Q: Choosing a Heart Rate Monitor: I would like to buy my husband a gift of a heart rate monitor for his running. There are so many choices, how do I pick one?

A: In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I have worked for both Polar and Nike as a paid consultant. So, you might do better to ask the folks at your local running store for their impressions of other company's monitors. I feel qualified to comment on the products of just these two companies. That said, let me mention what I consider each company's strong points and weaknesses.

Polar is certainly acknowledged as the gold standard for reliability and accuracy. They've been in this business much longer than anyone else and have had the best results ironing out the bugs. Unfortunately, their designers and engineers have a tendency to build so many features into their monitors that it often takes a PhD in VCR/DVD programming in order to operate all but their most basic models. And your husband will probably need more than just a monitor that tells him only his HR.

Probably the most frequent complaint about Polar is the time it takes for their service department to replace worn out batteries in the chest transmitter strap. Years ago, in order to solve a water-proofing challenge, Polar decided to simply encase the transmitter unit in solid rubber. That means they have to replace the entire unit when the battery dies and the process usually takes a couple of weeks using standard mail. Fortunately, battery life is supposed to be about 2 years with normal usage.

Nike heart rate monitors are the model of simplicity and ease of use due to their commitment to the KISS principle. The display of the HR and time numbers are very easy to read due to their big size. The logic of the access to the features in their receiving watches is much more runner friendly than Polar's. The buttons are easier to reach and push due to the "S" shaped design of all their watches and receivers.

Unfortunately, while the accuracy of their monitors is pretty close to Polar's, Nike still has little bit of improving on their product reliability. There is one manufacturing bug in which the wrist strap occassionally needs fixing.  In recognition of that problem, their service dept seems more inclined to replace defective units with new ones.  And Nike does have the option of changing batteries without sending the units to their service department, although I'd recommend having a local watch maker do the job in order to protect the waterproofing seals. One other short-coming with Nike monitors is the not-very-loud alarm system when you are out of your target HR range. It might be too easy to simply ignore the alarm and thus defeat the whole purpose of using the monitor.

You might want to check out each company's web site in order to get more details on features and costs. And maybe they have recently improved on the limitations that I mentioned above.

Good luck.
     --Coach Benson