SPO Medical 903036 Check Mate Pulse Oximeter

Reviews of SPO Medical 903036 Check Mate Pulse Oximeter

1.) This does everything the Nonin unit does
Reviewed by: Timothy Hu
Rating:
Being a pilot, I would like to monitor my oxygen usage at high altitudes. I thoroughly researched several brands; this one ranked the best, so I bought it.

This unit is better than the Nonin units in several ways. First is price - at least $100 less. Second is that the batteries are rated for a thousand hours of *continuous* usage (yes, 1000 hours!) for this unit versus a mere 21 hours for the Nonin units. Although this unit does not come with a carry case, Walmart carries several that fit nicely for less than ten bucks each.

This unit's specifications are pretty much identical to the higher-priced competition and performs superbly. Also comes with a handy lanyard.

2.) At last a reliable, easy-to-use home PusleOx unit
Reviewed by: Michael Massa Cresco, IA USA
Rating:
This unit is extremely easy to use and to read. I have a mild form of COPD and take twice daily breath readings. This unit gives me a reliable indication of the severity of my breating problems at any given time. My peak flow / FEW meters tell me how hard it is to breath. This meter now tells me if I am getting sufficient O2 as I breath.


3.) CheckMate Pulse Oximeter is a great tool for checking oxygen saturations!!!
Reviewed by: dla5781 Wewoka, OK
Rating:
My daughter has cystic fibrosis and she uses the CheckMate by SPO to moniter her oxygen saturations. It is a great tool to use when she feels like exercising or even when she is having problems breathing and we want to check her saturations. It turns on when you slip your finger in and turns off when you take it out. It is fast and seems to be very accurate. We are very happy with it. She does have frequent doctor visits to make sure everything is on target. It is important to have regular checks at the doctor with any home monitoring device.

4.) Check Mate Pulse Oximeter lives up to its name
Reviewed by: Ronald Brubaker Hot Springs Village, AR USA
Rating:
As a heart and lung patient I have had the occasion to use many different pulse-oximeters. The Check Mate works very well and agrees well with the other meters I have occasional access to. It fits on the finger firmly enough that you can wear it while exercising and it is comfortable to wear during exercise periods.

I have two suggestions for improvements. The viewing light goes off a bit too quickly when I take a reading during the night. It will come back on if I press the button but it would be better if it stayed on longer.

The belt case has a snap on the belt loop strap that becomes unsnapped too easily. It is very difficult to resnap while on my belt. It would be better to permanently attach both ends of the strap.

5.) Great for heart rate and oxygen level
Reviewed by: Tenna Merchent Noblesville, IN USA
Rating:
I bought this for my father who has asthma and a heart condition. He absolutely loves it! He has it nearby all the time. With asthma, the oxygen level is very important, and with his heart condition, his heart rate is equally important. Yes, I realize it is a weird gift, but one that was greatly appreciated.

I had previously purchased one to use with my son, because in the book Is This Your Child Doris Rapp talks about how the pulse will change after eating an allergenic food. It is a fairly accurate way to determine food allergies, instead of doing all the testing with needles. Some people say if your pulse increases by 10 points you're allergic, some say it has to be 20 points. But either way, it's a starting point, and much less traumatic to a child.


6.) Works Great. Low Price !
Reviewed by: H. Wilson
Rating:
The SFO Medical Pulse Oximeter works just fine. I need to keep check on my O2 levels at home and this device is very reasonably priced and allows me to do that. Great for home use. Simple and easy to use also.

7.) Great little device
Reviewed by: Dena I. Keszler Corvallis, OR USA
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This oxygen monitor works just great and is inexpensive. My father is very happy with it.

8.) Outstanding PulseOx
Reviewed by: NewCo Builder
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Coming from the medical field (R&D) and intimately familiar with Pulse Ox I am very pleased with its performance, insensitivity to motion artifact, size, battery life and price.

9.) Fairly good pulse oximeter for the proce
Reviewed by: Higher Ground USA
Rating:
It has a pretty good ability to measure SaO2 and heart rate without significant problems on patients with good perfusion. I have not had a problem with it. On the other hand, Cleaning it could become an issue since the light sender and the light sensor are hooked to the rubber adaptor by thin wires that could break easily

10.) pulse oximeter
Reviewed by: Raymond M. Cline
Rating:
very well satisfied with this product, especially like the automatic on and off of the oximeter.

11.) Not what I expected
Reviewed by: LKP49 Southern California
Rating:
This pulse rate oximeter works very well. However, we did not realize it has a plastic "sleeve" for the finger and it is not easy to use for anyone with large hands. My father has trouble getting his finger into the sleeve and consequently has to take the reading several times, repositioning the unit and/or changing fingers to get a valid reading. It works fine for my mother and myself, but we have smaller hands. I would not classify my father's hands as extra large, either. He is 5 ' 9" and 83 years old and has work worn hands, but not excessively large.

That was the down side to this unit. It comes in a nifty case, which certainly is a plus for storage and carrying it in a purse.

