Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that the other pumps are great also, but this is my experience with comparing 4 models of pumps and I do believe that acquiring a pump is a personal choice and depends on the wants and needs of a person and I do acknowledge and respect that… Here goes…
When I was shopping for the pumps, I used this web page http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_technology/insulin_pump_models.php.
Where we live, the pumps that are available and that we looked at are: Animas 2020 (like the Ping but without the meter/remote), Cozmo (Deltec), Spirit (AccuCheck Disetronic), and Paradigm 722 (Minimed).
We compared a lot before making our choice. At first, I really liked the Minimed one because of the remote (the Ping was not out yet) and also because we could have a CGMS that talks to the pump, but the “splash resistant” aspect of it bothered me, especially with a kid (even older), I wouldn’t want to replace the pump just because an uncle threw him into a swimming pool or a lake (some of us do forget that he has D). It may be stupid but we found that it had too many buttons to push also.
We did not even look at the AccuCheck one because where we live, that pump had not been out as long as the other 3 pumps mentioned and there were very little kids that had it at the hospital.
I can say that here, it’s almost a battle between Minimed and Cozmo, I see less Animas (when I see kids at the hospital wearing pumps).
So we hesitated between Cozmo and Animas.
Here is why we chose the Animas 2020 and our appreciation of it (good and bad) and some comparisons with the other 3 pumps.
They told us (but we did not try it) that if you drop the Animas from 8 feet to the ground it is resistant to that type of fall. My son dropped it on cement from about 3 feet and it was fine (with a permanent scratch though 
).
Waterproof: 12 ft for 24 hrs. For 2 weeks, we were swimming for hours at a time with the pump and had no problems with it. Cozmo: waterproof to a depth of 8 feet for 30 minutes or 12 feet for 3 minutes (pump only), AccuCheck is waterproof.
Battery: either Alkaline (no rechargeable ones though) or Lithium batteries (we use Lithium that we buy them really cheaper on ebay then in stores) and they last almost 3 months for us and we really did not expect that because the hospital said between 4-8 weeks.
Screen: colorful and big, which we love. Cons: we had a sports pouch with a soft plastic see-through window (that we could use the pump through without getting it out) but the screen is a little bit rounded (not really flat) and we had to replace the pump because it was scratched and we could not see, so now, we bought Minimed 522 pouches (which is about the same size as the Animas 2020) and the screen is fine now (and protected). The plastic window is neat but offers no protection whatsoever.
Dimension: is about the same for all 4 pumps.
Reservoir: is fine for our son, 200 units, is less than the others though.
Connection: is super since it is Luer lock (except Minimed which is proprietary). So, we can take all kinds of sets and try them (even from Cozmo…). But, I saw somewhere that you can buy a Minimed’s reservoir adapter I think so a Minimed can be used with a Luer Lock infusion set instead of their own sets.
Basal Increment: Animas has the smallest on the market. The increment is 0.025 and sometimes for our son to put it up 0.05 (the smallest the other pumps have) is too much for him and we have to use the 0.025 increment.
Basal Profiles: Animas: 4, Cozmo: 4, AccuCheck: 5 and Minimed: 3
Temp Basal: -90% to +200% (there is also OFF temp basal, and the time increments are 30 min.). The OFF was useful the other night, my son was very low and I shut it off for 30 minutes. The thing is that it does a beep, without showing an alarm on the screen, every 10 or 15 minutes. I like this option better than suspending the pump and maybe forgetting that I suspended it, when you suspend it plays music every 10-15 minutes and at one point it vibrates also and if he’s low and trying to sleep that is really annoying. You have to check for the other temp basals.
Bolus: cons: one of the fastest bolusing pump. Even if we try to adjust it to slow, sometimes it hurts when there is a lot going in (and depending also where is the set) because it is so fast.
