Mark of Fitness MF-180
Heart Rate Monitor

Mark of Fitness MF-180 is a finger heart rate monitor for use with walking and jogging. It uses a finger wrap sensor wrapped around your index finger to detect the passage of pulses.

Important Note: Mark of Fitness MF-180 is obsolete. Please take a look at ePulse2, a new strapless heart rate monitor that simply wraps around your forearm and provides continuous heart rate monitoring.

The main features of the MF-180 monitor are:

• Continuous heart rate monitoring without the use of chest strap
• Manual setting of heart rate training zone (target zone)
• Heart rate can be set and displayed as BPM or % of Max HR
• Out of zone alarm will sound if you train outside your target zone
• Calories burnt during exercise are calculated based on your age, weight, sex and heart rate. You can also store up to 8 individual calories burnt data.
• Stop watch to start and stop exercise session
• Lap recording: up to 8 laps. You can later review your split and lap times.
• Time (and % of total time) spent in target zone
• Recovery heart rates can be recorded after your exercise. You can later see how fast your heart rate gets back to resting level.
• Basic Time Keeping: Time and alarm
• Backlight
• Self-changed battery

Summary

The MF-180 heart rate monitor can be a useful tool in the right conditions. However, you can't use it to do strenuous exercises. It is not supposed to be used for exercises like aerobics when movement of hands is excessive. It is also not meant to be used for cycling, as your hand will be gripping the bike handle, restricting blood flow and hence affecting the reading. This is not an ECG type of equipment and it relies on detecting blood pulses through your finger, whose frequency can well be different from your actual heart rate. However, if you are willing to put up with these limitations, it can well be a very useful device, particularly for people who walk or jog as their main form of exercises. The user reviews on Amazon are generally quite positive about this product.

Finger HRM: Mark of Fitness MF-180, PowerGlove, Carepeutic KH249

Not sure which heart rate monitor is right for you? Take a look at the Which Heart Rate Monitor page.