12.) Good gift for my parents
Reviewed by: Dawei Bellevue, WA USA
Rating:
I bought this item for my parents who are considering to monitor their hearts performance at anytime when they feel uncomfortable. It is easy to carry and easy to use. My dad likes it.

13.) Works pretty well but not great
Reviewed by: Ghost Chicagoland
Rating:
I bought this product after the doctors told my dad that his blood oxygen was too low and he needed bottled oxygen indefinitely. This freaked us out. He already had a blood glucose reader, so why not an oximeter?? I found one that wasn't TOO expensive and we got it to work with little trouble. It gave him great relief because he didn't have to stay on the expensive and bulky oxygen systems the rest of his life, and he and I both know when he really does need a squirt of oxygen. It's a good product to have in the home!



14.) Good unit...bad seller
Reviewed by: Dave San Francisco
Rating:
I tried out one of these units at REI and liked it, so I ordered one for my girlfriend last week. It was suppose to arrive today... instead, I received an email that the order was canceled. When I finally reached a live person at Amazon.com, she said DHMedical had canceled. I think its because they raised the price by $2.50. The Amazon service was nice and gave me a $3.00 off coupon, but I can't wait another 5-7 days, there is no next day shipment, so I will pay the $160.00 at REI. I don't blame Amazon... but I do blame DHMedical for bad business practices.

15.) very handy but way too expensive
Reviewed by: A light in Pennsylvania Harrison, NJ USA
Rating:
This is definitely something useful, but be honest, this is not high tech, the price is way too expensive. Similar item, but made in China, costs less than 50 bucks. Anyway, the price is coming down quickly. I will hold off a little bit, when the price drop down below 50.

16.) NOT a sports instrument for use during activity
Reviewed by: Gary Coffrin San Jose, California, USA
Rating:
This unit simply does not work for the sports or active market it claims to address. My experience is there is simply no possible way to use this unit while physically active. It will not obtain readings while in motion. This temperamental unit makes it difficult to simply get any reading ... even while perfectly still and carefully aligning your fingertip inside the unit. The unit is not junk, but the claims to work while doing almost anything short of jumping-jacks are not based on reality. Finger alignment takes time, since the unit takes 10+ seconds to respond to each new position you try.

The very frustrating minuses:
- Forget about doing any movement while trying to get a reading. You will have to stop all activity.
- The unit is slow and unresponsive. The lag time between changing positions/fingers and perhaps getting a reading is at least 10 seconds and oftentimes more.
- The "Sensor Off" indicator frequently displays for no apparent reason, and readings are lost. This is consistently true, even on different fingers of different sizes.
- The "Weak Signal" icon frequently appears and readings are lost, even when there is no detectable movement of the finger or the unit.
- "Model is not water resistant" and should not be used on wet fingers. Sports instruments need to work when the user is sweaty.

The pluses:
- The digital display is easy enough to read for people with normal reading vision.
- The battery life is impressive (although replacements are costly).
- The readings correspond well to other medical units.

Oximeter tips:
- Warm your hands. This and other oximeters have a hard time obtaining readings from cold fingers.
- Persons with CHF, COPD or other medical conditions may need a device that will take readings from the ear. Find out from your care provider what type of device you need. This unit does not have FDA approval for medical purposes.

Bottom line: Temperamental. Anyone wanting to use this as a heart rate and O2 saturation monitor during exercise should avoid the unit. The Check Mate works about as well and perhaps as accurately as most medical oximeters - but you do not have the assurance of buying an FDA approved unit. Importantly, this is NOT a sports instrument for use during activity.

If you want an OK oximeter, this is not a bad choice. If you want a sports instrument, save your money and avoid the buyer's remorse I experienced.

17.) NOT ACCURATE
Reviewed by: USYMD Pittsburgh, PA United States
Rating:
I am a physician. I use the portable handy small tools to help me get an idea understanding that this one was not approved for medical use.
I am comparing this one to Nonnin's portable pulse oximeter which I had for 2 years and this one does not even come close in its accuracy. In many instances, it was off by 10 points! I confirmed this with actual measurement of arterial blood gases.
I was tempted with the price and the battery life but what's the use if you can't trust the reading?
My advice to you. if you want portable pulse oximeter that you can trust get Nonnin.

18.) Junk
Reviewed by: Jiaru Goodwin
Rating:
My first ever 1 star rating. I always read ratings before I buy, and the ratings on this unit were good. I paid the premium cost for the unit, and it did not work well, and stopped working in a matter of weeks.

It is really hard to get it set well on your finger. It takes a number of tries to get a reading. It also is really hard to get it to redo a reading (it ignores the button push until it has given up on the previous reading).

The button is recessed, and is hard to push, and eventually got to the point where I had to use a pen to push the button, and then pretty much stopped working. It really, really is not worth the money.

19.) Don't buy this worthless junk!
Reviewed by: Gary W. Boley Clarksville, IN
Rating:
These are all worthless zero-accuracy pieces of junk. The heart rate is essentially correct; but if one needs to know the SpO2 value, this instrument is so inaccurate as to be utterly useless. I think some of the good reviews are from people who made no attempt to verify the accuracy of this meter. The display looks nice and there is always a number for SpO2 but that number is meaningless, bearing no relationship to the real SpO2 value. Someone could literally be dying of hypoxia and this device might easily be indicating that all was fine.

