Temperature monitor for insulin storage

Modern refrigerators are very dependable maintaining a good temperature range. So using temperature sensors is a bit of overkill, but stuff happens. Having lost several vials of insulin to an inadvertent thermostat change, I am thankful for a backup system. Insulin is so expensive and, of course, vital for our health.

I plan on taking one of the sensors with me, packed together with my insulin, when I pack for a few trips this month.

I’ve used MedAngel during several trips. I use it to monitor the temperature of my food while in tranist (not too worried about insulin since it’s in my carry-on luggage), monitor the temperature of iffy hotel fridges for freezing food (I never put medication in there), and monitor the temperature of my medication bag when I’m out and about in hot weather. Combined with the Frio, it makes a great pair (put the MedAngel in a small ziploc bag so it doesn’t get wet inside the Frio).

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I’m packing for an upcoming trip, recharged my Frio sleeve with water and placed my temperature sensor in the Frio sleeve (in a baggie!) along with a vial of insulin. I know that the Frio cannot refrigerate but always wondered what temperature it can hold the insulin.

Well, it appears that the Frio is capable of maintaining a temperature several degrees below the ambient temperature. I did test this in an air-conditioned environment so lower-humdidty helps keep the Frio working well with water evaporation active.

Here are a few pictures to tell the rest of the story.

And here’s the temperature timeline to give me the recent history, This will be more useful if, for example, I leave my backpack with the insulin Frio pack in a hot car.

Some may see this as tech overkill but I like knowing my insulin has not been temperature compromised, especially when traveling. We have enough other variables to consider when dosing our insulin!

I like this combination and hope you find it helpful while travelling. I think you’ll find that once you’re out of an air-conditioned environment things won’t be nearly so “overkill”. I find when carrying my insulin/epinephrine around on a daily basis, I see quite a lot of temperature variation as i move between different environments.

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We had a refrigerator for over 30 years and except for being older and relocated to the basement for several years, until we needed the space for something else and had the energy company come and pick it up for $50, it did an exceptional job. I miss that fridge. It was the best. Our replacement lasted 7 years. About year 5 I began to notice some things. I didn’t put two and two together for about a month or so, but everything felt very cold. Then some food (celery, carrots,…) was coming out frozen, including eggs. Our insulin was in a temperature controlled drawer, but I was very concerned. We brought in an old dorm fridge the kids weren’t using any longer and put it in our bedroom. The insulin is now in there. We have thermometers in each fridge. I heard from others who were having the same problem at the same time we were - food freezing in their “new” refrigerator! I was shocked. The repair man was not able to fix the problem, he said they don’t make them like they use too and rambled on about coils and stuff. We bought a new refrigerator at the beginning of this year. I’m hoping it won’t start freezing food.

We were in a hotel, up scale; it was where my daughter-in-law wanted to stay. We’ve never had concierge service and they wouldn’t let us take our own luggage to our room. My point is it was up scale, yet my insulin froze in their refrigerator. That was a sad day.

I love the Frio for running about here and there in warmer temperatures. When I realized I couldn’t pack it in another bag as it needs to have circulating air flow, I worked it out. I make the Frio work when the trip can allow for its openness. Otherwise a cooler takes its place.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to look into getting one of these MedAngel thermometers. I keep a refrigerator thermometer in the cooler, but I’d like something geared toward reading temperatures in different spaces. I think I’ll start with one MedAngel and then get more once I know it will work for us.

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Maybe my perception of new refrigerator quality is not well founded. I think a temperature monitor makes sense in this situation. It makes me nervous thinking about my numerous vials costing thousands of dollars being threatened by erratic refrigerator technology.

Yes, me too! It is very scary thinking about the insulin we have - in case - and the possibility of having it freeze. It seems as if today everything is made to be disposable and meant to be replaced in a few years time. We live in an advanced technology world, yet we don’t get one iota the use out of new small/medium/large appliances and the a like. That’s actually a bit backward, pun intended, I think.

I just saw that Medicool has come out with what seems like an almost identical product—but significantly cheaper at $29 instead of $99. It also looks like it’s rechargeable. I continue to use my MedAngel, but may buy one of these to check out and start recommending it instead. (Though usually I’m recommending these for non-standard uses such as monitoring food while travelling or in hotel rooms for people with food allergies…though I do occasionally use mine to monitor medications as well!)

https://medicool.com/collections/diabetes-cases-bags/products/safe-med-sensor

Thanks for the heads-up about this product. I wasn’t aware of its existence but good to know. I’m still happy with the two MedAngel sensors I’m using in my refrigerator. The biggest complaint I have is their kludgey battery closure.

While I am making a few trips this spring, one abroad, I don’t sense a need to bring these sensors along. I’m not going to be in a freezing climate and I will not place my insulin into any hotel fridge.

I agree that the battery compartment cover is terrible. If anything were to break on the MedAgnel, it would be that. I feel like mine is already broken, but I think that may just be the flimsy plastic it’s made from that doesn’t quite seem to fit snugly when closed. It holds the battery in place, though, so that’s all that matters for now.

I really don’t use my MedAngel for any diabetes purposes. I keep the battery removed most of the time. If I’m in a very hot or cold climate, I might stick it in the bag that contains my insulin and other medications, but that is honestly more for the epinephrine, which is more sensitive to temperature variations than insulin.

Mostly I use it for monitoring the temperature of food in checked luggage (with ice packs) during long plane trips, and for making sure the hotel fridges don’t freeze my produce (which has happened, and really sucks!). If I didn’t travel with food all the time, I probably wouldn’t use them that much. I trust my home refrigerator to keep my insulin at a good temperature barring an extended power outage lasting days.

It depends entirely on the relative hunidity. If you go into a relative humidity table backwards you can backtrack it to figure it what the temp inside the frio would be. At 100% rh there would be no difference inside the frio vs outside.

After about a year of intermittent use for travelling, my sensor has stopped updating. :frowning: I’ve tried changing the battery, restarting my phone, restarting the app, and deleting the sensor from the app. Once the sensor was deleted, the app could find no sensor nearby even when the sensor was sitting right next to the phone.

I’ve contacted the company to see if they have any other tips for troubleshooting and, if not, whether I can get a replacement.

A bit disappointed that a $100 device stopped working after just over a year.

If they won’t replace it, I’ll purchase the $30 product from Medicool to see how it works. I do find having a temperature monitor very useful when travelling.

I’ve been really happy with my SensorPush. Records both temp and humidity. The battery is fairly easy to change from the photos, but I’ve had no need yet and I’ve had mine over a year.

You set your desirable range for temp and humidity via the app and it will alert you if it goes outside that range. BUT, you will only get that alert in real time if you are in Bluetooth range or have also purchased the $100 ‘gateway’ to piggyback your home network.

No affiliation, just a satisfied user.

Thanks for the recommendation. I see on Amazon that that product is about $70. I haven’t heard back from the MedAngel folks, which is very disappointing. (I also now can’t get the battery cap off because the plastic around the slot for the quarter has disintegrated.) So I’m probably going to go for the $30 Safe Med sensor and hopefully its features and app will work for me.