OMRON Blood Pressure Monitoring
Omron’s unique Intelli Wrap Cuff reduces the inaccuracy caused by incorrect cuff positioning – known to be a key source of error in home blood pressure measurement.Intelli Wrap Cuff reduces the impact of incorrect cuff placement on accuracy. The pre-formed cuff is easy to put on to your upper arm with one hand, making blood pressure measurement even simpler.
Also of note is the noise which it isn’t too bad at 57 dB but is still way behind the whisper quiet modern wrist monitors.
Pros
Great build quality
3 year guarantee
Great value
Cons
Variable measurements
Single reading memory
Sometimes uncomfortable inflation pressures
Limited included cuff size
No carry case
Vital Signs
Weight 234g (without batteries)
Cuff tubing length 40cm
Noise 57 Db
Contents
On opening the box amongst the excellent packaging you find the usual items – the Omron M2 monitor itself , medium basic cuff, 4 AAA batteries and some paperwork.
The monitor is solidly made of white polycarbonate and feels well constructed and pretty bulletproof. The screen is small but clear. The front also has the solitary button used for turning the machine on and offf as well as recalling the last reading. There is a DC 6V adaptor port (adaptor not included) on one side and the air valve connector port on the other.The included cuff is a basic medium cuff in the 22-32 cm range and has an old style 180 degree connector – readers may be aware that I am not convinced by these and much prefer the more secure 90 degree connector ports.
You also get a decent manual, 3 year guarantee card (very good) and a rather simple blood pressure diary.
Up until January 2013 Omron also included a simple nylon carry case as well but that addition has unfortunately been discontinued
Usage
The M2 is undoubtedly a pretty basic machine. Feature wise there is only so much you can do with one button but these features work well and are very easy to understand.
The LCD screen reads well and includes a pulse reading as well. It isn’t backlit which is a bit of a shame for those who use these machines in bed. Pressing the button with the cuff off will bring up the last reading.
Personally, I didn’t find the cuff fit particularly comfortable and the limit
ed size is certainly an issue as if you find yourself needing to buy another cuff you may then question the apparent value of the product. The tubing is also shorter than some other sphygmomanometers. Compared to Omron’s wonderful comfort cuff it is certainly not great.
The M2 uses Omron’s proprietary Intellisense technology to minimize the pressure put on the upper arm when recording a reading. In theory this reduces the inflation overshoot and gets the systolic reading (the higher number) with a less painful user experience. During testing, I had some concerns with intermittent higher readings when using a brand new machine but my two older machines both produced a much closer reading dispersion. The machine is thought to be well calibrated and validated so I am not concerned at all regarding this.
When compared to my mercury calibrated Sphygmomanometer every reading was within 10 mmHg which is inside accepted error ranges.Also of note is the noise which it isn’t too bad at 57 dB but is still way behind the whisper quiet modern wrist monitors.
