The value of a heart rate monitor can not be over-estimated in its ability to make your exercise workout programs more effective, monitor your progress and maintain your safety.

Best Heart-Rate Monitors

Polar has more many years been the the industry leader in best heart-rate monitors. Other popular brands include:

Acumen Eon
Cardio Sport
Nike
Timex
FitSense
Sports Instruments

Polar Heart Rate Monitors

The Polar A-Series is designed for the beginning to intermediate exerciser and is easy to use for everyday workouts.

Polar A3 Heart Rate Monitor - is an easy to use, highly accurate heart rate monitor with an array of features.... read review
Polar A5 Heart Rate Monitor - a reliable, good basic monitor provides a few more features such as Selfwalk Test.... read review

The Polar S-Series Heart Rate Monitors - have advanced features to help assess the effectiveness of workouts and provide analysis. Models include:

Polar F11 - similar features to the S-series, but with workout program features that can be tailored to your personal goals...read review.

Best Budget Heart Rate Monitors

Polar A3 - touted as the best overall basic budget heart monitor.

Acumen Eon Basix ES (*est. $55) - Prevention magazine ranked this heart-rate monitor as the best choice for novices. It is water resistant up to thirty meters so is a good design for kayakers and rowers. Features include: an in-zone goal countdown timer, calorie count, target zone alarms, and self-replaceable batteries.

Acumen Eon Basix Plus - a higher-end version of the Eon Basix ES heart-rate monitor.

CardioSport Go 10 (*est. $70) - also well rated by Prevention magazine as its favorite model overall. It has a well chosen set of essential features: maximum, minimum, and average heart rate, out-of-zone alarms, a timer and feedback control. Also has user-replaceable batteries on the chest strap.

CardioSport Go 20 (*est. $80) - a womens model and favorite with About.com as one of the best monitors under $100. The Go 20 heart-rate monitor features a countdown timer, stopwatch, alarm, and time/day readout.

Most Featured Heart Rate Monitor

Garmin Forerunner 301 (*est. $300) - named by Outside Magazine as a "2005 Gear of the Year" product. Also a global positioning system (GPS)

To understand more about features on heart rate monitors - Read This First.

Top 5 Customer Rankings

From customer reviews we found that the top 5 models were equally supported, based largely on the specific feature wanted by each particular user. But these Top 5 give you a good range to choose from.

Rank	Model	Prices from Bizrate.com	Details from Amazon.com
2	Polar F11	(*est. $150)	details
2	Garmin Forerunner 301	(*est. $300)	details
2	Polar S625X	(*est. $350)	details
2	Acumen Eon Basix ESX	(*est. $150)	-
2	Polar A3	(*est. $75)	-
1	CardioSport Go 10 Polar A5 Polar FS2 Polar M61 Nike Triax CV10 Nike Triax CS Timex Speed and Distance System Timex Ironman HRM Sports Instruments Fit 3 Mark of Fitness MF-180 FitSense FS-1 Oregon Scientific Wireless EKHO E-15

Special Purpose Heart Rate Monitors

Some sports demand certain form features, whilst others require functionality features.

Hearth Rate Monitors For Swimming

If you're planning to use your monitor for swimming, you need one that's waterproof, which most units claim to be (except the Garmin Forerunner 301). Polar heart-rate monitors are constructed as one piece, with no seams to allow water inside.

Advanced Sports Heart Rate Monitors

S810i (*est. $340) - interacts with your computer using IR interface to review performance data and analyse using computer program.
Acumen PE-Sport (*est. $300) - unlimited user IDs andexercise data memory for up to ten users. It has three custom target heart rate zones with alarms
Smart View - includes a stopwatch, computer interface and software.