Heart rate straps are like toasters, according to Escape Collective editor-in-chief Caley Fretz. How so? Well, as Caley sees it, if you have one from 30 years ago, it probably still works, but buy one today, and it’ll probably die in a matter of months. I agree, and, in fact, I’ve seen straps die in a matter of weeks.
Truth be told, Wahoo and its Tickr strap were among the worst. I’ve a handful of flat-lining Tickrs in a drawer upstairs. But now, Wahoo has a new offering in its Trackr heart rate monitor, and five months of riding later, the Trackr is still going strong. All the indications so far suggest it’s certainly no toaster!
In fact, Wahoo has delivered a heart rate strap that not only works but it’s also accurate, comfortable, reliable, connects without issue, and generally just does what it says on the tin without fuss! Hallelujah!
The short of it: The Wahoo Trackr heart rate monitor with its rechargeable battery and subtle updates is a refreshing improvement, delivering reliability and durability compared to previous models.
Good stuff: Reliable, rechargeable, accurate, comfortable, and easy to live with. Multiple Bluetooth connections. Solid battery life. Eco-friendly packaging is a step in the right direction.
Bad stuff: Semi-proprietary charging cable. Its higher price.
What is old isn’t new
It felt like Polar had chest-strap heart rate measurement technology nailed down some 20 years ago. I used Polar watches and head units for the first five years or more I spent in cycling and I don’t ever recall a strap (watch or head unit) failing. Sure those old S520, 720, 720i watches and the CS 100, 200, and 400 head units didn’t do much other than count heart beats, kilometres per hour, and time, but the straps that came with them just worked and lasted. Then, as head unit manufacturers added GPS, power, fitness tracking, and all manner of other complex and usually useless metrics to our head units, and added Bluetooth and ANT+ to our heart rate straps, many of their straps lost all durability.
There are two many issues at the heart of the problem. Primarily for me, chest straps simply die all too often and all too quickly. Often this is due to poor sweat-proofing, a core requirement of any tech that’s placed against the body during exercise, you’d think. I also encountered issues with connectivity, fit, comfort, and accuracy – the latter being particularly problematic with the optical wrist sensors that many brands have adopted.
I’d tried numerous brands (including the modern Polar offerings, but admittedly none of the more recent Garmin straps) and tried all sorts to keep them alive: detaching the pod (the bit that clips onto the strap), washing the strap and connectors after every ride, using non-child-safe batteries (the child-safe bitter-tasting coatings may create a minor voltage drop from a coin cell battery), all things I never had to do 15 years ago. The low point was perhaps when one particularly poorly designed sensor pod popped off my chest and into the toilet I was standing over. I’ll save you any further details.
I stopped getting heart rate straps from various manufacturers replaced and relied on the often inaccurate data from a heart rate broadcasting watch because the strap replacements were simply a waste of everyone’s time, money, effort, and most of all, just a waste.
Long story short, while modern heart rate straps cram in way more capability like HRV, run data, music control, ECG etc etc, they more often than not just didn’t work when I got on the bike.
Part of me wonders if the rise in popularity (and duration) of indoor training is partly to blame. Things get awfully sweaty on an intense indoor session and I wonder if that increase is enough to overwhelm heart rate pods quicker given the comparative lack of cooling, base layers we typically don’t use indoors, and just generally a lot less movement.
On the face of it, the Trackr is like any other heart rate monitor and strap. A soft strap with conductive pads on the inside detects the heart’s electrical signals. A sensor pod housing the electronics that process these signals and broadcasts them to compatible devices attaches to the strap with a snap-button connection. But there are a few minor and one major difference between the Trackr and practically every other strap.
Let’s start with the major difference: the Trackr is a sealed unit with a rechargeable battery, meaning no more coin cell batteries and battery ports. Part of the issue with many straps is the sealing around the battery port, which is difficult to, well, seal properly. As such, our salty sweat will likely find a way in and kill any heart rate pod.
The new Trackr pod’s entirely sealed unit and rechargeable lithium-ion battery should eliminate the main channel for sweat ingress and, thus, the likelihood of sweat-induced failure. So far, it looks pretty effective, but I’ll get back to durability and reliability in a bit.
Battery life is a claimed 100+ hours of active use and it’s recharged with a semi-proprietary magnetic USB-C cable. It’s not actually proprietary, as the pod has the same cable attachment as those used by Shokz in its bone-conducting headphones, but it’s also not a commonly available cable. Lucky for me, I bought a pair of Shokz a few years back, and so now, having two of these cables does help when inevitably I can’t find this unique charger head when the time comes to charge either. There are now two needles in the haystack.
