[isisagate]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[wish]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Breeze 2 User]

Bayer Breeze 2..

My Dr. hooked me up with the Breeze 2. It uses a thin aluminum foil disk which contains 10 test strips. Regular price at Walmart was $119.92.. my cost was $20.52.

I can't give you a review on the meter and lancets because I've just become new to the diabetes scene.. but so far the Breeze 2 seems to do more than I had anticipated.

Breeze 2 User

 

[ett]

When I was first Dx'd as type 2. I was given a Bayer Contour meter.
I was generally happy with the meter. BUT every once in a while I would get a REALLY REALLY abnormal reading. Like 40 points too high. I would immediately take a few more readings within the same minute (and often from the same drop of blood); and they would all be where I expected my BG to be.
So about 3 months later; I started looking for the most accurate meter available.
I tried every meter I could get my hands on. ie. another Bayer Contour, a ReliOn, an Accucheck Aviva, Lifescan Ultra, Lifescan mini, etc ...
They are all just as accurate as the Bayer.
Except for the Aviva. That meter was just crap. 1/2 of the test strips failed for various reasons, and one of the buttons broke by getting stuck in the "pushed-in" position.

So in the end I stayed with the Bayer Contour. Simply because it allows readings to be marked pre-meal, post-meal, or specially noted. And allowed me to choose my own high and low settings. And As opposed to being forced to use the ADA's questionable highs and low readings.

I like the BG aims that my endo said to use. Which was 100 +/- 20 all the time.
That's easier to aim for than than "less than 140 after a meal, above 70 pre-meal," etc ...
So that's how I set my Bayer Contour.

--ET

 

[Shanny]

Smart doc, your endo! I like that too . . . 100 ± 20 all the time. And I'm to where I could just about accomplish it too! heheh. Mind if I adopt it myself?!

Thanks, ET!

 

[ett]

Absolutely you can use those aims.
I encourage everyone to give them a try.

Amusing story about those aims.
They are what my endo told me when he diagnosed me in the hospital.
Two weeks later at the family clinic for my first follow-up. My regular doc started spewing me the same aims except in a fashion more similar to the ADA's aims. ie "between 100 and 120 2-hours after a meal, etc.."
I stopped her and said "Don't you mean 100 give or take 20 ?"
She said "Why yes; I never thought of it like that."

--ET

 

[ett]

Here's a perfect example of REALLY REALLY abnormal readings I get from my Bayer Contour meter. (I've also experienced similar readings from other meters.)
Tonight I had a can of beans along with my salad for dinner. So I expected to have readings a little higher than my normal of ~90.
BUT when I took a reading 2-hours after dinner I got 117.
That was much higher than I expected. So Immediately took another reading from the same drop of blood. That reading was 126.
That was even higher. So I took a third reading from the same drop of blood. Even higher yet; 147 !
SO I took yet a fourth reading from the same drop of blood. It was 114.

How in the world are we suppose to believe these meters ?? !!

--ET

 

[Richard157]

Those numbers are actually not so much out of line. I have experienced similar results when I did repeated testing. The average of your four numbers is 126. Your highest number is 21 points above the average and your lowest number is 12 points below the average. Even the best meters can be as much as 20% different from the "true" BG number. Your numbers seem to satisfy that.

I read something interesting on one of the diabetes websites in 2009. It said that the labs where our blood is tested have much more sophisticated equiptment for measuring our BG's. If a meter for home use was designed to give us the same degree of accuracy they would be very, very expensive. You would not be getting them free by calling the company or replying to an ad online. You would have to buy your meter and most of us could not afford one. So they make cheap meters that do not have as much accuracy. We can afford them and even get them free, but we have to put up with the results like you had today. My Free Style meter and even my Relion meter from Walmart have very little variation most of the time. Occasionally there is a larger variation.

 

[Gingee4k]

Started using the AccuCheck One touch Plus recently ... Still new at it.. It told me to use control solution and compare it to the strip container but have no idea why or what it tells me.. Just started testing my blood (against the Doctors wishes but he can suffer)

 

[silvertiger]

I have the Bayer Contour USB. It is quite compact and although it's the first and only one I've used so far, I like it. I might pick up another type to keep either at work or in my purse, just to compare. I do want to try the Softclix lancet.

 

[kent jones]

one touch ultra link to go with my pump but now my insurance company doesnt want to pay for the strips go figure waiting for a ruling on that like the meter but i am limited by using the pump

 

[MCS]

I use the SideKick Meter and strips, its a throwaway from Wally-World, good for 50 tests then buy a new meter and 50 more strips for $20. Comes wih a check sollution with each meter. They work really well and have always matched up to other meters I have compared them to. Down side, no avg readings, just will scroll thru your last 50 readings, but thats ok with me. I consider this thing I got a day to day thing, whats past is past.