Hi there, I currently have a Polar M430 HRM, which reads my heart rate from my wrist and works well for jogs. I would like my heart rate recorded on zwift, so I was wondering if there is a way for me to connect my M430 to Zwift so I have a heart rate on zwift. I use a mac so I have bluetooth, but I have a ANT+ dongle too.
Here is what I think my options are and what I am considering.
Use Polar M430 to broadcast heart rate to zwift via bluetooth. (Most preferred)
Is it possible? If so, how do I do it?
Change to a Garmin. Probably Forerunner 235, 645, Fenix 5, or Vivoactive 3.
Will any of these options be able to transmit wrist-based heart rate to Zwift? If so, how do I do it?
Get a Wahoo Tickr/Tickr X chest strap
Will this be able to give heart rate data to both the Polar and Laptop at the same time?
Additionally, will the tickr x’s running analytics show up nicely on Polar Flow?
Appreciate if you guys can help me out with my questions or give me some form of advice. I would appreciate it even if you can share your experiences and solutions to this too.
Wrist base HRM are not nearly as accurate as a chest strap HRM, so if you are training with HR your only real option is a chest strap.
A Wahoo Tickr can broadcast to 2 different devices, but not via Bluetooth. One could use Bluetooth and the other would need to use ANT+ since Bluetooth can only connect to one device or app at a time.
I see a couple of comments from August 2017 that the M430 does not broadcast heart rate to other devices outside the Polar brand:
Wahoo’s heart rate monitors will broadcast the standard Bluetooth and ANT+ signals you need. They have an arm band model if you prefer. Scosche has the Rhythm+ arm band monitor which also gets good reviews for accuracy and compatibility.
Thanks for this, I’m okay with the slightly lower accuracy from the wrist-based monitor, I’ve noticed it to be quite close to my previous chest strap that broke. Just want something that will allow my results on zwift to be recorded. Seems like Tickr is a good option for me so it can connect to both zwift and my polar unit at the same time. Do you know if the Tickr X is worth the money, if its running analytics can be sent over to Polar Flow easily?
How does this fair as compared to wrist-based? The LED lights seem similar so I’m not too sure whether it will be paying extra for something that doesn’t improve accuracy as compared to wrist-based. Any thoughts on this?
DC Rainmaker has reviews on each product that you can check out to see what fits your needs. Apparently the scosche rhythm+ has very good accuracy, but I have heard that so does the Tickr.