Customer Reviews

Omron Bp652 7 Series Blood Pressure Wrist Unit

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I was very excited to be able to review this product as I have high blood pressure and have searched for years for an easy to use, accurate monitor. Years ago, the best I could find in the marketplace were upper arm, clunky automatic blood pressure monitors that were difficult to use and produced wild, varying results. The Omron Bp652 is an incredible leap forward for accurate and precise home monitoring of one's blood pressure via a wrist monitor. I of course need to state at the beginning of this review that if you have hypertension, you need to be under a doctor's care and this product does not replace a physician's care, however, it is a wonderful tool for monitoring at home how well your meds are , or are not, keeping your blood pressure under control.

To test the accuracy of this monitor, I took it with me to my doctor's office. My physician measured my bp as 120/81. Minutes later, I used the Omron which gave a measurement of 121/83. That is remarkably close to my physicians bp measurement. Now, I wanted to take a look at how precise the Omron was, i.e. were several measurements taken back to back close? Yes they were! Three back to back measurements by the Omron that night were 116/79, 118/81 and 118/82. Those measurements indicate a high degree of precision. So, in my limited testing that day, the Omron appeared to be exceptionally accurate and precise. I was very impressed.

I think the reason for the Omron's excellent measurements is in large part due to the superb instructions enclosed with the monitor in conjunction with excellent technology built into the monitor itself. Very good drawings and descriptions are given of how and where to correctly position the monitor on the wrist. Then there is the wonderful Heart Sense technology the Omron employs. For best results, the wrist should be at heart level, or in the "Heart Zone". To guide the user to this Zone, the monitor uses a system of orange and blue lights. If the light is orange, you are outside of the Zone and/or are not wearing the monitor correctly and will get an erroneous reading. If the monitor is being worn correctly and the wrist (with monitor) are placed within the Heart Zone, a blue light will come on and the cuff will begin inflating. At the very beginning of using this monitor I had a little bit of trouble finding the right position to wear the cuff on my wrist and I also had problems finding my Heart Zone. But the orange/blue light system led me very quickly to the correct way to wear the monitor and then position my wrist relative to my heart. It was a really interesting experience. When the Omron indicated (by the orange light) that everything was not optimal, I did not receive good readings. But when I got it right and the blue light popped on, the results were stunningly accurate and precise as evidenced by the data I gave earlier. It's really a very easy process, dummy proof (I can be one so I should know!) and very fast.

I really like this bp monitor and would highly recommend it to anyone with blood pressure issues. High blood pressure is an insidious but serious illness capable of killing over time, and it needs to be monitored. The Omron Bp652 is a wonderful home partner for the control of hypertension. And it also needs to be noted that the Omron will pick up an irregular heart beat and report that to the user- very valuable. Even if the pulse is regular, having the pulse rate measured is very convenient as I also suffer from tachycardia (an abnormally fast heart rate) so I can do various activities at home and give my doctor feedback on my heart rate.

As someone with borderline hypertension, occasionally measuring my blood pressure is important. I have been using the Microlife 3AX1-4U Premium Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor with Dot Matrix Technology for several years. It is reasonably accurate and easier to use compared to a manual blood pressure cuff.

The Omron blood pressure monitor is a similar design to the Microlife. They are both wrist monitors that use the oscillometric measuring method. The Omron is more convenient in that it guides the user to the proper arm position. The Microlife requires the user to set the arm in the standard position but does not provide any guidance.

Some differences between the two are the Omron takes measurements from low to high while the Microlife usually takes three measurements and, like most other monitors, goes from high to low. The three measurements are meant to provide a more accurate averaged reading, but it does take over three times as long.

The low to high measurement is particularly convenient and beneficial. This means there is no delay waiting to inflate the cuff and then waiting for the cuff to deflate while listening to the blood flow sounds/tapping. For people with elevated blood pressure, this also means no need to have the monitor inflate, waiting for sound, and then re-inflating above the original pressure.

The Microlife is more sophisticated, has built-in charts, and comes with software and an interface for connecting to the computer. The charts show trends and display much more information than the Omron. For some people, this and the three reading averaging may be more useful, but I prefer the simpler and faster Omron.

The Omron wrist blood pressure unit is exactly what I wished it to be: easy to use, convenient, and most of all, quite portable.

