Zacurate 500C Elite Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

Out of the box and onto a finger in less than a minute. Easy to read and understand.

This little device does two things extraordinarily well: tells you how much oxygen is in your blood and what your current pulse rate is. It does so quickly, accurately, and painlessly. It’s as simple as turning on the device and inserting your finger over a light.

The device is portable, light weight, comes with a protective cover, a lanyard, and batteries provided (two AAA).

The display is exceptionally bright (that’s adjustable too!) and sharp. It doesn’t sit there idle while it’s measuring, you can see it sampling the data. With a button press you can change the orientation of the display so that it’s readable from any four sides.

The whole interface is a single touch button, which when long-pressed will activate a menu that allows for display brightness, sound, alarms, and setting your own max/min warnings. For instance, if your heart rate is too high, the device can blink to get your attention. Turning it off is as simple as pulling your finger out and setting it aside, so you won’t run down your batteries.

The instruction sheet, while not needed for operation, is written in coherent English – that itself is refreshing. But the nerds out there are going to want to investigate its content further, because it tells >how< the device actually works, and it gets into which wavelengths of light are absorbed by oxyhemoglobins, how it uses multiple frequencies (red and infrared) to do the calculation, the accuracy and resolution of measurements, which environmental factors can affect readings, and there's a colorful graph of clinical study validation data.

It has a generous warranty, is up font about reaching customer service, and from what I’d term as an abusive handling of the device it would appear to last half a decade, far more if you just treat it normally.

In short, I saw someone that had one, was fascinated with it, asked to try it, fell in love with it, and ordered one moments later. I’ve been playing around with it for a while now and feel I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth.

Have owned this device for over a year now and it is a good running reader. Battery holds up very well still have not replaced it. Love the color screen. Worth the money.

Ideal

With the inability to get either a PCR or RAT test in Qld at the moment my GP advised to get an oxymeter and concentrate on blood oxygen levels. This one is fabulous. Neat, easy to use, reliable and it was delivered in three days. Very happy.

I bought another kind for my mom when she was sick, far from me, at the start of the pandemic; this was before there was available testing everywhere, and I needed to know how she was doing from afar. I didn’t trust her to tell me if she was worsening; she’s the kind who wouldn’t say, wouldn’t want to worry her kids. That one was top-rated, worked well and easily even for a technophobe like her.
Then came my turn; I wasn’t sick, but as someone who lived alone, I was worried that if I became sick, I would need an objective way to decide whether I needed medical attention or not. I didn’t want to call EMS unnecessarily, esp in a pandemic. Besides, I think oximeters are dead useful anyway; I bought my first one five years ago, gave it to my sister so she could monitor her daughter with asthma.
I know the powers that be say not to buy them, but I think this is useful at home, if you’re looking at the right things. Like, monitoring someone’s oxygenation because they’re ill, and you’re trying to decide if they need the hospital. That’s exactly what I did with my mom (because I knew what I was looking for) remotely, and what I was going to do for myself.
This unit was easy to figure out, easy to read, seemed to be accurate even with my chilly fingers, and varied appropriately with activity. I think the main reason not to buy one is if you don’t understand what to do with the data; if you’re just going to freak and call your doctor for everything you see, please don’t buy this. But if you are looking for a meaningful drop in oxygenation and are not going to obsess over minute-to-minute normal variation, I think this is a very useful device. Having purchased three different models from three makers over the last five years, I think this is as good as the highest-rated one I got for my mom, but which was sold out when I wanted one for myself. Easy, fast, follows my breathing patterns, tracks normal variations appropriately. I like the color of hers better, but hey—it works like it should, and that’s what is important.
It’s a little bit of reassurance when you need it, or a good alert that all isn’t well, in some cases. People die because they don’t know to call for help in time. I think if you’re caring for a loved one with COVID at home, it’s best to know whether things are stable or trending downward, so you can take timely action. But please don’t buy if you’re just a nervous nelly and don’t know how to use the data. If you’re willing to read and learn, this device is great.