Dexcom G6 transmitter "low battery" warning

Diabetes Technology Glucose Monitoring
1

I am on 98 days of use for my current G6 transmitter, so I wasn’t surprised when I received a low battery warning message on my Tandem t:slim x2 pump this AM when I changed to a new sensor. There was no estimate of days left with today’s warning. But 10 days earlier the warning message was “23 days remaining”.

My current plan is to hope the transmitter lasts another 10 days and to then switch over to the new transmitter which arrived about a month ago.

But I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask what other folks experience has been after receiving a Dexcom G6 transmitter “low battery” warning message. Did the transmitter make it 10 more days or did your transmitter die before that? Asking out of curiosity more than anything. :wink:

2

I have had a few transmitters that have not quite made it to their due date. It can say 28 more days and then a few days later quit, way before the claimed date. When that happens, I call Dexcom and they send me an extra transmitter and ask me to send back the one that failed early. I would say that happens about once every 18 months. I do end up with extra transmitters when that happens as I did get like 90+ days use out of the one that failed.

So I would say if yours fails tomorrow, put in the one that arrived a month ago, file an early failure date for the one you have. They will send you another transmitter and they will ask you to send back the one that failed early of which you will have gotten more than 100 days out of, but not the full allotted time.

3

I’ve always thought the X2’s transmitter warnings were completely random. I get so many of them at irrelevant times that I just ignore them. And then it doesn’t give any warning at all when the last session is expiring.

I don’t know if the app behaves any better. I never used the G6 app long enough to see a transmitter expire on it.

I just wear it until the new session fails to start, and make them send me a new sensor.

4

If you use xDrip, the status show the voltage, which better predicts remaining battery strength.

Mine is on day 79, with volt A/B as 311/296. (xDrip).

From a previous post, this indicates levels.

"voltage A < 300 is marked as bad,
voltage B < 290 is marked as bad "

But this was for older transmitters (80, 81), but may be still accurate.

I hope to get 99 days on my current one starting last session on day 89.

5

If it let’s you start the sensor session then you can expect a full 10 days.

When I started my last sensor the Dexcom app warned me that my transmitter will need changed for my next sensor session.

I will be at 107 days on this transmitter when it expires.

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6

My experience is that if I start a new G6 sensor on or before transmitter day 99 then it will go 10 more days. If I wait for day 100 it will not.

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7

On an actual G6 receiver, I always get 100-110 days before it forces me to use a new transmitter when changing sensors. This is 10 or 11 sensors, and I only ever get to the 11th sensor if for some reason I ended a sensor early (I had a sensor come unglued on day 9 once).

I have never gotten more than 110 days. Would be very dubious if an app told me I was getting more than 110 days.

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8

My experience is exactly as @Robyn_H describes above. Random warnings and sensors lost when transmitter fails to start. Dexcom does send a new sensor but it is extremely annoying, especially when it happens with my last sensor on hand. Dexcom even told me that the warnings are not to be believed.

9

A followup post just let folks know how it turned out.

Today I changed to a new sensor and transmitter. So I did get the full 10 days of usage for my transmitter even after receiving the “low battery” warning when I started using it at day 98.

Total usage time for this transmitter was 108 days. :relieved:

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10

Mine just gave me that error too. It said 24 days left, but I’m going to start a new one in a few days anyway.
It’s more just irritating.