I recently purchased this oximeter from an eBay store. After receiving the oximeter I checked it out with simultaneous readings on 2 different fingers from it and a large hand-held BCI oximeter with probe known to be accurate. At various true saturation values the Check Mate was always from 4% to 10% high (meaning it often read 99% when the real value was much lower) and there was no relationship between the true value and how far off the Check Mate would read; therefore it was not even possible to get even close to the true value by subtracting a fudge factor. In fact the SPO instrument never fell below 92 or 93% even when the other instrument showed the true level in the low 80's. (I have a Devon fingertip unit that simply consistently reads 1 or 2 points high; but the relatively dim LED display washes out in sunlight and inserting the finger far enough forward to avoid auto shutoff has become a problem.) This is far from the + or -2% accuracy listed in the spec's from SPO.

Since the oximeter's performance didn't meet my needs or its own stated specifications, I called SPO and they at first said that I may be inserting my finger too far, but agreed that the unit was no good when nothing I did caused any improvement. I then agreed to let them ship me a new unit and a prepaid UPS label for sending them back the old one.

The new unit was little better that the first one, reading from 0 to 7% high with no relationship as to how far off the SPO unit would be and with no reading below 89. The kicker was when both instruments (the Checkmate and the hand-held BCI unit known to be totally accurate) began at a reading of 96. I let the sat's go down and as the BCI fell to 89 the SPO simultaneously rose to 98! Another SPO exchange would be useless.

Do not buy this expensive paperweight!


20.) Don't bother with this one.
Reviewed by: S. Eichhorst North Dakota, USA
Rating:
This was the biggest waste of money. It works.....sometimes. Most of the time, you have to stick your finger in the finger slot at least 5 to 6 times to get a reading of the O2 Sat. It usually reads the heart rate just fine, but it takes many, many tries before it will read the oxygen level. It is definitely over priced.

21.) SPO Checkmate Oximeter disappoints
Reviewed by: Gerald Milholland Sumner, Wa
Rating:
I couldn't get consistent readings with this unit. It also did not
match readings very well with a hospitals professional meter.
I therefore returned it and give Amazon kudos for a seamless easy
return program

22.) Not accurate enough
Reviewed by: S. Lindsey
Rating:
Stay away. It's not accurate enough for any use. 2 uses in a row would give oxygen levels of 99% then 89%. I returned it.

23.) Flimsey and cheap build
Reviewed by: CAS Mesa,AZ
Rating:
The plastics used are cheap and weak compared to other plastics.
The batter lid broke within a month, and then broke to the point of in-operation in less than a year - of cautious use, it wasn't played with by kids, it never fell when out of the case. In other words the only time it fell was when it *inside* its 'protective' case.

This unit depends on perfect motor control by the user, cautious use is NOT enough for this cheap piece of crap.

Very dissappointed with this product.

24.) useless
Reviewed by: J. Greg Varnadore MD
Rating:
Do NOT waste your money on this "toy." I used it for two weeks and it stopped working. It is VERY poor construction. I purchased it through Iroams network who told me they would not accept it in return and it was my device regardless of condition as soon as I opened the box. NEVER deal with Iroams. They are a completely unethical business.

Features of SPO Medical 903036 Check Mate Pulse Oximeter

Check Mate is based on SPO Medical's uniquely patented algorithms tht use reflective pulse oximetery technology for accurate oximetry measurement. It also addresses problems typically associated with motion artifacts, ensuring accurate and reliable readings. The unit is designed to utilize very low power for extended usage, eliminating the need for frequent battery replacement. SPO Medical's Check Mate offers the features of a conventinal pulse oximeter in a compact, user friendly, configuration. Check Mate answers the sports and aviation markets' demand for a lightweight, inexpensive monitor for measuring blood oxygen saturation and heart rate during physically active and high-altitude activities. It offers the user a greater ability to monitor these vital signs under motion and is less expensive than most available devices. SPO Medical's patented reflectance pulse oximetry (RPO) technology is what allows Check Mate to effectively monitor an athlete during such activities as: mountain climbing, high-altitude street cycling, light jogging, speed walking and running. Check Mate will monitor SpO2 in almost any physical activity that does not include significant arm swinging (e.g., jumping jacks). For most athletes, a little learning goes a long way: after a few hours of experimenting with various movements, athletes quickly learn how to use Check Mate in almost any activity. Pilots love Check Mate because it allows them to quickly assess their SpO2 while flying at high altitudes. Hypoxia can be a pilot's worst enemy, and Check Mate is a low-cost product which gives pilots peace of mind.

1.) Accurately measures blood oxygen saturation level and heart pulse rate;
2.) To operate, simply place the sensor on your finger and turn it on;
3.) Very low power consumption;
4.) Easy to use; single button operation;
5.) FREE case with purchase for limited time;

Package Height x Length x Width: 2.9 in. x 2.9 in. x 1.67 in.
Package Weight: 2 lbs.