Mio Heartrate Monitor review needed
My garmin heartrate monitor seems to be cooked. After 3-4 years of semi-good service, I bought a new strap earlier this year which seemed to work. But sadly, it's not been working well for the last couple of weeks and now it seems to be not working at all. I've tried new batteries a couple of times, and that's not fixing things. My guess is it is the monitor itself at this point and not the strap.
My initial thought was to just buy a new garmin monitor, but I've been reading a bit about the Mio monitors and was thinking that it may be nice not to deal with the strap, sweat, chafing, etc. The Mio Velo seems like the best fit for me since I do not need an extra display. I'd be using this with a garmin 910xt and a garmin 500.
Does anyone have a Mio or tried one? Isnitbworth the extra $? I'm looking for any positives or negatives that anyone would share about experiences.... I've read DCR's review, but it was for a different model that has a display.
Thanks!
My initial thought was to just buy a new garmin monitor, but I've been reading a bit about the Mio monitors and was thinking that it may be nice not to deal with the strap, sweat, chafing, etc. The Mio Velo seems like the best fit for me since I do not need an extra display. I'd be using this with a garmin 910xt and a garmin 500.
Does anyone have a Mio or tried one? Isnitbworth the extra $? I'm looking for any positives or negatives that anyone would share about experiences.... I've read DCR's review, but it was for a different model that has a display.
Thanks!
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Comments
The only issue I see, as Roy mentions, is the battery life. They claim up to 10 hours. As much as I'd like to speed up my IM times, I doubt I'll ever see sub 10! That's somewhat frustrating since I'd like to train and race using the same device, but as we've all seen before, the technology for this sport of ours always seems to soak up more $$ from us
Thanks to the team here, I bought a MIO a several weeks ago. I LOVE it. I don't use power so the HR data needs to be consistent and accurate. The MIO is spot on.
My biggest reason for getting it was that the typical HR monitor with strap would become annoying while running any distance more than about 30-40 minutes, the more I sweat it wants to start moving and slipping down. If I were to tighten it only becomes more uncomfortable, so I went with the wrist mounted one. I have not had it long enough to have a real battery life test to see how long it really lasts.
Maybe for a couple more bucks http://www.mioglobal.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=29 the Fuse claims to have a long enough battery life with the units display turned off.
Good Luck Brad
In a turn of events, I dug out a very old Polar heart rate strap from a drawer yesterday that fit my garmin monitor, just to be 100% certain it wasn't my strap. I did 1 hour on the bike with it, and after getting it a bit sweaty, what do you know? I got good readings! So I guess my newer strap has gone bad again and it's not my monitor after all. That being said, I think I'll probably get a Mio anyway for comfort sake while training...especially after reading your comments on it!
@Stephanie - consistency is paramount. I'd read some reviews from some people who claimed that it wasn't consistant, but I'd trust advice from the EN gang as well as the DCR review I read,so thanks.
@John - I saw the other models do have longer battery life. Maybe because they are a bit larger?but spending $200 for a hr monitor starts to make me think I'm crazy. The Link model originally had 6 hour battery life when released, and Mio was able to up it to what they claim is 10 now. Maybe they can do better..who knows.
So I found a Mio Link advertised at REI for $74 - here's the link if anyone's interested (free shipping included!):
http://www.rei.com/product/881724
This was too good to pass up so I ordered it last week and received it a couple days later. Set up was fairly easy and I tested it out on the bike yesterday and on a run today. I have to say, that I'm pretty happy with it so far. Readings were smooth without any drops. Not having the annoying feeling of the chest strap is liberating!
Thanks again -Brad
1. To get a device which could easily record my resting heart rate without having to ware a chest strap
2. The ability to record my heart rate while swimming.
After using it for a few days, here is some of the issues I have with the product.
1. You cannot download the data from the Mio app. Not sure if/when this will change in the next version of the app. If you need to download data, it has to be paired with a Garmin/polar etc
2. Based on my research, when paired with Garmin, some of the stats such a vo2 estimation and recovery intervals will not be correct with any optical heart rate measuring device.
I do have a 920 and the run chest strap that comes with it. I intended to use the Garmin 920 and the Garmin run HRM but was hoping to fuse the swimming heart rate from the Mio fuse post workout on training peaks. But that doesn't seem to be possible since the workout data cannot be downloaded from the Mio device natively other than being viewed on the phone.
Fuse is the only mio that MAY last an ironman.
The Link doesn't have a digital display like some of the more expensive Mio products, but I did notice that the indicator light changed colors when I was working harder and obviously got out of zone 1. I did 100's and 50's today, so I'm not surprised
Either way, I don't really need the HR data for my swim. I'm just happy to have something more steady for bike and run. A bit of a bummer that the battery life is <10hours on my model, but I have 4 1/2 months until I race IMMT and it'll suffice for most of my training. <br />
Also like the fact that the Link works with ANT+ and Bluetooth, which makes it easy to use with a Wahoo Kickr.
@Dino - would you buy it again?
I can't say I would recommend it, at least not for me. I seem to have an especially difficult time with it on the run. Will stop reading HR, or read HR numbers that are whack. Often turning it off and on will reset it and it will work normally again.
I'm sure that part of my issue is that I haven't trained with HR for so long and I need to do my homework with determining real, no-shit sport-specific HR zones. And I also need to borrow an HR strap and compare the two side by side.
@Joe - I have been using it consistently on bike and run for 2-3 months now. It works great for me almost all the time. I say "almost" only because it seems like I'll get a false reading for a few minutes on a rare occasion, and then it will correct itself. I've not had to re-sync, etc.
I also got to wear it throughout the entire Quassy HIM this past weekend without incident. Battery life was fine, and that includes me turning it on about 1 hour prior to swim start in transition. I wore it through swim, bike and run...readings were solid for bike and run throughout.
The only negative I'd give it is the fact that I wear it on the same wrist as my Garmin 910 and between the 2 devices, its a bit of hardware there. I was concerned about removing wetsuit, but this wasn't an issue. In comparison to me wearing a chest strap and all the bad readings I was getting over the past year with mine, I'm a big fan of the Mio. I have the Mio Link.
...and today it worked fine during my run. Worked well this weekend on the bike, but was whack on my long run on Friday, so...
Again, I need to test out an HR strap. Dunno, maybe my girlie wrists are just whack...
Rich, when you had the wackiness, were your arms wet already? The review that DC Rainmaker posted indicated that optical HR monitors can have problems when put on wet arms. That said, I put on my MIO in T1 at Raleigh and turned it on, and my Garmins (both 910 and 510) instantly picked it up, and it appeared accurate based on past experience.
Like Rachel said, the whole tan line thing is interesting -- I also end up with a watch line, a MIO line and a RoadID line. I think it was Roy Ezell who said in another thread about the Link that he feels like he is going to a Tiffany concert with all of the wrist jewelery! I agree, but it works for me and is MUCH better than a chest strap. I highly recommend the MIO Link.
Last year after RAGBRAI I had the garmin line, road ID line, and tanned knuckles from fingerless gloves.
Now the MIO line is a nice addition.