hey everybody! I just got my dexcom in the mail - sooo excited to start! I charged up the receiver for three hours, and the battery was on full charge. My doctor called and told me she wants me to meet with the rep before I start on it (stupid, i dont think i need training, its not a pump) so i powered it down. The next day i turned it on to show my sister what the screens look like and it was on low battery. Do the receivers usually lose their charge if you shut them down? Im worried there might be something wrong with the battery... just wondering if anyone's experienced something similar. I meet with the rep tomorrow.
I charge mine up about every 4 days under constant use the battery is great. I have been using mine since the day I got it and have never had a battery issue.
The training is for how to get the durn sensor on yourself and attach the transmitter. Not as easy as it looks. Good luck to you. Love my Dexie since 1-10-12.
My battery lasts four days.
I think the first time you are supposed to charge it longer.
When you use the Shutdown option, this discharges the battery completely. I did the same thing when I first got my Dexcom - charged it up for 4 hours, then Shutdown because I wasn't wearing a sensor, then when I put the sensor in and went to turn on the receiver, it was dead. Remember that for anytime you think you'll just shutdown the receiver to save some battery...you just end up draining it faster.
You should have left it in overnight (for the very first charge). Too late to accomplish that now, but it will still help to leave it plugged in all night - ASAP!
The capacity and long-term performance of these batteries is affected by achieving a really, really high state of charge on their first one or two charge cycles. (BTW, I'll SWAG that it's Silver-Oxide, in a semi-liquid solution, but that doesn't matter -- most others are similar. NiCAD is the exception, you should let those batteries run all the way down between charge cycles, because of the "memory" effect which they suffer from partial charge cycles.)
It is IMPOSSIBLE to over-charge a Dexcom battery. When you leave the charger plugged in for a really long time, a small control circuit (which is integrated on the outside of the battery) stops presenting inbound charging voltage differential to the battery, when it has detected that the battery isn't absorbing any energy.
A last comment: When using most kinds of batteries (Li-ion, NiMH, etc.), it is bad to run them down too far. If you want it to last much more than a year, then DON'T wait for it to start blinking with just one mar left. If possible, recharge whenever it has reached 2 bars. You're putting in less % of maximum-energy-strorage-capacity per charge, but the maxiumum number of charge cycles which the battery will accept goes up by a much higher factor.
Thanks. Great answer Rickst29.