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That was my oxygen saturation reading on Humphrey on Saturday. I used someone else's phone which provided me with a nice wave form, and the O2 Saturation. He said his was 83%. While still hypoxic, 89% is pretty good for the altitude, even if I now feel sluggish and often not so great at elevations over 10,000', especially when compared to when I lived at up high.


If you are aware of these phone based programs that use a sensor on the phone to read your oxygen saturation, or if you have an actual portable oxygen sensor, I would be curious of people's resting oxygen saturation, and when moving, too, when they hike various higher elevation trails and summits.

@Jim_H
I’ve seen different phone apps not sure how accurate. Mine was 99% at last Dr visit @ 8500’ surprisingly with a respiratory infection. The only reason I paid attention was that he mentioned He was surprised considering what I was visiting for and he said it was not uncommon for 85-93% depending on age health etc.at his office. Never really thought about it before that visit.

Do you believe that these are accurate?

I wouldn't trust a cell phone to do that accurately.

@Jim_H
I bet there's a confidence interval of 1-2%, so your O2 may have been as high as 91%, even if the phone is "accurate." Devices used in medical practices usually have that kind of "plus or minus" range to them.

I do trust the device to be reasonably accurate, it was when I played with one at work a few months back and compared it to a O2 sensor used for routine vitals. 1 to 2 % margin is probably within the range, but I'm really just wondering where people fall, if they read this and have the device, and report back.

Also, I forget to ask people to report where they live, the elevation.

@Jim_H
I have a ~$20 Pulse Oximeter that I purchased on Amazon ZacUrate Pro Series 500DL.

After reading your post, I put it on and watched my blood oxygen saturation for a few minutes while sitting at my desk. Pulse was in the low to mid 50s and oxygen saturation varied between 91% and 96%. This pretty much matches my at-rest readings when playing with it in the past.

Elevation here is around 1500 feet.

I'll report back if / when I try it during exercise...

KBKB wrote:I have a ~$20 Pulse Oximeter that I purchased on Amazon ZacUrate Pro Series 500DL.

I tried using that ~$20 pulse oximeter last night while on a relatively flat hike.

I have doubts about its accuracy. Most of the time, it showed a pulse of around 60 with a blood oxygen saturation in the low 90s. I was occasionally able to make it show a pulse closer to 120, which was more believable. At one point along the way, it showed that my O2 saturation had dropped into the 60s and then into the 50s, which doesn't seem likely at all.

My fingertips are callused from climbing - I wonder if that's messing it up. I found that I sometimes got more believable pulse readings when I turned it around so that the sensor was on the fingernail side. I'm pretty sure that's not how it's supposed to be used though.

The equipment is probably fine. If the wave form is not good, then it isn't able to get a good read. Even hospital equipment struggles if people move around. Just stop for a few seconds, remain still and most likely you will get an accurate read.

I bought another pulse oximeter. The new one is a "Santamedical Generation 2 OLED Fingertip Pulse Oximeter".

When I compare them side by side while sitting at my desk, the Santamedical device shows O2 saturation readings that are two to four points higher than the ZacUrate Pro 500DL. E.g. there are times when the ZacUrate shows an O2 sat of 92%, but the Santamedical devices shows an O2 sat of 96%.

I had my wife try them out. For her, the two devices produced almost identical readings.

@KBKB
The higher readings are more likely correct.

@KBKB
Try them on a mountain, Mmmm, say one over 10,000', and then report back!