Wahoo tells us there are more updates hidden inside the strap as well with new internal components on both the strap and sensor pod for improved accuracy and reliability. The updates also include new, larger electrodes with increased surface area and a rubber coating running the entire width of the front. In fact, the inner surface of the front of the strap is now effectively one continuous, sealed, non-stretch electrode pad rather than the two separate pads as used previously on the Tickr. Wahoo claims this approach shields and eliminates noise in the data, improving accuracy and reliability, but it does mean the strap is inherently less stretchy and accommodating to the chest.
The strap closure also gets an update, with Wahoo ditching the old combined approach, which saw the sensor pod double up as the closure buckle for the strap in the centre of the chest, replacing it with a hook and loop closure moved to the side of the chest. The new closure is perfectly un-noteworthy, as it should be, and the new pod is smaller. A win-win on the comfort front.
Like any decent strap these days, the Trackr offers both ANT+ and Bluetooth connectivity. Where the Trackr goes a step further is in providing not two but actually three simultaneous Bluetooth connections. Three might seem like overkill, but for those riding indoors using a Bluetooth connection with a virtual platform, maybe running on Apple TV, and perhaps a head unit for secondary recording, it’s not unusual to need a third connection. I have an unproven theory that some of the connectivity issues I had previously could come from the heart rate strap switching between devices and the connection to my phone required during initial setup with the Wahoo app. Wahoo has now also included HRV measurement capability to its new strap.
LED indicators on the pod indicate the Trackr’s battery and connection status. While charging, red, orange, green flashing, and solid green indicate 0-25%, 25-50%, 50-99%, and full charge, respectively. When unplugged, an orange triple-flash shows 5-25% battery, and a red two-second flash means 0-5%. At under 5%, the device will shut down, briefly flashing red if powered on before shutting down again … good if you want to know your strap has a little bit of power left you can’t use.
When pairing with the Wahoo app, the Trackr’s LED flashes blue slowly when searching, flashes quickly while connecting, and shows solid blue once connected. The LED turns off after 30 seconds to save battery. Ironically, the only connection issue I’ve encountered with the new Trackr so far is in connecting to the Wahoo app after changing my phone. So much so, I’ve now just given up having tried several times and not really knowing why I even want to connect to a Wahoo app other than for firmware updates.
Kind of surprisingly given that sealed sensor pod, the Trackr has an IPX7 waterproof rating, the same rating the Tickr had previously. IPX7 means the device can be submerged in up to 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes. In other words, it should be fine in the rain and with sweat exposure which are common during workouts. However, it’s not designed for extended immersion like swimming.
I’d have preferred to see a higher rating given the previously problematic Tickr strap had the same IPX7 rating and some Garmin and Polar straps are rated higher, but to its credit, the Trackr hasn’t missed a beat yet, and I haven’t done anything different or extra to protect it than I did previously with the Tickr. Again, more details on my testing in a bit.
On the topic of water, Wahoo hadn’t swim-tested the new strap (specifically for chlorinated or salt water durability) as of our presentation call, but regardless, with no onboard data storage and because Bluetooth does not transmit underwater, the Trackr is not a strap for those who enjoy a few lengths.
Inside the new boxes are the new Trackr strap, the sensor pod, and that USB-C charging cable with the magnetic end. The strap and pod together weigh – and Wahoo claims the strap is adjustable from 26.25″ to 34.5″ (66.7 cm to 87.6 cm) to fit up to 50″ (127 cm) chests.
As for cleaning, Wahoo recommends removing the sensor pod before gently hand-washing the strap in warm water, while machine washing is not recommended. Rinsing the strap in warm water between washes, without the pod, helps remove salt deposits from the skin contact pads to maintain conductivity. Ensure the sensor pod is completely dry before attaching the charging cable.
For what it’s worth, I weighed my Trackr at 41 grams (strap and sensor pod together), 1 gram below Wahoo’s claimed 42 gram weight. In a neat little ease-of-use addition, Wahoo has printed each Trackr’s unique broadcasting ID on the inside surface of each sensor pod, handy if you are trying to pair in an environment with multiple sensors broadcasting at once.
Finally, Wahoo has replaced its previous packaging with new recyclable cardboard boxes, also reducing the size of the packaging to what it says is the absolute minimum. It’s a small thing, no pun intended, but it’s better done than not done.
All this comes at a premium, though. At US$90 (AU$150/ £80 / €90) the Trackr is far from cheap; in fact it’s about double the price of many heart rate straps, including Wahoo’s own Tickr. Although, given my experience of the Tickr’s failure rate, I’d argue it is expensive at half the price. Still, at £80 (where I am), that’s a lot of moolah for technology, which, again, we had nailed down 20 years ago. Besides the addition of ANT+, Bluetooth, HRV and, in this case, a rechargeable battery, on the face of it, the technology hasn’t really changed since. All that said, if the Trackr delivers on its reliability and ease-of-use promise, that price tag might just be worth it.
