Do you get your transmitter (the part that goes on the body) every 6 months or wait till it runs out?

My insurance plan is about to change near the end of the year and I am sure my out of pocket expenses will increase. Currently my DME is no copay and was wondering if I should go ahead and get my transmitter and have it around the house so it is on hand when it goes out, If I do get it...how long is the shelf life of the transmitter in the box?

My first transmitter lasted for a week or two short of a full year, despite the 6 month warranty. I waited till about 10 months before getting the replacement transmitter to have on the shelf for when it craps out. Glad I had it on hand as it did not give a low batteries alert but started to have lots of ???'s.

If your insurance is going to get more expensive, I would get it refilled as close to the end of your current coverage as you can. If you do not take the new transmitter out of the box-off the magnet, then it will keep for at least the 6 months warranted.

As the transmitter starts to wind down you will start to have more issues with ??? Hourglasses, and calibration inaccuracies. For me that was what prompted the transmitter change. Was interesting, I have two receivers which I run to cover the 2 hour calibration dead zone.(warranty replacement but still working). As I was setting up one with the new transmitter code, the other was giving the low transmitter battery alarm. From what I hear it can take a week or so to get the insurance paperwork set, but the alarm only triggers about 5 days before failure.
If you can get a complete system replacement on the lower copay insurance, even better. Just give enough time to get the claim processed before your insurance changes.

For my initial purchase it was the reverse - I waited for day one of the new coverage to initiate both my dex and my tslim acquisition.

Be careful how early you buy the transmitter before you actually start using it. I found out from Dexcom the other day that they actually know from your insurance company when you purchased the transmitter and the six month warranty starts running from the day of purchase, not the day you start using it. It the past, I've bought the transmitter and kept it in the box until I was ready to use it and Dexcom's position on when the warranty starts is something I never knew. Just something to think about.

My understanding of the transmitter battery, it starts losing juice once it is unpacked/ removed from it is housing. As for shelf life, Dexcom warranty runs from the date of purchase for six months, no matter if you use it or not. My guess it is around 1 year.

I am talking in theory, I have not had any experience in keeping it or so. Maybe someone had experienced here. Good luck and if you ever know the shelf life of the transmitter please let me/us know.

What is the transmitter packaged in ?? I know some capacitors are packaged with some connections to make sure they don't short out, but I have never seen the batteries stored that way.. that is a good question, how long will they last

If you look in the box there is a strip magnet molded in the plastic tray that the transmitter form fits/locks into/sits on top of. I suspect that it stops the transmitter from sending out the every 5 minute signal the receiver looks for once it is live, thus conserving battery life.

Dexcom called me to tell me my transmitter was going to die soon. Oh you are not kidding about the ??? and bad readings and complete failure. That was all in one day. Then I stopped everything and did a restart. Now it works intermittently. My insurance just started on the first so now I'm waiting for Dexcom to get the paperwork finished. I'm back to checking my bs on my fingers more than I want. I just can't believe how fast it died just after I put a new sensor in my arm.

Hmm - I wasn't aware that the current G4 transmitter is only warranted for 6 months. The older 7+ and Seven transmitters were warranted for a full year and I usually got at least 18 months use out of each (I've used Dexcom for about 7 years now). Back in those days, however, I did not use a sensor continuously as my insurance did not cover any of the cost of the sensors. I got the G4 version I'm now using at the end of last July and as of today, I've not had any problem with the transmitter and I pretty much use a sensor every day as my insurance has finally changed to cover 90% of the cost of the sensors. Thanks for the heads up about them expiring so much sooner now (which I can understand as their range of operation is much greater than previous versions).