Many doctors are now recommending that their patients with high blood pressure monitor their blood pressure at home using an easy-to-use and accurate digital blood pressure machine. As I learned from my own search for a machine to track my hypertension, the challenge in finding the best home blood pressure monitor is not finding the cheapest. Blood pressure monitors have become very affordable. The challenge is:

1. Finding a machine that approaches the accuracy of the equipment at the doctor's office. What I learned was that home machines are far more accurate than they were when I was a kid.
2. Figuring out which type of blood pressure monitor to get--finger, wrist cuff, or arm cuff.

My main priority was to find the blood pressure machine that was the most accurate. Through trial and error, I was surprised to learn that while brand was an indicator of quality, it was not the whole picture. Though Omron seems to emerge as the dominant brand in quality these days, the accuracy of one brand over another can only be determined on a machine to machine basis. The quality of blood pressure monitors depends on the electronics, and each machine is truly different from the next on the shelf.

When you choose a blood pressure machine, you'll be choosing from three different types:

• upper arm blood pressure monitor
• wrist blood pressure monitor
• finger blood pressure monitor

Generally, upper arm monitors are the most accurate blood pressure machine of the three types, and finger monitors the least accurate. Upper arm monitors do tend to cost more, but I've found the difference in cost to be not a big deal: I'm on a budget, but I chose an upper arm monitor.  We're talking less than a $100 for most blood pressure monitors.

Starting off the list of top blood pressure monitors, the A&D Medical LifeSource Quick Response UA-787EJ blood pressure monitor, which goes around the upper arm, is extremely highly rated, with high marks for consistency and ease of use. The cuff fits upper arm circumferences from 9 inches to 17 inches, meaning some folks who would normally need a large cuff will be happy with this one. It stores up to 60 readings.

The Omron HEM-780N is another arm-cuff machine. It's rated as overall one of the best and most accurate monitors with over 680 reviews--some reviewers determined it was well-calibrated with the blood pressure machine at the hospital. It is reputed to be great for large arm size and home use.

Since at the time I felt this was the best upper arm blood pressure monitor, I purchased this one myself.  I like it.  I have only one complaint--my arm is short and round and the cuff is too rigid to accommodate it well, so finding a good position can take some maneuvering.

The Omron IntelliSense Automatic is considered by reviewers a very accurate upper arm blood pressure machine good for use in fitness, with a cuff that can accommodate large arms quite well. However, the reviews I researched didn't specify which automatic model with IntelliSense was getting high marks--the plain "IntelliSense Automatic," the HEM 711, HEM 711AC, or HEM 712C.

• Take your blood pressure machine to your doctor's office to have it calibrated against the manual sphygmomanometer (the doctor's equipment used for measuring blood pressure).
  
• Average readings over the long term are more important than a single blood pressure reading.
• Take your blood pressure at the same time every day.
• Unless the monitor is equipped with memory storage for more than one user, use one blood pressure monitor per person, ideally, to keep the readings separate.
• Be sure to position wrist monitors as instructed to get accurate blood pressure readings.