Is tubeless worth the trouble in its current state?

Hi All,

I agree totaly that tubless is much better for tolders.

however I’m worried to commit & thats several reasons why:

  1. Heared a lot of complaints on multiple pod failures as much as30% at pod gen1 and even worse 50% at gen2 smaller pods.





    2)in my country the insurance covers exacly 10 pods pet month & if they fail you have to buy it from your own pocket(which is a pricy buisness).



    3)the local omnipod &pod providers has poor service (as i heard also insulet has the same poor service)

Did U encountered this issues ?
Is omnipod worth the risk?

I have had batches with very high failure rates, but over a year, I have had less than a 20% failure rate.

In the UK, our “Socialist” NHS funds pumps and if you are in an area and at a hospital that allows OmniPods, you are funded for however many you need.

Ypsomed have been excellent to me & replace all the failed pods.

There are certain people who constantly & drown out drown out the cheerful ones.

Tubeless is a good idea for babies, but I posted earlier that the recent posts online about lack of reliability would force me to talk seriously to the endocrinologist. Some folks online have good results..many have high rate of failure. One of the problems with the pod is the failure that does not set off an alarm...which causes me to run high numbers for several hours or more to figure out whether it is my math failure , a bad setting, or a faulty pod. When pods fail, a significant amount of insulin is lost ...not good with insurance companies. So I would talk to good endocrinologists for advice and training .

1) There are bad boxes of pods. Insulet seems to especially have trouble whenever they roll out something new. I'm getting the impression that at this point MOST of the kinks are worked out and the pods coming out are better. I would say I have maybe 2 pods per box fail now (20%).

2) If the pod fails (not an occlusion but an actual pod error) then at least in the US Insulet replaces them for free. They sometimes ask you to mail back the broken pod but they provide the return envelope and postage for that too.

3) The only time I've had any trouble with Insulet's service was when I was trying to upgrade to the new system and they wouldn't let me because I already had the old system, I just had to wait until they released it to new customers. At this time they also had a very heavy call volume so it sometimes took a while (never more than 40 minutes for me) to get a representative on the phone. Otherwise I've NEVER waited for a representative and they are usually very helpful and useful. I have no real complaints about service.

Analyze that data available and go with whatever pump seems to meet your needs best but I have no qualms about recommending Insulet's Omnipod system. I have never and hope to never have to use a pump with tubing but that's a personal preference. We're fortunate to have a number of different types of pumps so we can all find something that works for us.

When my pods fail they do alarm. The only ones that don't are when the cannula comes out. I don't believe any pump alarms when the infusion site becomes disconnected though so this isn't any different from any other pump. Also, while it's not an official solution most of us have figured out how to extract unused insulin from failed pods so as not to waste it. (I do only recommend this if the pod fails within the first 30 hours or so of wearing it).

My son has been on the pod since age 3. The old system- very problematic. The new? Not so much. We have had failures but we at least know when it fails, unlike the old system. For us it just seems Omnipod is so much farther ahead with its technology. Tubeless is totally worth it, and Omnipod replaces any problematic pods- their customer service has been good to us. No regrets here- very satisfied with the new system.

With Gen 1 I saw a rare failure, very low. At first on Gen 2 there was a high failure rate. Today I'm seeing about a 10% failure rate, and it seems to be dropping more. I personally think the pods are a little over zealous on alarming, but glad it does try to keep my safe.

Some people have experienced high failure rates, but most people have not; people hardly ever report success on Internet discussion groups. The only way to approach it is to try it with an open mind and as much knowledge as you can acquire about the problems such as over or under-filling.

Insulet's customer service is extremely good. It got swamped during the change over to the new pods, but it was still responsive; more responsive than other US companies are during normal conditions.

Insulet replaces pods if they fail - you don't have to buy your own. Pods are supplied on a 90-day basis, so 30 every 90 days. The refills happen early (maybe at 80 days) so if you keep up with the refills initially (particularly the first) you have some spares to replace accidentally dropped or clobbered pods. Insulet was happy to replace a pod on the one occasion when I flipped the adhesive back onto itself, rendering the pod unusable.

The known issue is that Insulet hasn't replaced insulin in the past.

A couple of years ago my son had a couple of months with a ton of failures. Since then we've hardly had any. Once every now and then - if I had to pay out of pocket for the few that have failed I definitely would. My son wouldn't even consider a tubed pump after being on the Omnipod. We have had great service - even when we had issues on Christmas a couple of years ago - we had someone helping us over the phone.

I would agree with Rebecca when she says she thinks most of the kinks have been worked out. so far with me I have had not one error with the new system.

Also if a pod fails then insulet replaces it for you.

