I have been using the Pod for about 8 months - no real problems. One or two with it being knocked or just daft things. But I have now had a three week period of pumps not working when loading them or then just quiting 2 or 3 hours in. No error being shown - just a high pictch shrill. Getting a bit bored with it. The only difference is that I am in the Uk and they are paid for. I pay for me CGM and wonder if that is confusing the pump ? Anyone got any advice ? Gos
This happened to us last year in December and January - we'd had almost no problems, and then suddenly a bunch of pods failed in one month (and I do mean a bunch - probably 15?). And over the past year the failures have been very few and far between. My son's on a CGM too so I don't think that's it. It seems that sometimes there is just a bad batch I guess?
Natasha - thanks for that - it seems to me its a "bad batch", but insulet claim that each batch is mixed so to avoid this. ie a box of ten is made up from different production lines ? who knows.
I've also noticed that failures seem to occur in batches. I've started to pull from different boxes to mix things up and mentioned this to the Omni person and she didn't say anything about boxes being mixed. I also carry an extra 1 or 2 pods with me, all from different boxes.
Something's up...I could tell by the tone in the rep's voice when I told her the lot number 30666--guess the devil's in the details :-). I had 2/3 of one box fail. Was I ever ticked off. I've had very good luck otherwise.
When I went out of town for last Thanksgiving I took along an extra pod for every anticipated pod change plus a couple of extra pods for spares just in case of a failure. Every initial pod change failed plus every pod resulted in insulin delivery halted because of an error other than an occlusion! Than goodness for the extra precautions. I returned home wearing my next to the last pod.
I too had a run of failures while on vacation in Hawaii in late 2008. I took twice the pods I thought I'd need, used them all because of failures and Insulet sent me more by overnight FedEx to get me home. Had more problems once I got home. They finally replaced the PDM and that solved the problem. I had 8 pods replaced by Insulet out of the 133 I used in 2011. (See my lengthy response to "Blood Glucose Meter Posted by smileandnod on January 13, 2012 at 12:39pm in OmniPod Users" about documenting pod use). At the time in Hawaii I wondered whether TSA exposure had damaged the pods but when the problem continued, I pretty much ruled that out. My 2011 pod problems were randomly spaced throughout the year. I began wearing a DexCom7 system in November of 2009 and can't see that it has interfered with the Omnipod. Good luck. I love my Omnipod System.
Guys – many thanks for all your replies – don’t get me wrong – I love the OmniPod system (looking forward to the new release !!) . However I do think its good to have user questions put forward to help. Not only us but also the corporations (Insulet in this case) with some real feedback from the coal face. I am just amazed that it seems that we all run into “bad batches” – maybe we should request a quick switch out of the boxes we currently had at that time. ?
I just called in yet another pod failure from lot number 30666. This one wouldn't allow me to fill it with insulin. When I called it in and explained that there seemed to be a problem with there being sooooo many failures with this lot number, even with the sequence "mixing", I was asked to return the final pod/pods remaining. They are sendine me a return envelope. Now...this is a first. By the way, they all came from the same box.
Thats great - they ought to - and know how frustrating it is. I know its difficult for non T1's to understand. But when you are in the situation of a quick change (small room in the house) the last thing you need is a pod not starting !!
Again...I must say that over all, I've had excellent results with the OmniPod. These recent failures have been very frustrating. I had one fail right in the middle of prayer at church. Yikes!!! The change out with the pod is sooo easy that you can almost do it in your sleep. But, you certainly don't want to have one fail during priming...followed by another failing to let you fill it with insulin. This happened to me last week. Insulet doesn't condone withdrawing insulin from a failed priming issue BUT hey, insulin ain't cheap!!!
Janice I agree - its the times when it just doesnt work for you that get me. It seems to be an addition to the problem.
Failures can happen but when your first Pod for try-out with salt water starts beeping when you fill it you think wow nobody has this much luck. I should go buy lottery tickets right now.
Just kidding but it happened to me.
The second one, also try-out, gave no 2 beeps when filling. I put it on and tried all alarms with the PDM but the pod was not responding.
Statistical I cannot have any failures for the coming year but that is not truth. I had 3 more failures. All pods came out of the same box but all 5 where replaced.
