After my unfortunate experience with the PDM over the weekend, I am beginning to question if Insulet has a ‘quality control’ issue with the PDM? I bought my first 2nd generation PDM in June 2009. That one failed in August of 2009 and was graciously replaced by Insulet. The PDM replaced in August 2009 was the one that failed me yesterday, Feb. 2010 (less than 6 months old). I do not leave the PDM in any cold places or hot places, nor has it been dropped or subjected to high humidity such as a bathroom. There has to be a reason why these things keep failing - unless their life span isn’t supposed to be very long. Has anyone else had their PDM replaced for any reason? I still love my OmniPod no matter what…I just want the PDM to last longer.
Sorry, I don’t know much about this, but wanted to just provide my data since it seems like you’re looking for the experiences of others: I’m on my 5th month of use with the 2nd generation OmniPod and have not had any troubles with mine. Hope this helps.
My 17 year old son started with OmniPod in August of 2009. He is on his 3rd PDM. He takes careful care of it…he keeps his skin on it and in a small padded camera case he carries it in and we live in DRY Colorado. Up until the OmniPod he had used the same meter for the entire 2 years since dx with no incident. I only mention that as I know that he takes reasonable care of his stuff…his other handheld electronics have all been okay.
Erika, could you tell me more about the power issue? I’m still on my first 2nd gen. PDM (got in June maybe?) but I do sometimes have to take the batteries out and put them back in to turn it on. This only happens once every month or two so I haven’t been worried enough to call Insulet. Also, my power reads full forever and then the meter gets obliterated in two or three days (enough warning to get new batteries but it’d be nice if it was more consistent). Please let me know what issues you had and what they did about it. Thanks!
I have had virtually no issues with my second generation PDM since starting pumping in September 2009. The only things I have had wrong are:
Getting an error when I insert a test strip. All I have to do is take it out, shut down the PDM and start over.
Not getting a notice that my batteries were dying. Tech support told me it is because I am using lithium batteries which are not recommended along with rechargables because the PDM cannot tell when they are going to quit.
Brad
panther89 - really sorry to hear your warranty was voided because of the lithium batteries. I found out, early on, when I called Insulet for a different matter, that I was not supposed to use lithium batteries. And don’t worry…I will be sending my old PDM back to them pronto! 
I too think that the 2nd generation PDM has some quality control issues and I brought that to the attention of the CEO of Insulet. I wasn’t getting anywhere with customer service and decided to take the route of contacting the CEO through email. Insulet just replaced my PDM because I couldn’t turn it off without it resetting. I ended talking to someone higher up than customer service and she told me that a newer software version of the PDM was getting ready to be released to fix some issues that they were experiencing. The only thing she told me that she could remember about the software update was that it was going to extend the time the light stayed on. But the way she was talking I got the impression that it was going to correct more than that. I didn’t get the newer software version PDM because it was going to be released for another 2-3 weeks but she told me I could call her back and she would send the newer version to me.
I have another issue, I’m unable to see my data from the new PDM on CoPilot. I had it sync up to my old profile but it only shows my BGs from the old PDM. How can I get it to show me the BGs from my new PDM? The serial number is checked to show the data but I can’t see it.
Sticky keys…oh yeah, but Insulet replaced the PDM within 24 hours. Have the new PDM for 2 weeks and everything seems to be fine, I also had a problem with the other PDM that made me almost put it on the Pod to transmit. I actually think it was the pod causing that. I’ve found the support I’ve gotten so far excellent and I am sorry that it seems you’ve had a bad experience.
Insulet replaced my daughter’s new PDM in Sept. We’d gotten it in June too. We’re starting to have trouble with the replacement now, though. We have to take the batteries out and then put them back in. This happens every couple of days. Plus, it seems like the battery life is SOOOO much shorter than on the old PDM. We even paid $20 for a hard case (like the one that came with the original PDM) to make sure the PDM was extra-protected. Doesn’t seemed to have helped. We love the OmniPod too, but it’s very frustrating.
And, Lisa, I haven’t had ANY luck with co-pilot. It goes on my computer just fine, but won’t read the data from my PDM. Haven’t had the time to sit down and make the “fun” tech support phone call yet.
Serena, I was thinking about deleting my old profile out on CoPilot and see if that works if it doesn’t I was going to call Insulet back to see what is going on.
I’m sure this isn’t the problem but just in case, have you installed the Omnipod Extension from Insulet? If not then CoPilot won’t work with the Omnipod.
We have been having communication errors like crazy. Two pods primed just fine and then wouldn’t communicate. Insulet replaced those. Since then we have had quite a few that communicate but not all the time. I don’t know if it’s a pod issue or a PDM issue.
We’ve also had the power issues twice. Where it won’t turn on, or turns on for a few seconds and then off again. Both times it worked fine a couple minutes later. . .
What I don’t understand about the lithium batteries, is how can they be bad for the PDM? I understand that they have the day or two of warning for failed batteries, but how can they be harmful?
I have had similar problems, but I have only been using the alkaline duracell. I this it is a PDM issue. Insulet is replacing the PDM.
I’ve been on the OmniPod for a little over 6 months. I got my second PDM at about 4 month into the use. My first PDM went through a set of batteries every 3 or 4 days. Customer support kept telling me to use Energizer extreme or max batteries. Well, the first one failed and the second one works great. I use duracel batteries and the PDM batteries last almost a month.
Now if i could get my Pods to last the full 3 days, I’d be happy.
I have been using OmniPod Since April last year and I am on my 6th PDM. I have not had any luck with it.