I was wondering if anyone has had experience with the E200 Heart Rate Monitors from Polar? We have been using them for the past 4 years in our middle school. They are a great tool when they work properly. Our district's budget doesn't allow for the steep cost of sending them in to have the batteries replaced. We tried replacing them ourselves by following the instruction book that they came with. But we have only been able to get the time to come back up on the watches. Is there a special trick or suggestion someone might have to help with this problem.

Thank you in advance for any help!

I do not have the answer you are looking for, but we have used the e40 polar and have struggled with all of them working properly. There is always 2 or 3 students who cannot get the watches to work. As for the batteries we have had no problems.
Also the question I have is, how do you deal with sanitation with the elastic part of the band? We clean the plastic part with wipes. Our nurse came along and said we should not use them, from class to class, due to possible contaimination and the sweat factor?

Gary-

In our school we have 4 elastic bands for each HR monitor, we have them washed with the athletic uniforms or we wash them in the home ec/studies washing machines. They can get fairly disgusting so we are also looking into making the kids purchase their own chest strap as part of the course for this upcoming school year. As far as washing the monitors, the Polar rep recommended a spray bottle filled with simple green cleaner and water at 30:1 ratio (water 30 parts). Your school nurse should be o.k. with that I would imagine.

i am looking to purchace some for our school
how much money am i looking at and are they worth it

HI regarding the E200 we have had a problem with the batteries and financially it is hard to replace them. We did upgrade to the E600 which I have found that they last a little longer. But I have always had a problem with a couple of students not working, and if they stand too close to each other sometimes they will not get a accurate reading.
In regards to cleaning them i have had the students use alcohol wipes at the end of each class because we do use them often. It does become an issue if you do not clean them also because of MRSA.
In a perfect world every kid would have their own and the time for each class would be longer so that I would have more time to clean them and put them away.

We use the E600 at our middle school. We have 2 class sets and one set is about 7 or so years old. Those are the ones we are having difficulty with since they are so old. We send the watches for battery replacement and we have changed the transmitters (had to buy new ones) as we were told that those batteries die also especially if they are wet. If you put the transmitters away and they are still wet the battery in them is still on and will not turn off until it is dry. Some of the watches record too high of a heart rate and some record occasionally and is very frustrating to the kids that they do not work properly. However, the majority work o.k. We clean them with a disinfecting solution and wipe with baby wipes (half solution and half water; this is what the custodians use). We use to only clean with baby wipes (no scent no alcohol cuz it damages battery) but since the swine flu we had to be more alert. Hopes this helps!!

We use the E600 series at my school. We use zep tackle mixed with water in a spray bottle to disinfect our transmitters but we have been told to not to put them away soaking wet because the water is hard on the batteries. We have also used a disinfectant that the band uses on their mouthpieces that dries quickly and works well. (Sorry, I can't think of the name right now.)

We use Lysol wipes the clean the heart straps. We use polar monitors that interact with our spin bikes.