Taking a reading is extremely simple and the built-in guidance system leads to no-fail accurate readings. You put the unit on your wrist, orienting it as shown in the directions (and a little picture on the unit itself). An orange light comes on; you fold your arm across your chest, and when the correct position is reached, a blue light comes on and the unit begins its operation. It is perhaps twice as fast as the discount-store arm unit that we have, and of course so much smaller and lighter. While I didn't benchmark exact readings, the wrist unit and the arm unit generally agree within a few points; since blood pressures vary all the time, I deem the accuracy good, certainly good enough to tell you at once if your blood pressure is too high or perhaps too low.

Unlike the arm unit, the wrist unit stores up to 100 readings for each of two people. The only lack here is that the readings, as far as I can tell, can't be downloaded to a computer for review and storage. Also, setting the time and date is easy enough but requires removal of the battery cover; I judge this a minor inconvenience as it's something you won't need to do very often.

All of this is great, but even better is that the unit slips virtually unnoticed (in size and weight) in a briefcase or purse, and you can take a reading just about anywhere and everywhere. A lot of care obviously went into the design.

This product is easy to recommend. If you already have an arm unit, it's a great supplement but if you've yet to buy your first unit, this is the only one you should ever need.

I ordered this item for my husband, who is a doctor and is developing high blood pressure (figures!). Although he taught me how to take his blood pressure with his professional blood pressure cuff, it is important for him to take it at the same time of day, every day, in order to determine what his "true" value is. I got this one for him to try out so he would have something he could use without me having to be around.

So this is what we did: for several days, I took his blood pressure with his professional cuff and then we used the Omron wrist unit. It was accurate within 6 points, which, according to my husband, is pretty good. Even re-doing his blood pressure with the professional cuff would cause a fluctuation of 2-4 points.

What you get: This blood pressure cuff works on the wrist. You open up the velcro band and place it on your left wrist (take off your watch, move any clothing that may be in the way), and then position the unit over your heart as shown in the diagram. It is fairly idiot-proof, in that if you don't have it on correctly, it will give you a "red/orange" light, indicating that it is not ready to read. Once you get the "blue/green" light, you hit the start button and it starts the squeezing process. It has a two user memory, so two people can use the device and track their blood pressure over time. The only really important part about using this unit is placement. When I was trying it out, I was resting it against my chest (as shown in the diagram) and was getting some pretty wild readings that were inconsistent. It turned out that by touching part of the wrist cuff to my chest, I was actually affecting the reading. You must put it over your heart, but then DO NOT let it touch anything! It must be completely untouched by anything except your wrist (think of your hand in the air, but over your heart). Once I stopped doing that, the readings became more normal and consistent. Also, on a medical note from my husband, it is important that you are consistent in both when and how you take the readings over time.

Overall, I gave this a 4 star rating because it isn't as good as professional cuff. However, if you need one to use at home that is simple and fairly reliable (which a lot of them aren't), this is a good one to buy.

I admit I was very skeptical about Blood Pressure Monitoring units because I have found the readings are often inconsistent. I have tried a number of units, the Omron HEM-780/HEM-780N3 and the Panasonic EW3122S. Both of these are upper arm measuring units. Out of these, the best one seems to be the Panasonic but I have found that readings vary tremendously even if I take them within minutes. I have heard that upper arms units are the best to use which must have some credence because if you go in your Doctors office that is where they will measure so naturally I was even more skeptical about wrist units.

So anyway to this unit, it is a wrist measuring unit so I wondered if it would even work but surprise, surprise, this unit is tremendous, not only does it give accurate measurements but they are consistent. I found if I made readings back to back that the readings are the same and if I compared it to the average reading on the Panasonic EW3122S then it is close to that reading so it appears to be very accurate. This is very reassuring because anyone who has high blood pressure will know how frustrating it is and when you get inaccurate readings then that adds to the frustration which in turn will raise your blood pressure (yes it is like that when you have high blood pressure).

What I really like about this unit is that it is easy to use; you just put in on your lower wrist and then put your arm across your chest (across your heart). The unit will then light up blue if you have it on correctly or orange if it is wrong. This makes it so you know if you are going to get a correct reading. I also like how compact the unit is, this makes it so you can put it in the neat little plastic case and take it with you and check your blood pressure if you have a concern during the day. It also appears to be pretty robust.

