Garmin HRM-Dual heart rate monitor review

If you’re serious about training, you’ll want to use a heart rate strap. We check out Garmin’s standard device

Cycling Weekly Verdict

Garmin’s heart rate monitor is comfortable to wear and does all it should, but it’s not the cheapest option available

Reasons to buy
  • +

    ANT+ and Bluetooth so works with all head units

  • +

    Long battery life

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Need to unscrew back to replace battery

  • -

    Not the cheapest option

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Getting insights into your heart rate, how it responds to exercise and how it varies over time is key to effective training. Despite the emphasis on power measurement, you need to couple this with heart rate data to understand how your fitness changes, how much effort you’re putting in to push out a specific number of watts and plan your training and recovery effectively. The Garmin HRM-Dual is one of the best heart rate monitors that you could use to get this data.

And the best way to get an accurate heart rate measurement as you train is to use a chest strap. Optical wrist based measurement may be more comfortable and less intrusive, but it can be a lot less accurate, particularly when you’re exercising, when the combination of motion and sweat is a problem.

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