A Blood Pressure Monitor Review
of an Omron 780/M10 IT
I chose theOmron M10-ITunit for my personal blood pressure monitor review after reading what others had to say and because it had practical features that suited my needs. It is exactly the same model as the Omron HEM-780used in the US.
After a 2 weeks trial period I found this home blood pressure monitor a very accurate devise when used properly. The following is a short analysis of what I experienced.
The first thing that caught my eye when I took the unit out the box was two people symbols on the left top corner letting me know that 2 people can use this unit by just switching from A to B. Nice and simple! I noticed later that it has a guest user facility too without the unit storing their reading. Great so far!
The Omron Hem 780 is almost the same as the Omron M10-IT that is sold in the UK. It has the same features but not the software like the UK version to load your readings onto a PC. Have a look at the images. Exactly the same.
The top number on the main display is the systolic reading, the second is the diastolic reading and the third is the pulse rate. This is the standard format for most monitors.
If you make a mistake by moving or something (little movement symbol comes on the left) don`t worry, the M10-IT can take 3 consecutive readings that will then give an average, but you don`t have to use this setting if you want to take a reading just once. It can be set for one person, both, or none.
I also noticed a flashing heart symbol while using the monitor. This is your heart beat when taking your blood pressure. It will show in the final results and in the memory of that reading if your blood pressure is out of the normal range. If you have a heart beat irregularity the unit will pick it up with its Inteli-sense feature. This is displayed as a clear tiled heart symbol in the results and is stored in memory.
The unit also has an early morning hypertension feature which will display only if your blood pressure has been above 135 systolic and/or 85 diastolic for a period of 1 week. Not for just a day or two.
The cuff is straight forward! It is a bit clunky because its stiff in a cylinder shape for your arm. But after a few uses it becomes a piece of cake. But make sure the air tube is not twisted or blocked by anything and position it as instructed. It can fit an arm circumference of 22 to 42cm.
The sample below is for this blood pressure monitor review only and not an indicator of normal or abnormal readings
Please read how to use any monitor carefully as in the booklet because the unit stores your numbers as soon as you use it. I stress this in my blood pressure monitor review because usually this is the cause of faulty readings. If you make mistakes because you failed to do that then when you want to upload your record to your PC using the software provided, any faulty readings that you did by mistake will still be plotted on the chart.
As an example, I ignored the instructions deliberately and tried to fumble my way through. I made so many mistakes. I got a reading of 125/90 first and after 10 minutes I tried again and it was 106/81. After another 5 minutes got a 109/82. There was nothing wrong with the machine. The reason for the difference in readings was the fact that I was not seated as advised, did not wait 2 to 3 minutes before taking it again, and I was stressed trying to work out how to use the thing.
If you don`t read the instructions, you will need to go back to square 1. I had to take batteries out of the machine, wait 30 seconds and then put batteries back in. Do not switch the start button, but follow instructions to set date and time. You will use the memory button first to do this not the start button.
It is better to start taking blood pressure readings later after this first step because it can be stressful to set up the time and date if you are not familiar with digital appliances.
It has a low battery indication but one my favorite features that I look for in a model is if has a AC adaptor jack to connect to the mains power, and the Omron 780/M10-IT has it. So thumbs up for this model`s blood pressure monitor review.