Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, I paid for my unit, I did not get it free, So this review, while gushingly positive, is not biased by any desire on my part to get more free stuff in the future. Second, I am 60 years old, have struggled with hypertension most of my life, and have an artificial heart valve and a pacemaker. My father died from his last heart attack when he was in his 80s. My first one hit when I was considerably younger than my dad was when his first one hit. So I know my days on this Earth are numbered. I don't care if a BP monitor is the cheapest. Nor do I care if it has the latest bells and whistles like being able to track multiple people's BP [this model Ozeri can track two people's readings], or being able to upload results to a computer [which this model Ozeri cannot do], or being able to save readings from past measurements [this model Ozeri has enough memory to save 60 readings for each of the two people it can track]. All I want, what this review is based upon, is the ability to obtain consistently accurate readings. I decided to buy yet another BP monitor for a number of reasons. My hearing is starting to go, so I knew I had to replace my old school pump it up yourself and listen for the thump thump thump manual machine. When you have serious heart problems like mine, you need to know what your BP is far more frequently that just when your doctor checks it on your office visits. The availability of affordable monitors should have made this an easy goal to reach. But, unfortunately, all you have to do is browse thru the lower rated reviews of the many BP monitors here on Amazon to discover how often people buy BP monitors, take it with them to their doctor's office, and discover their machine gives different readings than their doctor's nurse gets. Even worse, now that it has become common for many nurses to use automatic machines, you have to consider that some of them may be experiencing the same inconsistent readings that you get from different machines that you use at different drug stores, or different grocery stores, or different Walmarts, or from different machines you buy for your personal use. And, note, if your doctor changes your prescription based on faulty readings, it can literally kill you [not that your doctor or nurse would ever admit that to you]. A word to the wise. If a different nurse than the one you usually get obtains a BP reading in a significantly different range [say, 10 to 20 points] than your BP usually falls in, and your doctor changes your prescription without, first, rechecking it himself with a stethoscope, get another doctor. Pump psi, cuff size, and cuff placement can affect measurements. This model Ozeri minimizes the chance of such problems by a feature it calls Measure While Inflate during which it determines the correct pump pressure interactively while measuring. If it detects a problem, it aborts the measurement. The result is less pressure needed to get accurate, consistent, measurements. The way that some machines cut off your circulation, and the way that you have to shove your arm into the cuff of some machines .... those sort of problems do not arise with a quality machine like this Ozeri. Another positive consequence of the Measure While Inflate feature is that this Ozeri ships with a slightly larger than average cuff [mine is 8.7" to 14,2"]. This doesn't degrade reading accuracy because, again, MWI makes sure throughout the test that all is well and will abort if otherwise. This Ozeri model has a zero adjustment process it performs before taking each measurement --- a fail safe which is not possible with my manual machine. There are actually two measurement scales --- mmHg and kPa. Here in America, you want to use mmHg. But some machines, this Ozeri is one of them, can be setup to go either way. The ability to go either way is actually an indication that the machine is not a bargain basement model. But, this also has me wondering if maybe the wide range of readings i get at drug stores and walmarts has anything to do with whether the tech who set up the machine did it for mmHg or kPa. This Ozeri model has an indicator which tells you which scale is being used. The factory default is mmHg.