Your meter and thoughts

isisagate · 01-06-2010, 05:14

You know I was just looking around at all the different meters and was wondering what types of meters everyone here is using and their overall thoughts and criticisms of their meter. So I will go first.

I got the accu-check compact plus. Overall I like the meter. it's one of the ones with a 16 strip drum you change out so I like not having to insert each strip or code the meter. I'm actually on my second meter of this type. I dropped the first and broke it. What was weird though was the break was this little place the holds the strip in place for the reading. It has features to be able to upload your codes to the computer but I haven't tried that yet. A little word to note if an error code ( I think 27) ever comes up try cleaning the little optic on the thing... I burned a lot of test strips to figure that out.

Prior to that I was using a FastTake Checker which I really liked at the time, this was back when it took a lot more blood to check and the results took like a minute to happen so the fast take was a step up in how quickly it checked. I really hated coding the meter though...

Anyone have any bad experiences they would share to keep people away from certain brands/model and why?

I kinda assume these days they are all about the same with very slight feature differences but I haven't really been off the Accu-check brands so I don't know what I am missing.

KarenBC · 01-06-2010, 05:47

I use the OneTouch Ultra 2 - actually have two of them, one at home and one at the office. They are simple to use, and what the pharmacist recommended when I was first diagosed. All of the places that sell diabetic supplies in my town carry the strips so that's handy.

Shanny · 01-06-2010, 05:56

I was given a meter by my sister when I was first diagnosed - and it's a OneTouch Ultra. But strips are expensive & my doc let me know that the Walmart brand (ReliOn) was half the price for strips. Someone later told me that the ReliOn meters were another brand with the ketones reading part removed, but I don't remember what brand they named.

The only trouble I've had with mine is that since we don't have central heat in our old barn of a house, our bedrooms aren't heated. I was keeping the meter on the nightstand & testing before I ever got outta bed in the morning; just a precaution against dawn phenomenon (if I tested low enough, I'd then grab a beef stick - also kept on the nightstand - to ward off a liver dump. If I was already high, I'd roll over & go back to sleep!

) Anyhow, I started getting peculiar readings, so I did some investigating & realized the meter prob'ly didn't like the 30-40° temperatures in that bedroom! So now I leave it by my computer & wait to test of a morning, until I've scurried dowstairs to the lovely woodstove crackling away in the living room!

wish · 01-07-2010, 01:40

[QUOTE=isisagate;7571] A little word to note if an error code ( I think 27) ever comes up try cleaning the little optic on the thing... I burned a lot of test strips to figure that out.

QUOTE]

I had the same trouble. The error code was E-5. I called the service number, and it took me forever to get a real person. When I finally did, she told me to clean the optic lens with water. I had just been wiping it off since it had a warning about dampness/humidity. Anyhoo, the problem was solved, thank goodness, because I still had two drums of test strips left. This is one of the brands my insurance will cover. I had originally had a True Track, but my insurance would not cover that the supplies for that brand.

isisagate · 01-07-2010, 03:06

these days the meters are cheap just like ink jet printers... they know they are gonna get yo on the refills.

wish · 01-08-2010, 00:20

True. A pharmacist gave me the True Track, and I got the Accucheck free from CVS. They frequently have deals on meters, and there are often coupons for them.

isisagate · 01-08-2010, 02:36

I got my last incarnation of the accu-chek compact plus through my insurance company for free, when it broke I was thinking it was the end of the world and that I was gonna have to shell out $100+ dollars for it like I remember doing back in the day. So I went on ebay and say one for $20 thinking it was an awesome deal... then I go grocery shopping at walmart and see the meter there for $20 and realized how out of touch I had been.

You know today was weird. Some of my strips must have been messed up. I got the E21 code that means clean the optic. did that and put the test strips back in. It gave me a little icon for the control fluid and a icon for the drum. 3 readings showed up in the 270-290 range and I was like WTF?! I changed the drum and My reading was 100. Kinda nutty, can't imagine it's the optic that caused that.

From what I gather about the test strips they generally do a chemical reaction inside the strip then send electricity through the resulting mix and determine the blood sugar via that. So yeah just some weird results.

Richard157 · 01-08-2010, 15:49

Many meter brands have an online site. If you google a brand you will sometimes find an offer fore a free meter. I have seen ads on diabetes websites too. Dlife.com almost always has an ad for a free meter. I started using Accuchek in the mid 1980's. My first one was a big clumsy looking meter. I took forever to give me a number. Every year or so the company called me and asked for my evaluation of the meter. They sent me a new one every time they had a new model. Then they stopped calling. I saw an ad on Dlife for a free Free Style meter and I ordered that. I called and asked for two additional ones so i could have one by my bed, one by my computer and one for my wife's purse when we are away from home. They sent me the two extra. My doc allows me to get strips for 10 tests per day. I want to test more so I bought Walmart's Relion for $9 and the box of 100 strips costs about $40. The strips cost less than half what the name brand strips cost. Relion meters are quite good and give me nimbers much like Free Style does. I have not had any problems with any of the meters I have used.

So I use Free Style until the shipment of strips is gone and then use Relion until the next shipment of Free Style arrives.

breezeonby · 01-14-2010, 01:57

I currently am using Freedom Lite/Freestyle. I was using True Track. I got this through mail order and found that it was not the premium meter that I expected. I have tried, One Touch, which is fairly accurate. I have used Reli-On Ultima by Wal-Mart, Wave Sense/Kroger brand. I can not use a cheap strip. I need something reliable since I am depending upon the meter to base my Novolog use. I also need to get an accurate fasting result. I have heard that Accu-check is a good meter. I was going to try it, but my doctor gave me a free meter-Freestyle and I like it so that is what I am using. Beware of mail order-there are some crooks out there that will do anything to make a buck. I am now using a retail pharmacy.

wish · 01-29-2010, 01:25

Does anyone else have trouble with the AccuChek One Touch Plus burning through a lot of batteries?