Were all these pods really low on insulin like the one I asked you about. There might be a connection there. We need to collect and document more data. I think I had one do something similar recently but I was probably over the 72 hour time period and into the "extension" time so didn't pay too much attention to the time details or insulin remaining when it deactivated before the 80 hour limit. I often have 20+ units left at 80 hours. I'm a low user and onlyput in 100u at a time. I'll take more careful note of what's happening towards the end of the time limit and report back.
I don't recall specifically about the November 3rd deactivated pod alarm. Like you, I fill my pods so that I can get three days of service. I always add some extra and that usually means that I waste about 20 units or so per pod. I use about 40 units/day, so I try to fill about 140 to 150 units. The pod that started this thread only had about 5 units remaining in it, I calculated, when it failed.
Unfortunately, I don't think Insulet is much interested in these kinds of efforts on our part. They are very cooperative about replacing pods when you call in but they don't want to tip their hand and share any "behind the scenes" info. In fact I think their customer service reps are deliberately kept out of the loop when it comes to what Insulet considers "engineering issues."
That being said, I do think that we can learn from each others experience. I would be happy to learn anything that you discover about this issue.
For some reason, I have gone for about 5 months now without a pod failure which they replaced. I used to have at least one a month. When I have >18u left, I pull any insulin left in my pod out with the syringe and push as much air out of as I can before I pull from the insulin bottle (i.e. I recycle it). After I add the new insulin to the old, I carefully push all the air out of the syringe before I insert it into the pod. I wipe every opening with alcohol as I do this and have not had trouble.