I need an inexpensive waterproof heart beat watch

March 15, 2018 7:15 AM

My pulse is too slow (37) and my Dr. says I may need a Pacemaker, so am being referred to a cardiologist. I have looked at previous questions and at Amazon, but am bewildered by the choice. Because I swim laps three times a week it should be waterproof (not just showerproof) and preferably tie in with an app on my Samsung S7 running Android 7.0 Would prefer not spend more than $45/50. TIA!
posted by lungtaworld to Technology (7 answers total)

Best answer: I usually check The Wirecutter for gadget recommendations-- they research a category of products and make recommendations based on price and performance. It looks like one of their heart rate monitor picks, the Garmin Vivofit 3, is waterproof, close to your price range, and seems like it will pair with your phone (though it doesn't require a phone sync to work).

Pacemakers can apparently interact poorly with wearable electronics, so you should probably ask your doctor about this as well.
posted by ourobouros at 7:48 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

My husband bought one in your price range as he needs it to monitor heart rate and pulse for sports as he has stents. He found it highly unreliable. After a year now he finally invested in a better quality, it cost 180 on sale but the measurements are reliable and consistent. The cheap one was useless basically because it would ski between no heart beat detected (while running) and unlikely high reading s. He is tech savy and looked at hacks and fixes online but finally gave in and bought this one.
posted by 15L06 at 8:56 AM on March 15, 2018

This one
posted by 15L06 at 9:00 AM on March 15, 2018

Note that while there are optical HR monitoring wrist based devices that are waterproof, their accuracy in the water is questionable at best. All (to my knowledge) recommend wearing a chest strap specifically built to provide accurate HR data while swimming.
So if you want to keep wearing your device while you swim, that's one thing. But if you want accurate data while swimming, you'll need an HRM-TRI (as example) for the garmin vivofit3 ... and it doesn't look like the hrm-tri is compatible with the vivofit (I suspect the vivofit doesn't have ANT+ compatibility given it's price).
posted by nobeagle at 10:20 AM on March 15, 2018

Response by poster: Many thanks for your answers. However I will be going nowhere until discussing with my cardiologist
posted by lungtaworld at 4:26 PM on March 15, 2018

This is not in your price range, but given the free one-year premium memberships it comes with (MapMyRun ($30), Endomondo ($30), and MyFitnessPal ($50)), it may be of interest: Samsung GearFit 2 Pro. It can be used for swimming with the included Speedo app and works really well with my Samsung Note 8.

Review
posted by longdaysjourney at 5:41 PM on March 15, 2018

For up to date reviews on pretty much every heart rate monitor (HRM) produced, I'll direct you to DC Rainmaker's blog:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-reviews

For measuring heart rate, the first fork in the road is whether you can wear a chest band or want an optical sensor integrated into the watch itself. DC Rainmaker covers HR accuracy as part of his reviews, with actual data. The bad news here is that all of the watches that have optical sensors are jam packed with lots of other features, pushing them well outside of your price range. Good luck with your search!
posted by kovacs at 4:42 PM on March 16, 2018