Now everything is alright. (knock on wood). I started December 2011 with the Omnipod. The results where great from the beginning. Nice values and almost no hypo’s. Where I use to have them 3 to 4 times a week including at night.
So I am a very satisfied user of the Omnipod system.
So how odd is this - I have both Navigator CGM and Omnipod. Both where all good this evening and in the middle (roughly) of the time outs - so u would think I had nothing to worry about other than my clients and getting home !! But no - the Pod kicks off high pitched scream - (I am with mostly medics) - The Nav then shuts off !! Lottery ! bring it on. i switched to strips and pen for half an hour and then thought better of it - now having to re calibrate and put on new Pod (which is the easy part.
HI All,
We have two people on Omnipod in our house. And fails definitely seem to happen in batches. My theory, however, is not what is going on in the factory, but after they leave the factory. Mis-handled by one of our delivery people? Exposed to extreme cold? When we travel, I bring a TON of pods. They almost always fail while traveling - which makes me think that the more they are handled, the greater the odds of them failing. This is our second winter, and we are having a lot more fails than we ever have in the summer months (we live in CO, very dry) I actually don't mind when they fail during priming - better then than after I have stuck one on my six year old. Once I have a few pods fail from a box, I stop using them on him, and only on me. Omnipod always replaces them. Also, if you have to pay extra for insulin with cash, and it's documented it's because of tons of pod failures, Omnipod will reimburse you. We love our Omnipods. :-)
Jen - great to hear - I am also a big fan - only a hand full of us over here in the UK are using the OmniPod - I was just trying to work out what it is that causes the failures. I agree the no "beep" on filling is fine. Its like tonight when the pod just goes off and there are no alarms on the PDA or knowing what it last gave me. I am 42 - I reckon I can have a chance of working it out. Six year old wouldnt.
Last year around this same time, a lot of folks had multiple pod failures before ever getting past the priming stage. It coincided w/ very, very cold temps across most of the U.S.. I rarely had failures, but I had one box w/ multiple failures in a row. That box had been delivered during the coldest week of the year (below freezing - I live in Texas and our neck of the woods never tends to get below freezing). There were just too many people having pod failures from boxes delivered in very, very cold temperatures, so I've just decided all by myself that pods don't do so well after sitting in freezing temps for too long. Also, how long had they been below freezing on-board the delivery truck?
OK - just a thought - how about a trial of some type ?
Just a quick question and a thought. I know that most if not all of you are not using insulin right out of your refrigerator, right? If you are you should not. This is because chilled insulin like most chilled liquids has the ability store more gases in it, more air bubbles in this case.
The bubbles could be small enough where they are even difficult to see in the syringe when filling the pod but eventually as the insulin warms up combine into larger bubbles and of course may cause problems within the pump.
When I first started the Omnipod I used cold insulin and I even heard a cracking sound when filling the pod, I try now never to always set my insulin out of the fridge for a time to warm it up a bit.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we take for granted this marvel of a machine called the Omnipod. The Omnipod is a very sophisticated piece of equipment with on-board computers and such. Because of it's intended medical use of keeping humans alive it had to go through numerous self checks to make sure everything is as it should be.
The tolerance of the acceptance level of these test results are very narrow. You want to have the pod fail even if there is only slight chance of problems. We can all agree to this.
However, just one of my many thoughts, also keep in mind that there is a cost factor in manufacturing, inspection and distribution of these pods which leads me to believe that maybe the pods could be built a lot more fail proof however this would drive the cost up to the point where the pod could not be marketable meaning that it is cheaper to replace failed pods then to spend double the cost to make them in the first place.
Or, another thought of mine, maybe it's just a quality control issue with whom ever make them. China???
But I do know one thing for sure - I will never give up podding due to failures as long as Insulet Corp. keeps on replacing them and if they should stop replacing failed pods I will just go back to multiple injections as I will NEVER go back to a pump with tubes again - PERIOD.
I always fill the pod with insulin that is at room temperature. And yes quality comes with a cost price. However I assume that the quality of pods is near perfect. So I will take the few failures for granted as Ypsomed (distributer for the Netherlands) is replacing the failures. The pods are manufactured by Flextronics in China http://www.flextronics.com. PDF and reporting failures will help them getting better.