Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by rblcpacfo on July 9, 2010 at 6:23am

Larry(and others)

Battery failures and changes while in"mid pod" have left me with lost communication several times. When support was called and registered a complaint, a replacement pod was added to the next re-order(has happened twice in the last 4 months). That still doesn't account for the lost insulin or, the unsettling erratic behavior when these power and communication issues occur.

I've decided to change batteries only when changing a pod to prevent this, so far no issues, need to plan ahead, a bit however. I use rechargeable batteries, without obvious issue, (they last for at least three weeks). There definitely is an engineering issue here.

Conclusion: carry paperclip, batteries and a cellphone to call support, hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Steve D on July 9, 2010 at 8:21am

Larry -
Hppens to me about twice a year, I have been a "podster" since 2005. I find after the pod is deactivated in mid bolus, usually before you can prime the new one the pdm will give you a message that so much of your last bolus was dieliverd and you just need to do the math to figure out hom much more needs to be delivered as soon as the new one is on. It's a pain in the ass, yes, but like you say, I just always make sure I have plenty of batteries laying in my supply closet along with plenty of paperclips! PEACE!

Permalink Reply by Mayumi on July 9, 2010 at 9:06am

I had a similar thing happen day before yesterday. I could not figure out why my PDM keeps eating batteries. At most they last 3 days. Then........while I was eating my lunch my PDM, which was laying on the table, turned itself on and then turned itself off again a total of at least 6 times. I left the PDM on the table and watched it.....all afternoon it kept turning itself on and off with absolutely no outside help.

Called Insulet and the service rep is going to send me a new PDM (my 4th one of the 2nd generation variety) tomorrow. This PDM that is having battery trouble is only two weeks old. The PDM before this one used to stop 'mid bolus' so I never knew if the bolus was complete or not??

Right now, I am not a happy "podder".

Permalink Reply by Bradford on July 9, 2010 at 11:33am

Sorry to hear about the PDM reset issue :-/

I have never changed the batteries with the PDM "on" so to speak. I always hold the power button or let it time out (let the screen go black) until it is "off", then change the batteries. And I never do it while the pod is in the middle of bolusing.

Like you said, as a safety precaution I'd keep a paper clip on hand just in case.

I never have battery issues, so I guess I would ask others who do experience them, what might be different between our PDMs? I keep a skin on my PDM 24/7, except to change the batteries out every 9-10 wks or so. Do others that have battery issues use skins as well? Or is your battery door "exposed" most of the time? By that I mean maybe there's an issue w/ the battery door that allows the batteries to wriggle too much or something. Just trying to find what a culprit for all of the troubles you seem to be having so we can get some resolution for you :-)

Permalink Reply by Larry D on July 9, 2010 at 11:38am

In my daughter's case, the only time she takes her case off is upload information into the Co-Pilot Health Management System.

I am amazed you get 9-10 weeks, she usually gets about 10 days on a set of batteries

Permalink Reply by Bradford on July 9, 2010 at 12:03pm

I use lithiums. And I keep the PDM "on" as little time as possible.

So when I get ready to eat, if I test w/ the PDM I do the test, and if I don't know how many carbs, etc, I immediately turn it off (rather than letting it time out).
I also make it turn off immediately after hearing the confirmation beeps of it beginning to deliver a bolus (again, rather than letting it time out).
Also I have several other meters that I use (laying around house, w/ bike and run stuff for working out, etc) so even though I'm testing 8-12 times a day, I'm not using the PDM every time (which saves battery life). (I'm kinda OCD about it...but it works for me :-)

So that's how I get 10 wks out of a set of batteries. They cost more but I use less of them and don't have to worry about always having a fresh set on me to change out as frequently as rechargeables or alkalines.

Permalink Reply by Mayumi on July 10, 2010 at 5:19am

I am curious as to how you make it turn off (rather than letting it time out)? I thought I read the manual but apparently I missed this part.

I'm lucky if I get 3 days out of a pair of Duracell alkaline batteries. But my PDM was defective and it is being replaced by Insulet today. Hoping my batteries last longer with the new PDM.

Permalink Reply by Bradford on July 10, 2010 at 6:59am

You just have to press and hold the "home" button (you can see the little icon next to the home button is also the "power button". It's the one you use to turn the unit on...and can also be used to turn it off.

I forgot to add that I also turn it off once it's done priming (when the screen tells me to "apply the pod", the exact wording I'm forgetting right now). Then once I have the pod on where I want it I can turn it back on (just press the home power/home button again) and hit the "next" button to continue the canula insertion process, etc.

Permalink Reply by StaceyD on July 9, 2010 at 1:13pm

Wow, didn't know how lucky I was. I use Duracel Procell alkaline batteries. I have been on the POD since March 12. In these 4 months, I have used a total of 16 batteries. I have had my backlight and auto-off both set for 60 seconds and never turn off manually, I just let it turn off by itself. So even with all that usage, I'm getting 2 weeks out of a set of batteries. I have never had any issues with PDM failure so I just might have one of those golden ticket PDM's.
I have now reset my auto-off and backlights to 10 seconds so will see how much more life I can get out of the batteries. Oh, and the batteries I got from Amazon in a 24 pack for about 10 bucks. The best part was the packaging, individual cardboard boxes for each 4 batteries. It keeps it easy to keep the batteries with me.
Thanks for the tip about the paperclip. It's now in my to-go bag.


StaceyD

Permalink Reply by Janice L Cotton on July 9, 2010 at 2:14pm

I usually get 6 weeks out of my Rayovac batteries. I usually test 6-8 times a day.

Permalink Reply by Brad Ringer on July 9, 2010 at 7:09pm

The official word (from the support rep I spoke to) is not to use lithium or rechargeable batteries in the PDM. Until I got that news, I (like Bradford) was happily using lithiums. With lithiums I got virtually no notice that they were almost dead. Now I use Duracell alkalines and get about 1 month out of them. I do not take extra care to prolong battery life.

I have only changed batteries with the PDM turned off and not in mid bolus. Also like Bradford, I keep the skin on all the time, except to upload to CoPilot or to change the batteries. Fortunately I have never had a pod fail mid bolus. Also, knock on wood, I have never had to reset my PDM.

Brad(ley)

Permalink Reply by Celeste on July 10, 2010 at 11:00am

We have had a couple of "lost communication" pod failures - neither time seemed to be after a battery change (though I cahnged the batteries after both times as a precaution) I got a weird message about the time being reset and that I could not use the pod to calculate a bolus for 3 hours after the communication error(could still deliver bolus manually). I also lost the history for that day. We were also unsure whether the bolus was delivered - one of the notifications was 20 min after we thought it was delivered but the pdm did not register that bolus. PDM has been working well since the last one about 3-4 months ago. Strange hope it doesn't happen again.

We use Duracell batteries and get about 10 days - 2 weeks out of them.

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