The warrantee will be up on my Medtronic pump in 8 months. I have been looking at the T SlimX2 but I have a question about charging the pump’s battery. I live in South Florida and if we are hit with a hurricane I could be without power for 5-6 or more days. Does Tandem have any suggestions for this type of issue.
What you can do is purchase a rechargeable USB battery pack (very inexpensive) charge it up and keep it aside for such emergencies the pack should charge the pump multiple times!
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Jackery bars! We have 3 of them so far, and may buy more. There are a variety of sizes and if they don’t float your boat, buy another brand.
Like @ble4_20 I use USB rechargeable battery packs. I have them in a variety of sizes from. 4800mah to 20,000mah. The 20,000mah will charge the pump at least 10 times over, and for me. Each pump charges lasts ~5 days.
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Also remember to charge these periodically because over time they lose their juice.
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Appreciate the answers. Sounds like a perfect solution.
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Also car USB chargers are helpful. In the car for a ride somewhere anyway, doesn’t take very long to top off the charge in the X2 from the car charger.
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I live in So Cal and have earthand wildfires to deal with. So my family got in a solar powered charger. That way if we don’t have power I can still charge. But I do find that I just charge every time i’m In the car and when I sit down to watch tv. I haven’t let it get below 40% so it’s never a problem.
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I am considering a T:slim pump, or a Medtronic 670g, when my Animas warranty expires. I am wondering how you recharge your pump.
How long does it take?
Do you disconnect while charging? I hope not.
Do you need to remain stationary/attached to the recharger?
All of my previous pumps have had a AA battery.
@mfg52lada I have used a Jackery Bar to charge my G5 receiver, while wearing it. I have used a Jackery Bar to charge a smart watch…again, while wearing it (it has xDrip on it).
My point is: you can wear a pump while charging it, if that becomes necessary. Buy yourself a Jackery Bar. Or one made by Anker, which I now prefer by a slight margin.
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I use an Anker power pack to recharge my pump. It fits in my pocket while charging and I can go about my daily activities rather than being tethered to the wall. Works great.
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Laddie, I do the same. But I have noticed the X2 gets noticeably warmer when charging with the portable battery than off a wall outlet. Maybe just me.
I have never really timed it mainly because I do it often. Whenever I am driving, I charge and whenever I am watching tv,I charge. So it never seems to be a problem. And I don’t discount when I charge.
@mremmers that warmth may be due to charge speed more than anything else. The original TSlim charger was a slowpoke by today’s standards. Even by slowpoke standards it didn’t take long to charge. With all the newer fast chargers like are used for newer high end cell phones that charge x-hours of run time in 15 minutes, those tend to run warmer as they are packing in more “power” in a shorter time frame. I suspect the warmth while charging is one of the reasons Tandem does not recommend recycling insulin from spent cartridges or reloading spent cartridges. The extra warmth over a time period longer than 3 days might lead to insulin degradation. I am sure there is science on the internet to argue this either way, it’s just my marginally informed 2 cents.
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BINGO!
I will use a fast charge when I don’t care about the insulin or I don’t have a cartridge in it when I am swapping sets.
Otherwise I like to charge off old style usb port on my computer for a slower, but COOL charge.
If you charge often, it only takes a few minutes and it will not get warm enough to cause concerns.
But, if you put it on a fast charger type setup, and the pump has a very low charge, don’t be surprised to feel some warmth to the pump during this charge.
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Interesting comment. I do notice that my pump gets warm when charging and never suspected that it was the fault of the portable charger. I’m currently plugged into the wall to see if it makes a difference.
The additional warmth I notice with my portable battery doesn’t seem to make the insulin less potent. Thanks, @El_Ver for your comment as well.
How long do you use your cartridges? I usually go 7-8 days and mostly feel that the insulin is still OK. I had some problems with Humalog a year ago but really think that it was a bad batch of insulin not the pump’s fault. I do always have some concern of the t:slim running warm. There are times during normal operation that the pump feels warm to the touch and I certainly never experienced that with Medtronic or Animas. After 3-1/2 months of using my Animas Vibe as a vacation from t:slim problems, I am back using my X2. I have attached a clip directly to the pump and am trying to keep it out of my pocket. As someone who has battled constant occlusion alarms, I am working to follow some of the Tandem rules… Because of the annoyance of site changes and the incredible waste of insulin, I refuse to change my cartridge every 3 days although I religiously change my infusion sets every 2 days.
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I change my cartridge and sites every three days. Sometimes I’ll go into the next day by a few hours but as as general rule I try to avoid doing that often. Yep, I waste insulin doing that. The pump will be screaming that I only have 1 unit remaining and then I’ll be able to draw 10 to 15 units out of the spent cartridge, which I then discard. But I’m fortunate to have my insulin covered in full and I’m kind of a fanatic on thinking long term when it comes to infusion sites. The longer a foreign body is present the more localized inflammation and that is the beginning of scar tissue. I change the cartridge at the same time mostly to eliminate “old insulin” from any troubleshooting algorithm.
I use two types of sites, one being TruSteel. My concern about scar tissue even extends to using steel sites less often because they really should be changed every two days and I find that a real bother.
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I have not had good luck trying to use the cartridge for longer than 3 to 4 days. Especially with Fiasp.
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