Personal UV Monitor, Black

If pointed directly at the sun and set to your skin type this product is great. I live in Florida and used to get sunburned on occasion since the UV changes based on the atmosphere and cloud cover. Not great for walking around, but when sitting in a chair and with the sensor aimed correctly, it is highly accurate. The negative reviews are from people who expect a miracle device or just don't understand how to set it correctly. For example, the guy who says its crap because he put it inside his car on the dashboard and it didn't register. Did he ever consider that the windshield blocks most if not all of the UV?

This thing works as described. I was pretty skeptical at first, but after checking the readings against UV index websites, it seemed to be accurate. One thing to note is that the settings for cumulative exposure are very sensitive - I'm pretty pale and burn easily, but I ended up setting it to 6 or 7 because lower levels it would alert me that I'd met my total exposure within a few minutes on a sunny day. It definitely takes some time to figure out what your level of tolerance is and to set it accordingly. Overall, I'm very happy to have it and it's simple to use. For those reviewers who say it doesn't work because they tested it through glass - UV waves do not penetrate glass, so you're going to get a UV index of 1 inside a car. This shows that it's working properly, not a flaw.

The monitor does not adjust for the amount of skin that is exposed or the amount of clothing covering your skin, so you get only a rough idea of the vitamin D etc that your skin is receiving. I hear the company is coming out with a next generation that will have an app to help make these calculations. I look forward to that one.

Waste of money, they measure uv index so bad, I compared with oficial info at my location and this monitor is always giving me many points more. Besides that, I bought two units and they also have differences between them. Not recommended at all.

Great Concept but what they don't tell you is that the sensor is highly sun directionally sensitive. You basically can't use it as described but it works great if you always point the sensor towards the sun.

I bought this item mostly to manage my vitamin D intake. Now I know exactly when to start applying sunscreen, and the days when Vit. D supplementation is necessary. It is super easy to use, and the information is right there on your wrist. No need to check an iPad or phone. Just check the lights on your SunFriend and you know when it is time to get out of the sun. Finding my skin sensitivity was pretty straightforward, but takes a little trial and errors. 1 being ultra sensitive skin and 11 not sensitive at all never get sunburned. I think it is useful to know that SunFriends calculates your Vit. D and UVs based on the fact that your face, arms and part of your legs would be exposed to the sunlight. I always wear sunscreen on my face (make up or hydrating cream) and I like to wear pants so I crank the sensitivity up one number. (instead of a 5, I would be a 6). I NEVER had a sun burn since I am wearing it, but I haven't been under tropical sun yet with it. Afraid of the sun no more, less messy sunscreen, less Vit. D to buy, this thing pays for itself.

Arrived as specified and package well. I am already using this item an it works great. I do yard work and if I am in the sun to long I wan to know. I wish it would have a beep sound when you have maxed out your uv time.

I tried hard to make use of this monitor but its results are pretty random. I sat out in the sun a few times with the sunfriend, my Oregon Scientific UV888 laid out on a table beside me and also used the UV data from my Davis Weather station. The Sunfriend seems to report the UV index fairly accurately but the accumulated exposure results are totally random. I set my skin type as 9 and sometimes it shows 4 leds and other times all 11 leds for the same amount of acculated exposure by the UV888 and Davis and my skin which pretty much agree. The other issue is the sunfriend has no audible alarm. So not sure what they were thinking when they did the programming for this thing but its pretty useless in its current form. The UV sensor is SO directional that its even more totally useless if you wore it on your wrist. Total waste of money and does not work as promised.. Its a shame because if it worked as promised and had added an audable alarm it could have been a good thing. This is just a "feel good" novilty item with no practical value. For heavens sakes don't rely on it or you could turn into a lobster! Looks to me many of the reviews here are not real and put up to get some sales.