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Wahoo Fitness Dongle: The Sharpest Fitness Tool In Your Shed

Till January of this year, the Wahoo Key for iPhone ($80) dongle pwned fitness on the iPhone. Why? Because the tiny, ubiquitous dongle gives the iPhone access to dozens of ANT+ sensors, and more fitness apps than any other system � turning your iPhone into a fitness-tracking powerhouse.

Then in January, Wahoo one-upped itself and introduced the Wahoo Blue Bluetooth heart-rate strap, which completely bypasses ANT+ and instead communicates via low-energy Bluetooth v4.0. Does this mean the Key is obsolete? Not by a long shot.

The Good:

Every conceivable fitness-related measurement � heart rate, bicycle pedal cadence, power output, stride, you name it � has an ANT+ sensor to measure it, and can theoretically be paired with the Key (you can also purchase a variety of ANT+ sensors directly from Wahoo, like the HR strap and bike speed/cadence sensor we tested here). But the Wahoo Key is not only exemplary because how many sensors it�s compatible with � it also shares its collected data with more apps than any other system. The ever-popular Runkeepeer, and our favorite cycling app, Cyclemeter, are just two of the many apps the Key is compatible with.

Heck, even Wahoo�s own fitness app is fantastic. It�s well-designed, easy to read, comes with a wide choice of readout pages that can be selectively included and includes everything you need for a wide range of activities. About the only thing that disappoints is that the modules themselves aren�t customizable for each screen.

Range for the key is pretty good. I was able to shove my iPhone in a jacket pocket, or strap in onto my arm with an armband (Wahoo sells one that has a slot for the dongle) while still receiving signals from the speed/cadence and heart-rate sensors.

Both the Wahoo HR strap that came with the package, and an older Garmin strap that came with my well-used Forerunner 405, paired remarkably quickly and painlessly (though only one strap can be paired at a time, of course) using the key�s utility app.

For now, Wahoo�s use of Bluetooth is limited to its HR strap; everything else requires ANT+, which means the Fisica dongle is still king. For now.

The Bad:

I�m not sure why, but I actually had a little trouble getting Cyclemeter to wake up to the fact I had a heart-rate monitor attached; I�m assuming this was a fault of the app, not the hardware though.

Update: Steve Kusmer, founder of Abvio, the developer behind Cyclemeter, sent us a note suggesting that the reason I wasn�t able to get Cyclemeter to read my heart rate is because the dongle was already communicating with the Wahoo Fisica app. He�s right � I turned off the Fisica app and Cyclemeter quickly picked up my heart rate.

Dongles are easy to lose or accidentally wash after being left in a pants pocket (ahem).

For more information on this topic please visit the following: Wahoo Balance Smart Scale, iPhone fitness and iPhone 4S bike pack