OMRON Evolv Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor for Home Use &...

Most Helpful Review

"I reluctantly returned this product after trying to give it every chance before the 30 day return window closed. I wanted to like it, the convenience of not having to deal with tubes and bulbs and having to manually write down my blood pressure readings were certainly attractive features. But the bottom line is that blood pressure reading are critically important, inaccurate readings can result in serious health issues, even death. I returned it because I couldn’t trust it.THE 3 TYPES OF MONITORSBefore getting into the details of why this unit is a bad idea, just a little background on the three most popular types of monitors for measuring your blood pressure at home. The least user friendly is the type you have to put on a cuff and squeeze a bulb to inflate it. Doctors can do that in their sleep but I never know how much to pump before hurting myself. The second type is a cuff you wrap around your upper arm connected by a rubber tubing to a small box with a display on it. These are by far the most popular in the world, all you have to do is press one button and it automatically inflates the cuff properly and if it doesn’t get it right the first time it knows to try again. The reading is displayed, usually in huge easy to read numbers and almost all of them keep a history for you and several other family members. Many of them can also transmit the results to an app on a computer, smartphone or tablet. Then there’s the Evolv. It offers you two things – having everything built into one bulky unit that wraps around your arm, and second, an astronomical price. It doesn’t do anything better, it’s not more accurate, it’s not easier to use (in fact as you will read here it can be extremely difficult to use). Omron isn’t the first with one of these, I had the first Qardio way back in 2014 that was essentially the same thing and my doctor told me to throw it away. Withings, Wellue, Greater Goods, Panacare and several other companies sell almost identical units. None of them are as trustworthy as the popular style with the cuff and rubber tube.THE CODE 4 ERRORPerhaps the most commonly reported flaw of this unit is the Code 4 error, which chastises you that you must not move nor talk during a reading session. This error even seems to confound the technical support people at Omron, the manufacturer. I am capable of sitting perfectly still and there is no one in the room with me to talk to. The defect is that the machine itself doesn’t stay still, it vibrates while in use, and I see no way that it is smart enough to differentiate between a person moving and the unit itself vibrating. From the day I bought it the device would not give me a blood pressure reading on the first try, it would instead display the Code 4 error telling me not to move or talk. So many people have reported this design flaw I am unable to understand why Omron lets it continue. The error code happens not once, not twice but as many as ten times, or even more before it will finally take a reading, and sometimes it never does. That is unacceptable and gives me serious concern that when (if) it finally takes a reading that the result is accurate.TECHNICAL SUPPORTOmron encourages customers to call them on the telephone for customer support, which is insensitive to all those who are non-verbal, speechless or unable to communicate in a supported language. To their credit they do have a way of filling out an online support request, I mention this because many if not most of the largest companies no longer offer online forms or email support, they demand that the customer call them, which is impossible for some people. When I brought this to Omron’s attention they did not take my suggestion seriously, in fact they were offended. But I did reach a person who responded by email the same day. She asked me a scripted series of questions, some of which did not even apply to the Evolv product, which indicates this company needs to put more attention into their training budget. None of the questions specifically addressed the Code 4 error but they gave me the opportunity to respond with detailed answers and an offer to help them have a better understanding of what is right and what is wrong with this product, which evidently was designed more for a crowdfunding wow factor rather than as a practical medical grade piece of equipment. After I took the time to answer their list of questions guess what they did? They ignored me, that’s right, faced with design flaw that so many people have reported they chose to stick their heads in the sand and hope I would go away, maybe no one would read my review. They were wrong, this information is too important to bury or ignore, people don’t buy blood pressure monitors for kicks or to play games. Ignoring the issue forced me to return this gadget to Amazon and post my honest review. Ignoring my request for support lost them the entire five points for this review.WHAT ELSE IS WRONGSince I consider the product unacce"