Oregon Scientific PE316CA Pedometer with Calorie Counter
|
List Price: Category: Health Care See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Customer Reviews of Oregon Scientific PE316CA Pedometer with Calorie Counter
Customer Review: Can't beat the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm recovering from back surgery and wanted a way to know--rather than guess--how close I come to meeting my daily walking goals. This comparatively inexpensive pedometer doesn't achieve perfection, but it does get the job done. On the up side, it's small, easy to read and includes a user-controlled back light. The belt clip is extremely secure, and the screen displays everything from actual steps walked to total distance and calories burned. It was easy to adjust the stride length and body weight. My steps are tracked accurately with the "sensitivity" slider control set in the middle, rather than all the way to the left as many other reviewers suggest. I have learned that there is a bit of wiggle room on mine--if I count off 20 steps, it might say 19 on one set and 21 on the next. In the long run--I bothered to count all the way to 100 several times--it was spot on.
On the down side, the cover is extraordinarily difficult to open. Difficult as in I have wrestled with it for nearly five minutes just to pop it open. (I now don't close it quite securely. It doesn't fall open.) And I can see some folks might be bothered by the imprecision over short term counting. And for some reason, if I clip it to a pants pocket, rather than on a belt loop or my waist band, it doesn't seem to read anything at all. I have no clue why this is so, but it is a little disapointing.
Considering that every other pedometer I looked at was more than twice the price of this model, I'm astonished at how well it works. Perfectionists will likely prefer a more expensive version, but for short term use, casual interest, easy-going folks or even something to help get the kids more active, you can't go wrong.
Customer Review: PERFECT? NO. BANG FOR ITS BUCK? ABSOLUTELY.
Summary: 4 Stars
Here's what a pedometer should do for me: (1) Should be comfortable to wear all day
(2) Shouldn't slide off my waistband so the clip needs to be flexible and firm (an extra safety leash is useful too)
(3) Should be easy to read with a simple bend of the neck instead of removing the unit everytime
(4) Should be secured in some way so that bumps or touches don't accidently set off buttons or reset the counter
(5) Should be easy and intuitive to move between functions
(6) Should be accurate in its count when you wear it correctly, and within 10% for distance when you set your average stride
(7) Should have a few days of memory
(8) Should be light enough to be non-intrusive
This little doohickey from Oregon has all of the above, and I have found it to be fairly durable. It is light, secure because of the flappable cover, functional because the clip fits on a thick denim trouser waistband as well as a slim running track-suit lining, and at least in my case, it is also fairly accurate. Surely does not give me readings like 256 if I walk 10 paces, as another reviewer unfortunately experienced. There is a thing as a defective device, one can exchange it if he has a reasonable case, can't he?
The only other good alternatives to this device would be the offerings from Sportline or Omron. Sportline is sleek and I bought one because of its compelling price but the little sukker went kaput in 2 months. Omrons are known to have short battery lives.
My humble opinion -- for the price, Oregon's is quite a decent purchase, at the very least I doubt you should face all the excruciating glitches outlined in other reviews here.
Customer Review: Could have been good but dimmed out....
Summary: 2 Stars
Well I was all ready to give this product a decent review but ends up it isn't worth it. It is hard to open but I can live with that. Some of the buttons are not that responsive as you can't flip back and forth from distance to steps to calories that easy. It seems not to like that very much. However it was doing the job. I tested it out several times and it was only off by a couple of steps on each test. On average though it was very accurate. No phantom steps and no counting while i was sitting. I would test 100 steps at a time and it came within 1-5 steps. This made me happy as this is what I bought it for. So why only 2 stars? Well as soon as it reached 1000 steps the readout went extremely dim. I switched modes and it was fine but when I went back to steps it was dim again. I reset it to 0 and it was ok again. I ran a few tests and each time it went over 999 it dimmed out to a point where I couldn't tell what the numbers were. did I walk 2340 steps or 3246 steps? Now that is a big difference. Now put that big issue with the smaller ones and this product just doesn't cut it. Too bad because it was accurate, light, and compact. I'm taking it back and trying another product. With all the other bad reviews the chances of you picking a good one looks 50/50. This company has to really look at this product because selling something with a track record like this is not right.Customer Review: Best Pedometer in Its Class I Have Had
Summary: 4 Stars
I tried several relatively inexpensive pedometers ($5-$15) and was disappointed in their accuracy. This Oregon Scientific PE316CA has been the best I have tried. It has a sensitivity slide, which the others did not have. This feature allows you to set the sensitivity to the energy of your stride. (The others didn't record steps if I was sauntering easily, only when I was "power walking.")
I have not had trouble with the snap opening the display, as others have reported. The digital display is large and easy to read. The time is always displayed, along with either steps or miles walked, or Calories expended (set by entering your body weight). The distance of your step can also be set, whereas some of the other models use a default setting only.
I have only a few quibbles. Although the advertising indicates that you can use either a 12- or 24-hour clock, the instructions indicate only 12-hour. Also, the distance display is given only in miles. You cannot set kilometres if you prefer.
Customer Review: O.k., but I can't get the door open!
Summary: 2 Stars
Pros: it's really cheap, and has a lot of features (set stride length, calories, clock, backlight, protective door)
Con: the door is really, incredibly, intolerably hard to open. I was adding a dozen steps to the readout just trying to get the door open. I tried to trim the plastic tab, but I took too much off, now the door flops open. It was useless the way it came from the factory, now I broke it and can't use it at all without a rubber band to keep it closed.
Also, I was never able to get a very accurate step-count. I would count 100 steps and usually get 65-90 steps on the readout, though I'm not really sure because I had to shake the thing for a minute or two just to get the door open.
For the price, I think this would be a great deal for someone with the patience to work with it.