Poolmate watch

RE: Poolmate watch

mjtyson — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:15:11 GMT

My poolmate display is also acting squirrelly. I'm getting annoyed. I hope that someone will have used the Finis Swimsense and review it before I just break down and buy it. Of course, 200 clams is a lot...

RE: Poolmate watch

orca1946 — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 12:45:59 GMT

O K ? A swim watch that does not let you use buttons when under water seems as if it's going to fail !!:badday:

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:08:57 GMT

O K ? A swim watch that does not let you use buttons when under water seems as if it's going to fail !!:badday: Not really. The owner's manual for a Timex Ironman 1440 watch states "to maintain water resistance, do not press any buttons underwater". The Pool-Mate is water-resistant, not water-proof. I've owned several water-resistant watches that have performed well when wet, including my two Pool-Mates.

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:22:39 GMT

Being a tech guy, I am one of those strange people that actually read manuals thoroughly ... LOL!! I'm a technical writer and I wish there were more people out there like you. :applaud:

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:18:14 GMT

Thanks for your input Debaru, I am a techno geek and love this kind of stuff and am dissapointed that it did not work out. Being a tech guy, I am one of those strange people that actually read manuals thoroughly and saw the warnings about being very careful not to use the buttons under water. I was VERY careful not to do that. I have seen similar reactions in other LCD displays when exposed to direct sunlight. My 2008 Kawasaki Concours has an LCD display that is fully exposed to the sun and sometimes it has difficulty, albeit, the problem only appears on rare ocassion. If I see enough good reports on this item, I am likely to roll the dice again, but would be more comfortable if a more established company offered something like this (e.g., Timex and the like). Your results may differ (hopefully!).

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:11:05 GMT

I see that FINIS has just introduced the Swimsense watch that appears to use similar technology. It will reportedly be available mid Dec. Here's the url. www.finisinc.com/.../Swimsense I'm curious to hear how the two compare.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:13:08 GMT

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:22:15 GMT

I should give an update from my post in June. About two weeks into using the replacement poolmate, the watch became unusable. The LCD display would go blank about two laps into my swim and I could only get it to display briefly if I hit a button. Two strikes means out in my book. I will wait to see if the technology improves, but I will not go for another replacement . . . Sorry you've had such bad luck with your watches. :badday: I know there is a warning about pushing the buttons while the watch is underwater. If you did, this could be your problem. For what it's worth, I've not had any problems with either of my watches. Of course, I've only had my newer one for a couple of days, but so far so good. I used it in the pool on Monday and uploaded my workout to my PC. The free software that comes with the watch has some nice features.

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:13:04 GMT

A month or so ago, Swimovate announced the Pool-Mate Pro watch. As an owner of the standard Pool-Mate, I was given the opportunity to either purchase the new watch at a discounted rate, or trade in my old one and pay a nominal upgrade price. I chose to purchase the watch. It has some new features, the main one being the ability to upload your workouts and process it using their free software. I'll be using it during tonight's workout and will upload the data once I get home. I love this kind of technology.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:23:56 GMT

Ok, sent in the defective counter/watch and received a replacement. Had to wait until after returning from a trip to try it out. The new one works great! It accurately counts lengths swum. I am really going to enjoy this. In the past, I have relied upon a small manual lap counter on my finger that I never felt was reliable enough to push the button under water after a flip turn and had to stop push the button and continue. Now, I can swim lap after lap, flip turning all the way, my mind on whatever, and only need to stop occasionally to check my progress.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:59:53 GMT

Last week, I ordered a Poolmate lap counter and tried it yesterday. While the timer and clock appears to work, it never counted my laps. I figured that I must be doing something wrong and took it home that night to re-read the short instructions. Nope, I seem to be doing everything rights. It really is simple to operate. I went to the swimovate.com website and viewed their short demo video which demonstrates the lap counting function with a simple repeated wrist motion. Mine watch did not count laps like the unit in the video. I have sent an email to their support and will provide feedback based upon my experience. I am thinking that I must have a defective watch and need to simply get a replacement, but I will get confirmation from them first before returning it.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:27:52 GMT

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Thu, 27 May 2010 05:07:25 GMT

Here's an update, prompted by my first open-water swim with the PoolMate watch. Even though the instructions claim the watch "will not work in Open Water", it did great at counting my strokes. It was able to tell me that I took 812 strokes out, and 898 strokes back for my loop in the local lake yesterday. It can't count laps, of course (and detected a few phantom laps), so it can't give pace or swim golf info. But all I was after was a stroke count, and that seems to be quite accurate. Good to know! I'm swimming an OW event this coming Saturday and was planning on using my watch to see how well it worked at counting my strokes. I'm swimming a 2K, so it will be interesting to see how may strokes I take to complete the distance. :) I was thinking about the Swim Golf efficiency score and I think it would be feasible to take the total number of strokes in my 2K race, plus the number of seconds it took, and then divide by 80, which is the number of 25m lengths in a 2K swim to get my average 25m score.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:21:04 GMT

I ordered one, too, and have swum with it in 2 practices so far. It seems to be pretty accurate at counting freestyle laps, for me, but less accurate for other strokes. It counted only half of my laps in an IM set, and very few of my laps in a breaststroke set today, but had no problem with my breaststroke laps in the previous workout. It also switches out of lap-counting mode if I rest too long between sets. Granted, today was a taper workout and I had long rests. Maybe that will be less of a problem when I switch back to more normal practices. Pressing the pause button to exempt the rests & kick sets is a problem for me, but that's user error. I forget to unpause it before starting the next set or rep. Maybe I'll get better at that. The stroke counting seems good, both on freestyle and on non-free laps that it manages to detect. Since you wear it on only one hand at a time, of course, it only counts half of your freestyle strokes. So it can't tell the difference between a 12-stroke lap and a 13-stroke lap, for example. Also, I'm not sure whether it's counting my first (underwater breakout) stroke, in addition the the hand-entry strokes that I'd normally count. I agree that the efficiency measure (swim golf) is cool, although it is best suited for long sets, or short rests, or someone who can reliably remember to hit the pause button between sets.

