Now, Welch Allyn is a brand that I wasn't too aware of until I actually started researching stethoscopes, and it keeps popping up, so I thought I would give it a go and try it out and as usual, I'm going to be reviewing 10 aspects, and I'm going to give it a score out of five in each aspect, and by the end, I will have a score out of 50. Acoustics, so this Welch Allyn stethoscope, it is a cardiology stethoscope, it has got dual lumen in the tubing, which makes for great sound quality. I would say that this is on par with the Littmann Cardiology 4. So, I've given it five out of five. Ear tip comfort, this Welch Allyn Harvey Elite black stethoscope comes with only the one set of ear tips already on the stethoscope, and they are small ear tips.
When I tried and used the stethoscope, I found that the ear tips were burrowing into my ears and they were quite painful after a while. I felt like they were just going into my brain. So they're quite small, and you don't get any extra medium or large to set yourself up for what fits you. So for that reason, I've given it a one out of five. Weight, this stethoscope weights 206 grams, which is roughly 7.2 ounces, and for me, personally, that is too heavy. I couldn't wear this stethoscope around my neck all day. I would feel it there and it would get quite uncomfortable. But if you're the person who keep your stethoscope in your pocket, or you keep it on your desk, this might work really well for you. But for me, I have given it a two out of five. Price, I paid 150 US dollars for the Welch Allyn Harvey Elite black stethoscope, and for me, the value for money just isn't quite there. There are a few things I'm not happy with, so I've given that a two and a half out of five. Also, guys, all these stethoscopes I buy and review, I just don't keep them here collecting dust. I run monthly giveaways. So if you're interested, you can find the link for that in the show notes. Tubing length, the length of this stethoscope is 71 centimeters, which is about 28 inches long, and for me, it is a nice length. I find I'm not crouching my back too much. It's not too long so that it's flapping around, around my neck, so I've given it a four out of five. Tubing feel, now the tubing feel around my neck, it's quite nice, it's nice and soft, not too sticky. It flows around pretty good, my neck hairs don't get caught. But, the tubing is quite soft and flimsy, and compared to the binaurals and the chest piece, it just becomes like this spaghetti sort of feel. I don't know if you can see that, but it just becomes like this flimsy rag doll, and it doesn't give a good feel personally, so I've given it a three out of five. Stethoscope design, let's talk a little bit about the chest piece to start with. Now, the chest piece is quite heavy, and solid. The stem here is thicker than other stethoscopes that I've tried. The large diaphragm is a screw off and screw on, and same goes with the bell, it screws off and on and the chest piece is also a turnable chest piece. Now, the diaphragm is what they call a corrugated diaphragm, and I actually had to go onto the Welch Allyn website to look up, why would you have a corrugated diaphragm as opposed to a flat one? Now, they say that the corrugated diaphragm is better for detecting lower frequency sounds, and the flat one is better for detecting high frequency sounds. I'm not a cardiac nurse, I don't listen to heart sounds all day every day, so for me, it didn't actually make a difference. Let's move on to the binaurals. Now as usual, with binaurals, you can adjust the tension yourself, according to your head width. But I found, though, with this stethoscope, that when I did try it, so I would push it together, and do that, then you put it into your ears, like that, and then I'd take it out and it would stay there. There's no tension. It doesn't spring back to that position so that you have that good seal when you put them in. So, that is a little bit of a negative for me. They also have rotatable binaurals. So these binaurals, they can rotate. The whole way around and that is so that you can adjust the exact angle of the binaurals to fit your ear canals. Now I've never had any problems with other stethoscopes not having rotatable binaurals, but I guess if you have a funny-angled ear canal, it'd be great for you. I didn't find it a positive or a negative. Like I mentioned before, the ear tips, they are screw on and screw off, and you can easily lose them, and they are way too small for my ears, so for that reason, for the stethoscope design, I've given it a two and a half out of five. Spare kit, you will get an extra flat diaphragm, so if you wish to exchange the corrugated diaphragm here to a flat one, you can do so. You will also get a pediatric size that you can exchange the adult size for and screw that off and screw the pediatric one on if you want to use it in that way. You also get an extra non-chill rim, that if you lose this non-chill rim, 'cause it does screw off, and can fall off, you have an extra one that you can just screw on when you need to also in the spare kit, you will get a Harvey Heart Sounds Sampler. This is a CD that has 25 tracks of a man talking about heart sounds and normal and abnormal heart sounds. Spare kit, you will get an extra flat diaphragm, so if you wish to exchange the corrugated diaphragm here to a flat one, you can do so. You will also get a pediatric size that you can exchange the adult size for and screw that off and screw the pediatric one on if you want to use it in that way. You also get an extra non-chill rim, that if you lose this non-chill rim, 'cause it does screw off, and can fall off, you have an extra one that you can just screw on when you need to also in the spare kit, you will get a Harvey Heart Sounds Sampler. This is a CD that has 25 tracks of a man talking about heart sounds and normal and abnormal heart sounds. We had to actually dig out our old DVD player to be able to play this, we didn't think we had anything to play it in and, finally, you will have a little name tag that you can put right here. Now, you don't get an extra set of ear tips in any sizes at all, you only get the ones that are on the stethoscope. For that reason, I've given it a three out of five. Warranty, you will get a ten-year warranty with the Welch Allyn Harvey Elite black stethoscope, and I've given it a five out of five stars. Buying experience, I received this stethoscope in this box, and it's got a picture of a stethoscope on the front, but it's actually not the stethoscope that you buy, so all the Welch Allyn boxes have got the same picture on it with that stethoscope on there. Personally, I would like to have the stethoscope that I'm buying on the box that I'm getting, if you're going to have it displayed at all. The box, when you open up, it's got. Everything just falls out. It's got plastic inside, it's very flimsy, it's not very rigid at all. Now the buying experience does not impact on the functionality of the stethoscope at all, but for the purpose of a full review, I do like to include it. I've given it a two out of five. So overall, the Welch Allyn Harvey Elite black stethoscope has received a score of 30 out of 50 from me. It has got really good acoustics, I can't take that away from it. It's almost as good as the Littmann Cardiology 4, or just as good, actually. The tubing feel is quite nice, it's soft, and it's not very sticky, it's nice on my neck. However, the stethoscope tubing is very thin and flimsy compared to the binaurals and the weight of the chest piece. The chest piece is quite heavy, the screw on feature of the diaphragm is no good, I think it's no good, because I've had it fall off when I've used it at work. Spring tension, or the lack of tension, is a negative for me. Ear tips, as I've mentioned, too small and hurt my ears. So who would this stethoscope be good for? Now, if you're in the market for a cardiology stethoscope, and you are willing to pay good money for a good stethoscope, I would recommend that you get a cardiology stethoscope such as the Littmann Cardiology 4 and pay a little bit more than you would for this stethoscope, just because you will get more value for money and if you're a student nurse, or your first year out in nursing, I wouldn't recommend this stethoscope for you. You could get a cheaper stethoscope, with better ear tip comfort, and almost just as good acoustics.
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