Testing
My heart rate strap testing protocol is pretty simple: I wet the strap (if I remember to) under a light tap, place it on my chest, go bike riding, vent with fury when it doesn’t work or connect, come home, hang it in the bathroom, repeat the next day. No washing, no disconnecting pods, no sacrificial offerings to the heart rate gods, just regular use like in the olden days … circa 2005. A pass is effectively anything that achieves “fit and forget” status.
My process with the Trackr has been identical, with one exception. The Trackr has replaced that middle “vent with fury when it doesn’t work or connect” step, with a new step: “be pleasantly surprised by the instant connection, zero dropouts, and reliable data.” In other words, the Trackr has just worked, simply, reliably, and perfectly throughout.
Expecting that something just works should be the bare minimum for any product, but few products have pleased me as much this year as the Trackr has by just working. Of course, I’m aware four months isn’t exactly a long time in product reliability testing, and in typing this, I’ve probably cursed myself and the Trackr will be dead on my very next ride. But given my experience with heart rate straps I am confident 1) the Trackr is a night-and-day improvement over the Tickr and 2) I would by now have exposed any weaknesses. Just to be sure, I asked around some others using the Trackr and got only good feedback.
Is it comfortable? Yeah, as comfortable as adding a belt to your chest can be (I can’t speak of adding it beneath a sports bra. I suspect the new larger strap won’t solve the discomfort issue I know exists in combining a sports bra with a heart rate strap).
Is it accurate? I’m going to say yes, but with the caveat that I don’t have another working chest heart rate strap to compare it with and I don’t need side by side comparison to know it is much more accurate than the various sports watches I have that measure heart rate at the wrist. Not once have I looked down at a Trackr reading and questioned the accuracy of the number I was seeing – it’s always been in the zone of where I thought I was, versus the wrist monitors that often show all manner of crazy numbers.
That said, I have used the DC Rainmaker analyser tool to compare data from two watches and the Trackr. Unsurprisingly, the data from both watches had clear issues, while the Trackr data was consistent throughout. Was it beat-for-beat perfectly matched to my heart? I can’t be sure, but given many have questioned if I have a heart at all, it was close enough for my liking.
As for the battery, my own experience doesn’t match that claimed 100+ hours of active use. I’ve done just over 100 hours of riding in the five months since I got the Trackr, but I’ve had to charge it at least twice, possibly three times. I lost track of hours of usage at some point and thus don’t have a measured figure for battery life and to start again would delay this review by four to six months on my current training rate.
One such charge came after the initial couple of months of riding with the strap. The second came after a lengthy six-week block entirely off the bike (the pod had been connected throughout). Of course, as luck would have it, that second charge coincided with a trip to Majorca, and of course, I hadn’t packed the partially proprietary charging cable with me, which rendered the strap useless for that week. Wahoo’s choice of cable style was pretty frustrating that week.
Of course, as I already mentioned, I am lazy and don’t detach the sensor pod from the strap between rides, and this could have led to the decreased battery life I experienced. Wahoo does say the sensor does enter a low-power standby mode after 1-2 minutes without skin contact, so it can be stored attached to the strap. However, dampness on the pads can delay standby mode and thus eat up battery life; Wahoo says disconnecting the sensor from one of the two snap rivet connections can prevent this. Wahoo also advises storing the unit with at least 30% charge when not in use for long periods.
All that said, overall, I am more than happy with the battery life and performance. Yes it would be nice if Wahoo could have found a way to have the charger port on the pod be a USB-C and yes there are questions around long term durability and life cycle of a rechargeable battery, but hey, it’s already outlasting practically every other strap I’ve had in recent memory.
Most pleasing is that I simply don’t have to think about it. I put the Trackr on, turn on my head unit – be it Garmin, Coros, or one of Wahoo’s own – and it connects reliably and quickly every time, usually before I’ve even checked if it is connected. No more rolling down the road searching for heart rate straps or shuffling through layers to wet the electrodes or disconnecting and reconnecting the sensor pod. With the Trackr I haven’t even needed to soak the strap before putting it on.
Finally, there’s the price. As mentioned earlier, the Trackr is not cheap, but for once I’m OK with that price premium given the Trackr’s durability so far. That price is only about a tenner more than I paid for a Polar H10 only to have two of those (one a warranty replacement) break in a very short period.
Again, my positivity is founded in the fact the Trackr simply works and works well. While that should be the minimum we expect of anything, it is in fact the exception when it comes to heart rate straps. Again, I’ve probably cursed myself and the Trackr with all this positivity, and as such I fully expect it to fail in the coming days. If that does happen, I’ll be sure to update this review.
Did we do a good job with this story?