I thought the case that came with the original Contour USB was bad. It had a blurry, easily-scratched plastic bit that covered the meter screen, and the meter faced in such a way that it was impossible to test without either removing it or the vial of test strips from the case. At the time I thought it was the worst-designed meter case I had ever seen.
Well, it had been outdone by the case for the Contour Next I picked up today.
It's literally just two mesh pockets, one zippered and one not, and is made out of some cheap crinkly fabric. It doesn't even have any slots for a meter, strips, or lancing device. If you're supposed to store your meter in the zippered mesh pocket then there's nowhere to put used strips and other things. I don't understand how anyone could have though this was a good case design. I might see if it will fit an infusion set so I can use it to carry some spare pump supplies in my purse, though.
Thankfully I found a case for some Accu-Chek meter that fit everything. (Strange, I also switched my OneTouch Ping meter from it's huge, bulky original case to a different Accu-Chek case that fit everything.)
So far I'd say Accu-Chek wins for best case design and quality. And Bayer definitely loses in my books.
I wish meter companies would put a bit more effort into their case designs, as well as the design of their diabetes software.
Also, am I the only one who gets annoyed with tiny meter designs that come with HUGE bulky test strip containers? I can't figure out why they can't design a flatter rectangular strip container that would at least let the case be as slim as the latest and greatest meter it came with.
I agree Jen, I would like some better designed cases. Lately I have just put the bottle, lancet and meter in my purse and I also carry my ibg star case which is pretty good. I wonder what they can come up with for a better test strip bottle because even with the normal ones I have a hard time getting the test strips out without spilling them all over the place or touching them at the ends which I try not to do.
I'm pretty sure you're allowed to touch strips anywhere without it being a problem. At least I do. In the "old days" (before the strips that sucked blood up) you weren't supposed to touch the end that you applied blood to because it could ruin the results. But with more modern strips I'm pretty sure that's not a problem.
I was thinking the other day that wouldn't it be possible to make a strip dispenser sort of like a PEZ dispenser, where you could press a button and a single strip would pop out. It could be low tech and I don't think it would be hard ...
I had one years ago..it was a sealed drum that you inserted into the meter. You turned it on, it indexed to the next available strip and piston pushed out a strip.
It been so long ago, I don't remember which manufacturer. Just looked, it;s an Accu-Chek Compact. Looks like they still make them. Drums hold 17 strips.
Oh, and yes, the Countour Next Cases are terrible.
Iâm actually thinking of getting of of these. It can hold my meter, strips, lancing device, Glucagon, and pump. Plus a Humalog pen.
The advantage for me is that it will reinforce my manly outdoors-man personaâŚ
Plus it matches its much bigger cousin that I carry on a daily basis.
I've tried that meter, as well as the Accu-Chek Mobile which holds a strip of "tape" with 50 tests. My main problem with those meters is that they are all so bulky and have no features as far as logging notes and such.
I wish that Bayer would re-make a meter similar to the Dex. Best meter I ever used. It held 10 strips and was as tiny as today's meters but this was 15 years ago. It was the first meter I got that "sucked up" blood from the fingertip and I thought it was so cool and high tech. As a teenager and science fiction geek I also thought it was cool that the lancing device looked like a phaser. :)
I wash my hands before testing and sometimes a little dampness can ruin the test, but I can remove the strip, blow on it and still use it, lol. Another problem I've had is some sugar on my fingers got onto a test strip and gave reading of 400 once! It is such a pain getting them out of that bottle.. I think a pez dispenser type system is a great idea.. or something like that other meter.
Hah. First things I do when I open a new meter? Take out the meter, put in the batteries, then throw the case in the garbage and recycle the box and instruction book :-).
Agreed!! The Countour Next is the meter I use. When I recevied I thought, "Is THIS seriously the case?!" It does not fit anything like it should. I did find a different meter case that sort of works better, but supplies still slide out of place and fall all over the floor. My lancing device has fallen out and parts went flying everywhere in a store on night. I was lucky it didn't break.
I have looked online for cases made for the Countour Next, but no luck.
I have also thought about looking into a "custom" made one.
I did find a new purpose for the case, at least ... it fits an infusion set, cartridge, and a few pen needles, alcohol swabs, batteries, and other pump bits perfectly, and is smaller than the hard drive case I was using. So it's now my new pump kit.
I like the one that came with my One touch ultra 2. It's a good size, fits all of what I need to test with, nothing falls off, and the zipper is nice. The One Touch Ultra mini had a great one.
Relion's cases are iffy and BAYER HAS HORRIBLE CASES. The ones I had for my contour next and link (in my short pump stint) were TERRIBLE . They were tiny, had no plastic molding to put the meter in , and just overall crappy and I hated those SO MUCH!
Iâve always assumed these things are made by a third party that Bayer uses as a supplier, and that company likely has one basic design that they modify for all kinds of gadgets. Thatâs how it seems, anyway, because even the old one just doesnât seem very specific to what youâre putting in there. The strip container is a bulky, poor fit, and the bit that holds the meter itself, as you point out, is even worse. My peeve is the way it covers the teensy little on-off switch so you canât find it, and it seems like they want you to put it in there with the part that accepts the strip facing the wrong way. My impression has always been that Bayer went with it because âMâkay, close enoughâââdesignâ as such doesnât seem to have entered into it. And yeah, that goes for D software too.
When I switched to Contour strips a few years ago, from One Touch, and saw how huge the strip container was, I saved several one touch containers. I still use those for my Contour strips so that I can close my zippered meter bag that came with the new meter back then, when I travel.
The one touch container is much smaller even tho I thought it was too big back then.
There has never been a place for used strips that I recall in any of the meter bags. And the stretchy strips you insert the meter and strip container in are ridiculously difficult to use. And oddly improperly placed, in my Contour bag at least.
It is called design by people who do not consider the end user and who do not care that their end product will be inconvenient to the user. They got paid to design âa thingâ and that is what they did.
I also agree that it is difficult to get just one strip out of the âbottleâ but donât really want a single dispenser. I suspect that would be way more expensive. I just shake a few out the end a bit and pluck one out. Though I have spilled a bunch more than once!
