Comparing Polar H7 vs Wahoo Tickr

Recently I bought a Wahoo Tickr heart rate monitor to replace the Polar H7 that died on me. I actually own 2 Polar H7 HRM, but I haven't had much luck in terms reliability. The first one I bought worked for about 10 months, then it started to malfunction. The symptoms were no bluetooth signal. I sent it in to get it serviced, which took about 2.5 weeks. I decided to order a new Polar H7 before I sent in the old one for service. That first unit ended up malfunctioning again after 2 weeks, so I sent it back again. The second time, Polar gave me a replacement, which seemed to work. A month after that, the soft strap started not working. I figured this out when I tested each sensor with both old and new straps. Once I realized the strap was bad, I ordered a new one and threw the bad one away.

Another 2 months after that, the second H7 started to go bad, so I sent that in for service. Even after getting it back, it still didn't work. I gave up and decided Polar's HRM isn't reliable over time. It works fine for the first 6-10 months, but soon after that it fails. Since I had great service from Wahoo for my speed/cadence sensor, I thought I'd give Wahoo Tickr a try. There's a couple of things I like about Tickr. The first is the 2 lights on the front that tell you the batter is good and sending bluetooth signal. The second is the strap is different than Polar soft strap. With the polar soft strap, the electrodes are bonded to the elastic strap, which over time gets stressed and worn out. In 16 months I've killed 2 polar soft straps. The wahoo strap has a different design, which I "feel" could improve reliability. The electrodes on the Wahoo strap are bonded to a material that doesn't stretch, which means the likelihood of it getting damaged is less likely. In terms of comfort, it feels about the same as the Polar soft strap. The second thing I like about Wahoo strap is it's easier to buckle compared to the Polar soft strap. A third benefit is the Tickr supports both ANT+ and bluetooth. When new firmware is available, you download it to the sensor. Polar H7 doesn't do that.

So far the Tickr hasn't had any issues. Only time will tell if Tickr will last longer than Polar H7. One thing is clear though, Wahoo's customer service is better right now.