I'm currently looking to get a new pump come January of 2014 and I wanted to start this discussion to get your opinions on the Medtronic 530G? My warranty with my Paradigm 722 pump ran out just last month and was looking to either upgrade to this new technology with Medtronic or venture away from them and go with Tslim or Animas Ping.
What are your opinions of the Medtronic 530G?
What are the things you like about it?
What are the things that you hate about it?
Do you wish there was anything different about it?
Do you like the CGM that comes with it? Is it accurate? If you dislike the medtronic one, which do you recommend.....
Thanks in advance for your advice. I'm trying to decide which pump I want to go with before the 15th of November. And I have no clue which to chose.
You will see it shows the MM 523/723, which is basically identical to the 530G, except the 530G has Low Glucose Suspend - which is helpful only if you also use MM CGMS.
Differences between the MM x22 and x23 models were minimal. X523 (and 530G) have smaller increments for basal patterns, and several menu paths that are slightly different. For example, filling the reservoir screens have a few more screens.
According to other discussions, Minimed will only sell the 530G with CGMS included, as a system. They will not sell just the 530G pump. I currently use MM 523 with Dexcom CGMS. Since MM will not sell 530G as stand-alone pump, and I prefer Dexcom CGMS, then when my MM is out of warranty, I'll likely go with another pump.
I have the revel 723 and they're shipping out a 530G soon but since they're virtually the same, I'll offer my opinions about the 723.
Really don't like having to scroll through to select how many carbs I'm about to consume when using the bolus wizard. If it's a somewhat heavy meal, it takes a bit to scroll through and it shoots right past. I know it sounds minor but using up and down arrows 7-8 times a day gets a bit old. That was one of the things that's got me wanting to try the tslim pump
The alarms are practically useless. I can barely hear them when the pumps in my pocket and I definitely don't hear them when I'm sleeping at night.
I'm currently using the old cgm and so far it's not bad (been using it for about 2 months now). coincidentally, it's giving me some really off readings today. The numbers are almost 60-70 points lower than what my actual numbers are. That worries me if I were to use the auto suspend feature of the new pump. This morning ,it said I was at 105 when my meter was telling me 195 (really fatty dinner last night.)
The backlight is nice but it's a pain to turn on once you're inside a menu. You have to esc out of everything (unless theres a way around that).
deathjamm - I had the same frustration with the backlight, until I learned the trick. (ok, I read the manual.)
If you hold down the 'B' button (on left), then press the 'light' button, you can turn on/off the backlight at any time ! This applies to the Revel x22, x23, and assume also the 530G.
I agree about not hearing the alarms - which is one reason I like Dexcom CGMS better.
That's the biggest let down about the 530G pump is you have to buy the whole system and you can't just buy the stand-alone pump!
I've heard a lot of people talking about Dexcom over Medtronic CGM. I've never wore one and definitely don't want to buy a product with a CGM that isn't the most accurate out there.
The scroll is a BIG pain on the medtronic pump. I really hate holding it down when your eating a lot of carbs. It's like they made it that way so that we would get tired of it and STOP eating stuff with so many carbs in it.
I've never really heard my alarms on my pump. But then again with my Medtronic 722 the only alarms I've ever gotten was Button Error, Motor Error things of that nature. My pump will NEVER alarm when I'm not getting insulin my Blood Sugar will just rise and rise until I feel like crap and realize it.
Thanks for the help MegaMinxX guess there was a benefit of reading that big ol' owners manual that came with the pump. I've had the medtronic pump for 4 years now and I've always got frustrated with having to esc out of everything to turn the backlight on.
