Garmin vs Polar Heart Rate Straps

I first got a heart rate strap when I bought my Garmin 800 bundle a number of years ago. It was quite interesting to get a measure of "actual" effort vs. perceived effort and I wore it for every ride for interest reasons - although I never trained to it.

Garmin Strap (with transmitter):

However it was about 8 months later that the readings started to get a bit erratic. I wrote about it here: http://midlandscyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/garmin-heart-rate-monitor.html

In fact with the last strap I referred to in the above post I stopped wearing it for a while and then would only wear it for a "more interesting" ride. I effectively stopped using it other than on the off-chance it would be reliable, and it was for a while. Often moistening the contact patches would help before putting it on. However it eventually got less and less useful and was hardly worth wearing. At over £30 it was to expensive to keep replacing for just over a years use.

However my son came back for vacation from university and he had bought a Polar Strap. These were apparently fully compatible and a fraction of the price

Polar Strap:

Its (as of August 2015) £10-12 from Amazon so about 1/3rd of the price. So I ordered one - from Wiggle in this case for £12.30 in a M-XXL size. It arrived promptly as always and I went to fit it.

This is where the only problem arose. It's not clear from the photos but in fact around the popper is a rubber collar. I assume that this is to form a water proof seal around the contacts on the transmitter unit. No matter how I tried I could not get the transmitter to fit so I had two choices - return the strap or "modify" it. For £12 I decided that I would trim the rubber collar back so that the transmitter would fit, so carefully, with a new and hence super sharp Stanley blade, trimmed about 2mm off the collar. 

Here are the bits I trimmed off:

The result was that the transmitter then fitted perfectly. Since then I have worn the strap for all rides expect commutes and it has worked faultlessly in every circumstance. It has been absolutely drenched in sweat when I was in the French Alps and never had any issue. This is what I would have expected the Garmin strap to deliver - but in this case Garmin won't get any more of my money for a HR strap.

As a side note I read on a forum that sometimes Garmin straps can be made to work again but cutting a 5mm or so strip out of the strap between the poppers. I have not tried this through!

Garmin Heart Rate Monitor

I have had my Garmin 800 for some time now - just about over 2 years I think. In that time I have had the first heart rate monitor swapped under warranty and now the replacement one has failed in the same way. Its not that it doesn't work, it's just that it doesn't work "properly". The failure seems to occur after about 8 months of use (or at least 8 months of my use which is 4-5 rides per week and 60-100 miles/week). Both straps have failed after this time.

This is the strap and transmitter:

There are 3 main failure modes:
1) it doesn't read anything (although the main unit acknowledges the presence of the HRM)
2) it will sort of read something but only very low values, suggesting that I am an elite athlete cycling 50 miles barely breaking 90bpm, or
3) it reads mega high (>200bpm) suggesting I should be dead!

Here is an example of a typical failure mode:

And here is a "proper" trace over a similar route (approx 29 miles at about 17.0-17.5mph average speed):

This is much more realistic at a typical average of about 150bpm with short excursions to 170bpm maximum).

Now I don't need a HRM and I don't use it for training or anything like that, but I like to look at the data and see how hard I was actually working vs. how hard I felt I was working. And also having got one I'd like it to be working.

So back to the first HRM. Having bought the Garmin 800 from good old Wiggle, I sent it in for a swap, and for whatever faults others think Wiggle have, their returns and warranty policy and support is second to none (PC World take note), and they replaced the HRM - both the strap and transmitter unit without quibble.

Off I rode for another 8 months or so and then the symptoms occur again. Its really irritating as the HRM is about £35-£45 a time. Its the strap that fails not the transmitter unit. I am wondering whether its possible to cobble up some sort of repair by replacing the contact patches with another conductive material and actually wire up a conductor to the poppers for the transmitter unit. That's a dark winter's evening project I think.

A search of the internet reveals that my issue is not uncommon. Some suggestions are to use the Polar WearLink+ strap but I have no other evidence to support this. There is seemingly a maintenance process to follow to wash the strap which I did use for the 2nd unit but did not add anything to the life of the strap

What is worse is that when it works it works really well and is very comfortable to wear. Even worse is that Garmin don't just sell that strap alone, you have to buy the strap and transmitter increasing the cost significantly.

Come on Garmin - either get the strap to last or sell it on its own