What can I say, I have turned from a skeptic into a fan. I gave the other Omron I had away because I wasn't satisfied with it but I will be keeping this one and probably using it instead of the Panasonic. Full Marks!

Purchased the Omron Bp652 7 to check my husbands bp. Acording to the unit, his bp was extremely high.
Went to be checked at the doctors office and he was fine. Called Omron Customer Service. They told
me this unit was not suitable for someone with diabetes and hbp. It would be well to know this before
purchasing the item. I am returning and do expect a full refund from Amazon on this product.

I've been taking my own blood pressure readings since the 1980s. I have experience with the old, manual type upper-arm sleeves with stethoscope; digital, automatic [no stethoscope] upper-arm sleeves, and this wrist monitor. I even tried the old Omron finger blood pressure monitor many years ago which were reviewed as being inaccurate and which I don't think are sold anymore, except there are some cheap knockoffs [non-Omron] still being offered for sale.

My primary concern with any blood pressure measuring device is that it be accurate. Convenience is nice, but if it's inaccurate then it's not very useful, and could even be dangerous if relied upon.

I was convinced to try this wrist monitor after reading that it was well-rated by Consumer Reports magazine. I had been put off non-armcuff models after having tried the older Omron finger blood pressure monitor (as described above). While convenience isn't paramount to me, I wanted something that was less obtrusive and less noisy that I could use at work; but again, only if it were accurate.

The device is well made and convenient to use. It makes some noise, but it is less than the Omron HEM-711 model I was using previously. The noise is mostly from the small cuff inflating, but again, it isn't onerous. If it makes any sense, I'd say the noise is less than half of what the model HEM-711 puts out. There are beeps that tell you if the cuff is positioned correctly and for other user feedback, but they can be disabled if desired.

Now for the accuracy part:

When I first slapped it on it wasn't very accurate. The readings were too low for me. I'm familiar with my range, and these were about 20 points too low. So, okay, now I was bummed out. But... I still wanted to give it a fair shake remembering that Consumer Reports had given it good marks for accuracy. So I decided to be more rigorous about it.

What I did was make sure I was calm and relaxed and then proceeded to do a fairly standardized comparison between my Omron HEM-711 and this new Omron BP652 with several readings and short periods of rest between them. I found that if I used the BP652 correctly that it was accurate. So what did I do? Here's how I use it to get the best results:

* Mount it correctly on your wrist. It matters that it is aligned with your thumb, as outlined in the manual.

* Mount it correctly (part 2): It matters that you avoid that protruding bump from the bone in your wrist, as outlined in the manual. This means you have to mount the device to ride slightly higher on your wrist than you'd expect. It shouldn't be worn as you would a watch or a bracelet. It goes about 1/2" higher than that. It feels a little funny at first, as if it should be lower, but like I said, this positioning counts.

* Set the option for when it starts recording your blood pressure as "on2". I won't attempt to explain the details of how to configure this setting here, but when you read the instructions it'll make sense, and it's easy enough to do. Basically, that's the setting that makes sure you have it positioned correctly before it takes the blood pressure reading. It'll wait until you have it right. The default setting starts taking the reading after a short amount of time even if it isn't correctly positioned. I imagine the default setting is meant for certain cases where patients have some kind of mobility impairment, but I don't know that for sure.

* When it's in the right position, move it away from your chest. Don't move it up or down, just move it away from your chest so that it isn't touching your chest.

That's it. It seems to have similar readings to my Omron HEM-711. That's how to get the best readings from this device, but there are more things you need to do. I'm listing them separately because some of you know these things already, and they're not specific to this device. I'm listing them just in case it may benefit someone, because we're all in this together:

* Sit upright without straining. Try not to slouch too much or sit bolt upright.

* Keep your feet on the floor not on the footstool.

* Don't take your blood pressure reading after eating, smoking, or drinking alcohol. Wait at least 30-45 minutes.

* Don't talk while you're taking your blood pressure; it drives it up.

* Don't hold your breath or breath shallowly while taking your blood pressure thinking that if you stay completely still you'd get a better reading. Holding your breath or breathing very shallowly will deprive your blood of some oxygen and trigger the brain's response to increase your heart rate and thus, your blood pressure. You can breath regularly without negatively affecting your blood pressure.

