Best Oximeters For Home Use (Top 5 Updated For 2020)
The oximeters most commonly used today are called pulse oximeters because they respond only to pulsations, such as those in pulsating capillaries of the area tested.
How does an oximeter for home use work??
A pulse oximeter works by passing a beam of red and infrared light through a pulsating capillary bed. The ratio of red to infrared blood light transmitted gives a measure of the oxygen saturation of the blood. The oximeter works on the principle that the oxygenated blood is a brighter color of red than the deoxygenated blood, which is more blue-purple.
First, the oximeter measures the sum of the intensity of both shades of red, representing the fractions of the blood with and without oxygen. The oximeter detects the pulse, and then subtracts the intensity of color detected when the pulse is absent. The remaining intensity of color represents only the oxygenated red blood. This is displayed on the electronic screen as a percentage of oxygen saturation in the blood. (source)
Why do you need an oximeter
The purpose of oximeters is to check how well your heart is pumping oxygen through your body. It is also used to monitor the health of individuals with any type of condition that can affect blood oxygen levels, especially while they’re in the hospital. Below you can take a look at some of the conditions:
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- asthma
- pneumonia
- lung cancer
- anemia
- heart attack or heart failure
- congenital heart defects
There are a number of different common use cases for pulse oximetry, including:
- to assess how well a new lung medication is working
- to evaluate whether someone needs help breathing
- to evaluate how helpful a ventilator is
- to monitor oxygen levels during or after surgical procedures that require sedation
- to determine how effective supplemental oxygen therapy is, especially when treatment is new
- to assess someone’s ability to tolerate increased physical activity
- to evaluate whether someone momentarily stops breathing while sleeping — like in cases of sleep apnea — during a sleep study (source)
Pulse oximeter types
The most common of these devices is one that’s placed over a patient’s fingertip, though there are also version that can either be worn around your wrist or held in your hand. Each has their own specific use, too.
The fingertip variety are inexpensive, easy to use, and unobtrusive, while those worn on the wrist are good for monitoring a patient over longer periods of time — while they’re sleeping, for example. Handheld models offer a higher level of accuracy and often include other features such as measuring heart rate or blood pressure. As you may expect, these are also a bit more expensive.
Related: Best finger oxygen monitor
Best Oximeters For Home Use (Top 5 Updated For 2020)
Many households might want a home oximeter to control their oxygen levels to check for signs of illnesses or viruses.
If you want to monitor your oxygen levels during the COVID-19 crisis, these devices can be a good indicator of the state of your health if you start showing symptoms. We want to share with you the top 4 most accurate one on the market.
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The Wellue Fingertip Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor is the best oximeter for home use you can buy that is not expensive.
It measures O2 level, pulse rate, and pulse strength in 8 seconds. Automatically powers on/off, with 4 directional display.
When measuring, if O2 level value or pulse rate value exceeds the preset limit, the device will alert with beep automatically and the value which exceeds limit will flash on the screen.
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Many pulse oximeters can give false readings when the user is wearing nail polish. The nice thing about this one is that it will tolerate users who use nail polish.
The Dovava® Pulse Oximeter Fingertip comes with an alarm to warn you when your SpO2 and pulse rate are beyond normal ranges. Suitable for mountain climbers, skiers, bikers, aviators, or anyone interested in measuring their SpO2 and pulse rate while on the move.
The sleep monitoring function can keep the data record for 8 hours and it will start analysis after monitoring for more than 2 hours.
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The Overnight Wrist Oxygen Monitor can be paired with a smartphone or connected to a PC to store, analyze, and display all the information it collects. That data can be easily collated, saved, printed, and shared with doctors and health specialists, too. This makes the device especially handy for examining long term health conditions or for keeping a close eye on a patient’s wellbeing while they’re fighting an illness.
One of the more unique features of this model is that it comes with a built-in alarm system that can be programmed to go off if a wearer’s blood oxygen levels drop below a certain point. This feature eliminates the need to constantly be taking readings, as it can alert users to dangerous situations automatically. Depending on the circumstances, this could be a potentially life-saving functionality you won’t find in most competing products.
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The Metene® Pulse Oximeter Fingertip uses the most advanced photoelectric principle, through the high-quality transparent acrylic panel screen to let people directly judge whether the measuring environment is suitable for measurement, to avoid the influence of strong light on the measurement results, so as to ensure high accuracy.
- The normal range of oxygen saturation: SpO2 95%-99%.
- Insufficient oxygen supply: SpO2 90% – 95%;
- Mild hypoxemia: SpO 2 < 90%.
- Severe hypoxemia: SpO 2 < 85%.