and I've had it about a year. I do need to replace the battery for the chest strap (just went out this week), but that seems easy enough. The unit is designed for runners and was one of only a few (one year ago) that would allow me to set up an interval program the way I wanted. It's far from perfect, Polar doesn't supply you with the software that will allow you to use all the watch records, but there's enough there for training for a marathon. Really serious competitors may want the more advanced model. Now that this model is over a year old there may be something better. Biggest drawback for me was the relatively soft 'beep'- my ears aren't the best and its just not that loud. Also, the face scratches easily and I found the speed update rather slower than advertised (could be the batteries, but the lag time is annoying when you do a run walk). The customer service guy said mine sounded slow but I relied on it during my training so much so I didn't have the time to even consider sending it back. I would definitely recommend it to anyone new to training for long distance running- the HRM plus footpod takes running to a whole new level.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bad electronics / software
Comment: I had always thought highly of the Polar products until my RS200sd heart monitor made a couple of beeps and died on me after 9 months. This seems to be the normal time for it to quit on people after reading the other reviews here.
Now I'm a bit disappointed with both the quality of the product and the service the company serves. I sent my watch in for service hoping for a diagnostic. "Bad electronics" was the verdict. That does not tell me much - is it a common mistake for the model and will it happen again? Again, after reading on this page it seems to be a normal problem. Now I have a defect model returned with a flat battery and have to to the rounds with Polar again. That means I have to spend 15$ to send the watch to them and again wait quite some time for an answer. When you buy these products you are bound to Polar to perform all kind of service on the heart rate monitor, including changing batteries on both belts and watches.
I think you will find better priced and just as good products in other brands.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I've had some minor issues, but it is a great HRM
Comment: I bought the RS200sd back in October of last year. I am very happy with it right now.
Calibration of the foot unit took a while, but now it is measuring distances fine.
The main problem was the blank screen, reset issue. It would either happen at the beginning of my runs, or when I would press the back light button to unlock the buttons. I had these happening to me almost weekly. In the end, the local Polar reseller exchanged the watch for me, and I haven't had a problem since.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not quite perfect, but pretty close...
Comment: I've had this watch/foot pod combo for about two months now and have logged about 240 miles in that time, so I feel like I can finally write an informed review about this product.
In terms of design, the watch (aka "running computer") is exactly what I've been looking for. It's taken Polar a long time to design a watch I truly like, but they've finally done it. What I like most is that its options are almost completely customizable. During exercise, you can set five different screens with three different lines of output (eg, heart rate, pace, total distance, total time, lap time, calories, etc), which is fantastic. In fact, because I can customize each of the five screens, I find that I can put all the relevant info I need on just two and then toggle back and forth between them while I'm running. You can even set the heart-touch function to change screens for you if you wish (whereby, you bring the watch close to the chest strap and it triggers one of three functions - lap conclusion, back light, or screen view).
Aside from output, the watch also has a host of other great features, including fully customizable workout routines (eg, free, basic, interval, and user-created). What I've done is create "Easy", "Long" and "Fast" routines, each with a different heart rate range so that I can easily monitor my effort without having to think.
The watch also has a "sleep" mode, where you can turn off the watch when not in use to conserve battery power, as well as other key features like a fitness test (which measures your resting heart rate (RHR) and VO2max) and even an event countdown calendar. I now know at any moment how many days I have before the San Francisco Marathon (my first). It's a true motivator and really nice touch. Polar really did think of everything with this watch in terms of design. Perfect.
The foot pod is also well-designed. Physically, it's very sturdy and feels like a smooth round rock you might find at the bottom of a stream. It's actually larger and heavier than I expected it to be, which concerned me at first, but after attaching it to my shoe, I literally could not tell it was there. As a result, it's the best of both worlds: rock-solid sturdy but unnoticeable. Another great feature is that the foot pod will automatically turn off after a certain period of inactivity, again conserving battery power. Great.
Not much to say on the chest strap, except that it's infinitely more comfortable than the previous design and seems to work well (I haven't had the problem of having to clean the contacts before every use as one reviewer mentioned; I merely wet it before starting, and then lightly wash it in warm water when finished).
If design were the only issue, this watch/pod combo would earn six stars from me. However, there are a couple of minor concerns of which one should be aware:
1) It took me a LONG time to calibrate the foot pod to a point that I felt comfortable with its measuring accuracy. Initially, I did as the manual suggested and ran around a track at a medium pace for 1200 meters (three laps). At that time, the calibration read 1.093, meaning that I was covering 1,093 meters for every 1,000 meters the foot pod was detecting. This is quite a margin of error, especially because Polar stated the foot pod should be 97% accurate right out of the box (implying that any calibration should end up somewhere between 0.970 and 1.030). This clearly was not the case for me. Worse still, the resulting mileages were way off when I actually ran known distances. Thinking hills could affect the calibration, I proceeded to recalibrate on a variety of courses and at varying distances (up to as much as 10K/6.1M). Every time, I got a different reading, ranging from 1.004 to 1.027. Finally, through triangulation and a bit of interpolation, I have arrived at a manual calibration of 1.010, and it seems to be accurate within +/- 2 meters per kilometer. Still not perfect, but certainly closer to the 99% that Polar claims you can achieve with individual calibration.
So, what's the moral of the story? If you only need/want approximations of your running distances, the foot pod is great right out of the box. However, if you're competing and need/want more accuracy and precision, expect to make a concerted effort. Incidentally, I recommend calibrating on courses that most reflect what you normally run and at as long of a distance as you can stand while maintaining good form. Doing so should help improve the accuracy. Also acknowledge the fact that changing shoes and/or courses (eg, from asphalt to grass) will affect the mileage output.
2) The only other concern I have was the result of my display freezing up once. I was actually weight-training at the time, and the display froze for no apparent reason. Because you cannot simply remove and replace the power source like you can on other electronic devices (eg, pulling the plug on a computer and then replugging it in to reboot), I was rendered helpless. Finally, after some time, I decided to push all four buttons on the sides simultaneously, and it did the trick. I had to reprogram some of the information, but it has worked fine since. Not a big deal, but we'll see if it happens again (knock on wood).
I haven't had the watch long enough to know whether I can expect any of the similar problems that one other reviewer had (eg, cracked wrist strap, etc), but the quality seems quite good, so I certainly won't fret waiting for a problem that may not occur.
In sum, I think this is a fantastically-designed watch with a couple of functionality issues, but none enough to dissuade me from buying it. I absolutely love it and wonder what I did for so long without it. Way to go, Polar!
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