* If you decide to buy a cuff-type monitor make sure that the cuff is around your heart level, too. If it's lower the blood pressure readings will be slightly elevated, and if it's too high the readings will be slightly too low. This advice is not meant to be taken too rigidly. Just don't have the cuff at head level or around your waist and you'll be fine.

* Don't walk around and then sit down and then immediately take your blood pressure. Wait a while for your body to acclimate to sitting and then take the reading.

That's it. And don't forget to take your meds if prescribed to you. : )

Since I have an arm one (Omron HEM-712C Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor with IntelliSense) I am doing both each day. The Omron Bp652 7 Series Blood Pressure Wrist Unitseems to be running between 20 -30 points lower on the systolic numbers than the Omron HEM-712C Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor with IntelliSense. Even after reading the directions there was a LONG learning curve so I would say it is not very user friendly. It kept saying a blue light would come on and it took using it for three days before I saw that light, even though I was not doing anything different. Now it comes on each time. Before that it was an orange light sometimes blinking. I changed nothing and now it is blue and working properly with the exception of the low systolic readings. While having your readings lower may be pleasant news for you ;~p - I doubt that it would help your treatment for your blood pressure if it is incorrect.

Approximately a week after I put together this review (but hadn't yet posted it) the diastolic readings started becoming unreliable as well.

I would check with your doctors before purchasing a monitor for home use, and then look at reviews to see what a sound purchase would be before you spend the money.

I've never used a home blood pressure monitor before. I have availed myself of those arm cuff systems you find at pharmacies, but my doctor tells me those aren't that reliable. But when the opportunity came to try this Omron HEM-670IT Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor with APS (Advanced Positioning Sensor) and Advanced Omron Health Management Software, I couldn't pass it up and I'm very happy to have the unit. The manufacturers tout seven advantages of this wrist unit:

- It's "heart guide" technology which uses orange and blue flashing light to guide the arm into correct position so the wrist cuff can begin to automatically inflate.
- The "two user mode" which permits two individuals to "monitor and track their readings separately in the stored memory" feature.
- The "BP level indicator" that compares one's results to the "American Heart Association guidelines for normal home blood pressure levels."
- It's "slim portable design."
- The "irregular heartbeat detector" that will also alert one if that is detected while "blood pressure is being measured."
- It's "advanced averaging" technology that will average up to three "readings taken within the last ten minutes."
- It' "200 memory storage" which will store that number for each the one or two users and allow one to review the "last 100 readings with a touch of a button."

Using the "Getting Started" pamphlet made it easy to load the batteries (provided) and try the device within minutes of unpacking it. I had no trouble placing my arm properly over my heart area, but situating the cuff the right distance from one's palm is a little more tricky because the quick instructions indicate to "[p]lace cuff 1/2 inch away from wristbone". I think I did it properly the first time, but in later attempts I got some readings that were higher and lower than seemed realistic based on my blood pressure readings from several doctor's visits. I then checked the more detailed Instruction Manual which advised, "Position the cuff leaving a clearance of approximately 1/2 to 1 inch between the cuff and the bottom of your palm." So, I think I will have to experiment with the exact position a bit more. However, otherwise, I have had no difficulties with the operation of this monitor.

I'm looking forward to incorporating this handy unit into my daily health regime. It's storage case is perfectly fashioned for keeping it safe from accidents (such as spilled tea). The numbers on the digital display are easy to read. And the actual blood pressure measuring process (from turning on the unit and placing the arm properly across the chest to the beep indicating the pressure has been taken) takes about a minute. As this point -- having just received the unit this week -- I can't make any judgments about the durability and longevity of this particular device. But it seems sturdy and well-engineered, and Omron offers a limited warranty of five years ("excluding the wrist cuff and batteries") which is quite substantial.

I recommend this monitor to anyone who has a need or simply a desire to monitor his own blood pressure. It is a convenient and compact device that appears capable of accurate blood pressure measurements.

This is one of those products where you need to read to manual or quick start in order to use it properly. Doesn't take long, but you need to understand the proper way to take the measurement.

First few times using this, the results would be off (clearly too high), I'd adjust the cuff and the reading would come in normal and what I expected. I had a doctor visit recently and took a measurement before going. That measurement and the doctors were very close. I was impressed.

Based on that alone, I like this wrist blood pressure unit. I think it takes a little bit to get used to (using it the right way, following directions). Once done... nice product.