Which brand would be a decent and inexspensive machine/cuff for taking blood pressure that can be purchased over the counter? portable one please.

Choices: Omron is reliable, but many store brands are comparable. Check a few stores and compare features. Omron 5 series and 7 series are both generally thought to be good. You should be able to find the 5 series for $45-$55, and the 7 series for $60-$70. Try amazon.Com if you're not happy with local stores.

Omron: Is an affordable and consistently listed as one of the most reliable ones... Check out wal-mart / target or costco type stores for best price... Great to hear you are monitoring your blood pressure! the best thing for these types of machines are to look for trends..... Not 1 reading only... They are not as reliable as manual in an md office or at a fire station - but better than not knowing!

Any true arm cuff: Almost all brands sold in stores are fine - as long as it is an inflatable cuff that goes around the upper arm; not a small cuff that goes around the forearm, wrist or finger. A popular brand is omron but any "store-brand", e.g. Walgreens or cvs branded product, should also work.

Omron portable machi: Make sure you get trained in doing it right.

Almost any: Most major name brand machines have been well calibrated. I prefer the usual cuff, not the wrist or finger BP monitors. Also i like automatic pumping, not the self pump devices. More expensive is not necessarily better, nor do you need automatic printers, etc. Ask the pharmacist what they recommend at your local drug store.

Calibrate BP cuff: All consumer BP cuffs should be calibrated to a mercury manometer standard. This can be conveniently done in the physician's office. If it's wildly in error, return it. If it's with 10-15 mmhg, you now know the offset correction.