RE: Poolmate watch

mjtyson — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:02:37 GMT

I'm sold...I'm getting one. Thanks for the review!

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:45:02 GMT

Sorry for the delay with my review. I went to swim on Friday and found the pool at my gym overrun with a youth swim team (actually, that's not a bad thing). Saturday I swim Open Water practice and the watch does not work in that environment. Sunday, is my rest day and Monday I have a swim class, which didn't give me any time to really try it out. So.... to make a long story even longer, :D I used the Pool-Mate during my Masters workout this morning and couldn't be happier with it! Some highlights: Very accurate - My coach keeps count of our yardage on a white board during our workouts and the total on my watch matched her numbers exactly. I can pause between swims - Another swimmer in my Masters group has a similar watch by Oregon Scientific that does not allow him to pause. If he stops for more than 30 seconds, it resets. The Pool-Mate does not do this. All you need to do is press a button to pause and when you're ready to resume swimming, press it again. It provides stroke count - Yay! No more counting strokes! It provides stroke efficiency - What a cool piece of information! I have been working hard to retrain myself in the High Elbow/Early Vertical Catch technique, and having this feature has given me instant feedback that I'm doing the right thing. Stroke efficiency is based on the Swim Golf method (new to me) which breaks down to distance travelled per stroke and time per stroke. less than 30 - Excellent-Professional Athlete 30-40 - Very Good (I consistantly swam 38) :) 40-50 - Above Average 50-70 - Average more than 70 - Below Average Easy to program - The only time I refer to the user's manual is to better understand what each feature is capable of doing. I have owned quite a few sports watches and the Pool-Mate is by far the easiest to program. There are two slight drawbacks: It is recommended that you do not dive with the watch as it may drive water into the case, which will kill the electronics. You cannot press the buttons while underwater. Not really a problem, as I don't see myself needing to do this. In all, I am very glad I made the purchase and look forward to many happy laps using my Pool-Mate.

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:48:31 GMT

RE: Poolmate watch

knelson — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:26:14 GMT

I'll be interested to hear how the lap counter works in practice. I'm assuming it's looking for a pause of some duration in your strokes and picks that up as a turn (and, thus, the start of a new lap). Maybe v2.0 of the watch will have GPS built in. That would be cool because it could then be used for open water swims, too. Add in some way to interface with a PC and you could upload your swims to something like Google Maps or Earth.

RE: Poolmate watch

mjtyson — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:10:37 GMT

I'm certainly looking forward to the review. I found the watch available on amazon and one of the online swim stores (swimoutlet?). I've recently been trying to concentrate on number of strokes per 100, but since my :censor: pool requires three laps per 100, I have enough trouble counting my laps. If this watch can count my strokes, laps AND I can use it to time my 100s, then I'm buying one!!!

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:49:31 GMT

Be sure to let us know how the watch performs when you get it. I got my watch today! :applaud: Well, it arrived yesterday, but I missed the postal delivery by 2 minutes, so I had to go in and pick it up in person today. I was surprised to get it so quickly since it was coming overseas. I won't be able to try it out in the pool until tomorrow, but at first glance, I love it already. I got the grey/blue one, which I think looks nice. I don't consider it overly huge, and certainly not flimsy like someone else said in an earlier post. The display has nice big letters and numbers, which I really appreciate. It is extremely easy to program, which is a huge plus. I have it all set up and didn't even have to refer to the instructions. :D Also, you can easily switch between a meters or yards pool, so no need to buy more than one watch, which another poster eluded to doing. So, once I try it out in the water, I'll provide an update -- but, from what I've read from those who already own/use it, the thing should work as advertised. :cool:

RE: Poolmate watch

floswimmer — Sat, 08 May 2010 07:38:04 GMT

This title "Poolmate watch" sounds like about how to watch your pool mate swimming :D :banana: When I saw the title, I thought it was about how to meet ("pick-up") someone at the pool!!!! Hardee, Ha, Ha:cool:

RE: Poolmate watch

Former Member — Sat, 08 May 2010 07:14:21 GMT

This title "Poolmate watch" sounds like about how to watch your pool mate swimming :D

RE: Poolmate watch

Bobinator — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:37:10 GMT

Yes we sell them at our store. They come from a small home owned Brittish company. They were very helpful getting me started with mine.

RE: Poolmate watch

debaru — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:59:52 GMT

One of the testimonials on the website is from Liam who said "Superb piece of invaluable kit" so I'm convinced! :) LOL! You gotta love those Brits. When I got my confirmation email after I placed my order, I was thanked and informed that my watch would be "dispatched" within 1 working day. At the end of the message they thanked me again by stating "Thank you very much indeed". :D Pip, pip! Cheerio!

RE: Poolmate watch

jessicafk11 — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:51:11 GMT

The company is a British company so depedning on where it was purchased from it may be shipping from there. I got mine from Kast Away since they were offering it at a special price recently.