POLAR H7 Bluetooth Heart Rate Sensor

This is just a quick heads up for new buyers; I’ll review the product in more detail as I use it.
The instructions that come with the sensor are terrible. There’s basically a description on how to put the strap/sensor on, but not really anything about pairing to Bluetooth. There are no pairing buttons or switches, the bluetooth and pairing start when you attach the sensor to the strap which contains the electrodes. There are no LED’s to tell you that you are paired or in pairing mode. In order to pair you need three things which the instructions, in a sense, tell you. However, the instructions make it seem as if these steps are used to wear and use the sensor, not that it is necessary to follow the steps for pairing.

In short, you must:
1) Wet the electrodes (which is the plasticized part on the strap, although the illustration makes it appear that you wet the strap)
2) Place the strap on your chest! This is required because it helps the electrodes to connect, I suppose. Or maybe it needs to receive a heartbeat. In any case, in order to pair, the strap must be on your chest and
3) you need to attach the sensor to the strap (which should be obvious).

My Samsung Galaxy 7 (Android) would not find the sensor after a scan until I first installed the Polar Beat app (free) on the phone. I had to use the Polar Beat app to pair the sensor to the phone, it would not pair up using the phone’s Bluetooth setting. Once it paired up, pairing with my other app, MapMyRun, was very easy.

It would not seem likely that you’d need to wear it in order to pair it, and it would be a lot better if the instructions made that clear. Research on the web also mentioned “keeping it close, like in your front pants pocket”. It took me a while to realize that they were talking about the phone, not the sensor.

I hope that this helps you in setting up and saving some frustration.

One other thing: I have seen reviews where people cannot get the battery cover open without stripping it. Indeed, they say to use a coin to unscrew the cover but since this was designed in Finland, perhaps they are thinking of a Finnish Marrka or Euro coin. In any case, I found that a 1980’s era NYC subway token worked fine but that, as others mentioned, a US quarter or nickel would strip the screw slot.

So far, with a very light workout, once set up, the sensor seems to work just fine. I compared the results with a hospital quality blood pressure meter and a finger pulse oximeter and the readings all matched, so that part is great.

I’ll review further as it gets more use. So far, so good. 5 stars with one deducted for poor instructions and lack of a visible pairing indicator.

Edit: June 2018 – I’ve been using this at least 5 hours a week for about 18 months now. I have changed the battery just once in that time; I imagine I’ll probably replace it again in another month or two. The strap is washed every time I wear it (I just take it into the shower with me after I run) and it’s starting to fray a bit, but will likely last quite a while longer before I may need to replace it. I am upgrading my review from 4 stars to 5 because, despite the trouble I had setting it up and getting a bad unit, it has worked very well and very consistently. I also deducted 1 star due to the lack of a pairing indicator. While this is true (it would be nice to have a light on the sensor) you can tell if it’s paired by checking the app on your phone. As regards the instructions, this has been out long enough now that all you need to do is look online and find reviews such as this one and you’ll find help if you’re having issues setting it up.

Yo lo compré para medir la variabilidad de mi ritmo cardiaco (hrv) y funciona super bien, lo utilizo con la app Elite HRV de android (también utilizo la app de polar).

Antes de comprarlo me preocupaba el hecho de que en las descripciones del h7 decian que solo funcionaba con un puñado de celulares con android (puro de gama alta) y yo no tenía ninguno de los que mencionaban. Aun asi me arriesgué y lo compré ya que tengo una tablet samsung galaxy tab 4 y en ella funcionó perfectamente y también tengo un celular samsung de los más baratitos con kitkat y también funcionó solo que no tan bien ya que el celular es muy lento.

En el anuncio decía que si lo pedia antes de tres horas el h7 me llegaría al día siguiente, así lo hice y fue verdad me llegó en la tarde del día siguiente, aunque si pides que te llegue al día siguiente, te sale más caro.