Since I've been on Ommipod as long as anybody I will speak to the failures. Early on with both generations failures wre a problem wit the new generation, I haven't had a failure in over two months. I think Insulet has finally worked out the kinks. BTW I don't know if you saw Insulet's report that they have the capacity now to make a million pods a month.

Andy T1 59 years

we have found the new generation to be much more reliable and comfortable. the prob with the new gen is that it can not take over 200 u if you accidentally did this unlike the old one it would fail immediately we figured this out quickly the insurance issue you have could be a draw back we were able to have Jacobs endo write for changing his pod every other day he needs to change it every 2.5 now due to a large overall insulin dose, he is a teenager. we deal only with insulet for pod supplies and honestly I think they are very good at supporting the product and are generally easy to reach and helpful. best of luck with whatever decision you make. especially for small children the smaller pods are great, my son was sooooo happy with the new size and comfort level. it was like Christmas when they arrived, bitter sweet to be sure for me such joy over a new insulin pump but well appreciated!!

with both ver 1 and the current pads had high failure rates when they first came out but got better each time and now I rarely have a pod failure. Love the pods. I only wish Tri-care would cover them with meds like other insurances did before I went on Tri-care I go though a pod approx every 2 1/2 days and they only cover 75% of the full cost. no discounts since Omnipod does not have a contract with the gov. $700 every 90 days. Omnipod has been very good with their service I love the pods I am 61 yrs old with type 1.5

Did you ever worked out what caused the problems? What your son experienced is similar to my own experience; I had failures when I swapped to the new pods, but they went away. At present my best guess is that they were all site related and one way or another I learned to avoid the problem sites.

Avi,
I think you're largely overestimating the level of problems. I've written about this several times before so I'll just copy-and-paste what I've said in the past. I'll add that since my first box of 2nd gen pods I've not had a single failure, and only 2-3 occlusions. That's in over 6 months.
Here are some things I've written before about this topic:

  • It's simply not true that every OmniPod user has "serious issues." As with anything on the Internet, there is always a vocal minority that appears to be overwhelming but in reality is just a small group that have complaints, while the rest of us (the vast majority) just go about our lives perfectly happy with how the product works for us. This is not to belittle the issues that some people do have, they are real and I'm sure quite frustrating for those having them. My point is that you can't judge the actual performance based on what you read on the web; it's a naturally skewed view because, in general, only people with a complaint are motivated enough to write about it.
  • I've posted this before, but I think it's worth repeating, especially for someone like you to hear:
    I think this is one of the biggest issues that Insulet faces in growing the OmniPod customer base. Keep in mind the idea of the vocal minority - if someone is having troubles or frustrations, they are going to be the people out here seeking help, advice, or even just a place to vent. That's true regardless of what the subject is - insulin pumps, cell phones, parenting, whatever.
    On the other hand, if something "just works" and you go on every day doing just fine, those people have a LOT less reason to be vocal on forums like TuDiabetes. Think about it, why would the people who have no or little trouble be out here being vocal?
    So there will always seem to be a lot of voices of discontent, but I firmly believe that is the minority, by far. There are thousands of people using OmniPod, most of whom you NEVER hear from or about because we're getting along just fine.
    That's not to dismiss those people who do have issues. Clearly no pump is right for everyone; no doubt OmniPod is not the right choice for every diabetic. But it sure is "right" for lots of us. It's been several years, but this is something I wrote about my own personal experience after about 18 months as a 'Podder.
    http://bewarethepenguin.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-experience-with-omn...
  • Like others have said, don't let the vocal minority sway you too much. How many complaints have you read? 10? 20? 100? So what... OmniPod has about 45,000 users in the US (according to the most recent investors info I think), so what percentage is that?
    I'm a long-time 'Podder (about 6 years) and I have no serious complaints about the technology or the company. Minor annoyances, but no more than I have with my cable/internet service provider, my smartphone, my refrigerator, etc.
  • Being tubeless was the only reason I even considered a pump after almost 20 years of MDI. Here's a good summary I wrote after being a 'podder for about 1.5 years - it's mostly still how I feel today, 4 years later.
    http://bewarethepenguin.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-experience-with-omn...

My son has been podding since March. He started on the new pods. He has only had five (yes, FIVE) failures since starting. Four of the failures have been true failures where there was .05 remaining in the bolus (no reason). And one of the failures was in the middle of the night when I heard it screaming from his bedroom. The cannula was totally bent when I removed it (it was on his butt and I think he rolled hard on it). I am SO thankful that he has a pump that alerts us when something is wrong because by 7 a.m. his BG levels would have been easily over 300+. ** There are bad batches/lots out there and so far we have been very fortunate.

My experience has been similar to Andy's. I can't remember my last failure, and I had very many when the new pods first came out. I think I was the first person here to switch to the new pods, and that was prior to Insulet issuing new instructions for not overfilling. My rate has dropped to almost no failures for my last 10 boxes or so.