Guarantee: 4 years for every pump. We asked Cozmo about having an extension of the guarantee they would not hear of it, Animas told us that for around $600, we could extend the warranty to 5 years (when the 4 years comes almost up). Let’s just hope they won’t change their minds until then (if we still have no insurance). I do not know about AccuCheck’s and Minimed’s company policies about that.
General cons:
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With the first pump (before having the second one from them), we had a strange alarm with a code error at 3 o’clock in the morning, he was high and changed the reservoir and while rewinding it showed that error. It was nothing they said when I called, but still “alarming” for us.
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I don’t know with the other pumps but they told us that when we choose a color for the pump and have to replace it, that we cannot take another color pump, I find that a little weird. My son liked the black one first and then when he saw the green one he wanted that one. The woman told us that since black is a boring color they would switch the color this time but he would be stuck with that color pump if we need to change it again.
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Since the color is like paint, on the corners and where he bumped it the color is gone, we see a grayish color (like a chipped car
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While doing a bolus, let’s say you put in too many units of insulin and while it is delivering, you realize it. It is written that you can push any button and it will stop, boy, you have to hurry because at the hospital, we practiced stopping it and since it delivers so quickly, we have to press hard and quick before it gives you too much (it’s not instant as soon as you press it stops, there is a small delay). Probably to prevent that you stop it when pressing lightly I guess.
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Once the tube was folded and it did not give him the full bolus and my hubby was mixed up because it was written example: 1.00 U of 2.50 U and he thought that 1.00 U was the amount that was left to give and he called me and I told him that that was the amount that was given. I did not see the screen so I don’t know how it was written.
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One thing about the battery is that when it gives the message to change the battery, we change it. We did not try and test it to see how far it would go with that message. It happened once during the night and thankfully it woke him up.
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At first, I put the alarm to check his bg 2 hours after the bolus but sometimes he did not hear the alarm at school and when lunch time arrived the ladies that would watch him do his bolus would panic because of the alarm screen. So, I put it off and he wears a watch that has 3 alarms instead.
Other:
When we called the company to complain about the screen being scratched, it was in the afternoon and we received the pump the very next morning, I was really amazed. I don’t know if they have a distribution center near my house or not. They were polite and nice. We asked to keep the old one because we were going on holidays for 2 weeks 2 days after receiving the new one and there was no problem with that. So we brought the old one in case we had trouble with the new one and when we got back from vacation, we sent in the old one (originally, we have 5 days to send it back).
We don’t buy the infusion sets through the company, we found an online pharmacy that sells everything around $13-$40 cheaper and with an order of $150 we have no shipping charges. In my country, we have to buy for over $400 from Animas to get it without shipping and for us, having no insurance at all, we are buying almost monthly what we need.
Try the menus out
There is an Animas 2020 virtual pump so you can check out the menus of the pump… One thing that you cannot do virtually is to lock or unlock the screen, everything else, you can try. In reality, to lock the screen you have to press both up and down arrows for 5 seconds, to unlock it, you have to touch one of the buttons for the pump to show LOCKED and then you press both arrows for 5 seconds.
Here is the virtual pump: http://www.animascorp.com/2020-pump-tour.aspx.
To practice with the bolus wizards and to see all the basal profiles, you have to change this first in the virtual pump.
Click OK button while on Menu,
Go to Setup and click OK,
Go to Advanced and click OK button,
Press Next to go to the 2nd screen (by clicking OK)
On this 2nd screen, you have to change BOLUS Advanced bolus to ON (move up with the arrows and when on OFF, press OK to make it blink yellow, click the arrow to change it to ON, when it’s ON, click OK to accept the change)
and BASAL Programs to 4 instead of 1.
Then try out the virtual pump!!!
Enjoy
To answer the last question you asked about the Animas pump, the bolus increments are of 0.05 units, so it is able to give 6.30 Units of insulin, but if it’s 0.63 Units, you will have to choose between giving 0.60 or 0.65 (well the pump will suggest 0.65, it rounds up the number).