Tengo pocos días con él y no le he usado mucho, me preocupa un poco la duración de la batería ya que no es recargable.

Otra cosa que he notado es que no funciona muy bien estando acostado ya que si estás boca arriba y te mueves la banda se atora con la cama se desacomoda y a veces hasta los sensores se despegan y se pierde la lectura y si estás boca abajo pues el h7 es incomodo, lo mejor es usarlo de pie o sentado, no lo he probado en el agua.

This review is more about Polar customer service than the product.

The V800, the Polar Loop, the H7, and the H7 strap are great, really great in fact, but customer service is horrible – here is the exact feedback (below) that I sent to Polar.

Please note, this is the 4th H7 unit I have used or purchased and I have a Polar Loop which is great also.

I have recorded hundreds of workouts with the H7 and it works really well – but after about 10 months my went a little wanky. It was covered under warranty which was good, but I felt that I need to post my feedback to Polar to let everyone know about my customer service experience with them.

So here are all my customer service issues below.

To Polar:

BTW – this exact feedback is going on heartratemonitorsusa.com, amazon.com, AND dcrainmaker.com and any where else I can find to put it.

Poorly and improperly staffed – no information about doing inventory so I would wait on the phone for 20 minutes to have your voice service tell me that someone would call me back which they never did – waste of 20 minutes – this happened 4 separate times.

End of year update broke automatic GPS start location which I have reported 2 times – the first time the CSR did not record the error message – found this out when I called back in about a separate issue and decided to do a follow-up.

The error message is as follows – “A. lap location not saved. No GPS data available.” I assume that A. means “automatic “. So when Automatic Lap is chosen in a sport profile and set to Location – this error message pops up. Never happened before the update.

Server maintenance was not re-announced after an announcement saying it would be delayed, so I spent an hour and did a botched factory reset on the day the servers went down because the error message in Polar FlowSync said that it COULDN’T sync with the V800 – nothing about the servers being down – I thought I had an issue with the watch. You have our emails – send out a notification for gosh sakes. How hard is that to do? It is the little things that make the difference.

You “lost” my warranty repair replacement watch band (sitting on a shelf per the CSR) – so I had to zip tie my watch onto my wrist for almost a month. I would not have know about this unless I would not have called in to follow-up because I was waiting for so long for it to arrive in the mail. I was told 3-5 business days and I waited an extra week because of the holidays. I you would have sent it out the first day I called (which you could have) it would have been here before the new year.

You “repaired” my HR7 improperly – in fact you didn’t repair it – you sent back a new strap instead of replacing transmitter – when I received the unit back, it still did not work (after almost 4 weeks) which is totally unacceptable.

Poor technical support delayed my return of the unit for a week – the CSR REFUSED to listen to me about my understanding that it was the transmitter and NOT THE STRAP.

Luckily I had decided to buy a new Polar HR7 from a store – I did this before I sent the unit in to be repaired. And guess what – the new unit worked instantly. In fact, I had access to another Polar HR7 and it worked perfectly also. I was so irritated when I tried out the unit you sent back. I couldn’t believe you guys just didn’t send out a new unit. And your repair notes STILL say it was the strap which is a lie. At this point, I don’t think you even tested the unit.

Your alert messages in the IVR are complete lies. You did not have high call volume, you were understaffed doing inventory. I know this because I was in call center work for almost 15 years. Quit lying to your customers – it reduces your integrity.

You have wasted my time, stretched my patience, and lied too many times for me to trust you. Sad thing is that your products are awesome and have helped me lose 45 lbs after being sick for several years.

The more I deal with you, the more I am reminded of all the sorry customer service that ICON FITNESS provides for all their treadmills and such – just horror stories that never end. That is why we have not purchased a home treadmill – TRUST.

As you try to gain ground in the activity fitness tracker world you better learn this – trust, integrity, and customer service generates and RETAINS customers. You have too many competitors to screw up for even a short period.