Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap)

Much more comfortable & accurate than stock strap I bought this strap because I misplaced the stock strap that came with my Forerunner 305, and the pricing on this strap was only a few dollars more than the replacement for the stock strap. Anyway, I am REALLY glad I lost that old strap! I never really had issues with the old strap, but then again, I never knew how good things could be! This strap is 100 times more comfortable to wear, and I find I get a HR reading almost instantly, compared to the minute or two it took the old strap to start reading. I also want to note I usually had to completely wet down the old strap with water in order to get a good reading, but this one I either wet a tiny bit or sometimes not at all and I still get a quick and accurate reading. Also, I like how the strap snaps together in the front. Makes for less twisting to get it on right. One thing to note if you are using with the 305 (I can't speak for other models, but this may be the case with those as well)...you have to "link" the watch with the new HR strap otherwise you won't get a reading. This info is not located anywhere on the HR strap manual, so it took me a good 15 minutes or so of messing around with the watch to figure it out. I was about ready to return the thing thinking it was defective. Rating: 5 (Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap) customer review by Casey, 2010-08-31)

Best HR strap This is by far the best HR strap ever better than other brands Highly recomended Rating: 5 (Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap) customer review by Eric E. Guzman, 2010-07-14)

Works great and comfy Works great and is comfortable. Invaluable training tool paired w/ the GSC10 cadence sensor and my Garmin Edge 500. Rating: 5 (Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap) customer review by A. hay, 2010-07-13)

Good when maintained correctly The strap works well, but was giving me the same problems as indicated by B. C. Waldrop's review. My problem seemed to be the build up of salt on the unit from sweat after 1-1/2 months of use. The salt supposedly acts as a conductor and messes with the readings. When the strap would get wet during a workout I obtained readings up to 248 beats per minute. It seems to work fine now after rinsing completely after use with dishwashing detergent and water. If the problem occurs again, I can pair the Garmin sensor with a Polar Wearlink replacement strap. People report good results. I have tested the combination with my old Polar strap to obtain a heart rate readout, but I have not taken the two for a run since my problem seems to be fixed. I would not discourage anyone from buying this heart rate monitor. It is comfortable and there are free or relatively cheap solutions if an erratic heart rate readout problem does occur. You need to buy this heart rate monitor first to get the sensor. This recomendation does not apply to the non-premium strap. Rating: 4 (Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap) customer review by d999999, 2010-07-11)

Why Isn't this Standard Equipment? Shame on Garmin for not including this premium heart rate monitor strap as standard equipment with the Forerunners 305 and 405. This strap is dramatically superior to the uncomfortable and erratic plastic monitor strap that comes with the Forerunners. The premium strap is very soft and flexible which leads to greatly improved comfort. It begins sending heart rate information very quickly and is not too sensitive to the location of the strap or how wet the sensor areas are. It sends consistent readings as opposed to the standard strap which can send readings that fluctuate dramatically for no apparent reason. I get a lot of use out of my Forerunner and the old monitor strap was definitely a weak link. The premium strap matches the great performance aspects of the Forerunners. I would highly recommend this strap to any Garmin user that trains with the heart rate monitor. Rating: 5 (Garmin Premium heart rate monitor (soft strap) customer review by G. Williams, 2010-07-09)