Control IQ Hate Thread

So with so much love going on here for Control IQ, I thought I would start a thread about what people don’t like or what isn’t working so well. Trying not to be a fanboy despite it working well for us (Week 1). If there is something you don’t like lets discuss.

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If we’re allowed to nitpick, I’d start with the IOB display. There’s no time left on the bolus anymore, just units. This really isn’t a big issue but just an annoyance, because I’ve gotten accustomed to seeing the time countdown on my pumps for 20 years.

The 5 hour bolused insulin life span is another annoyance. I don’t think this is a major issue but my pump needs to know my Fiasp is gone in 2.5 hours. How this would affect the algorithm, I can’t say but I believe the more useful Information you can give the pump, the better it will work.

The other would be how the bolus works. I’ve noticed that if I’m below 110, and want to bolus for something I’m either going to eat or drink, the pump changes my bolus amount by itself. For example, if I’m at 90, I want to drink a Coke, I would manually bolus 4 units. The pump doesn’t bolus that amount but instead gives 3 units but confirms I want to bolus 4. Right after the pump finishes the bolus, it shows either 2 or 3 units on board. As I’m typing this I gave myself 5 units to cover a couple of handfuls of peanut butter M&Ms with my bg at 113 and my IOB is 4.27. Something strange is happening with the manual bolus.

I do like how they eliminated the extended bolus screen, now you have one less screen to blow through before the bolus is completed. Sorry @Chris, I know this is supposed to be a bitch fest, my sunny disposition couldn’t resist😂

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Not a problem at all, I just wanted to find out the whole truth, sunny disposition and all.

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If you’re running low and you’ve set up an extended bolus, Control IQ doesn’t automatically cancel the extended bolus, which is counterintuitive. It should shut off all insulin delivery until the person has rebounded, IMO.

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it does shut it off, and then resumes the extended bolus when the bg comes back up. You can only use an extended bolus for two hours max now with CIQ. There were a lot of complaints that Basal-iq cancelled the extended bolus when insulin delivery was suspended. I completely agree with you.

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well when we were in the trials, the extended bolus kept on delivering even after my son was running low… maybe they fixed that?

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When I buy something on Amazon I frequently check the “1 star” reviews because they can help me avoid a costly mistake (i.e. it costs me money, not necessarily a lot.)

So… it’s easy to get good reviews, they actually contain no information (it worked for one guy; so what?) Bad reviews are what count, by their presence or their absence.

So far Control IQ seems to be winning by the absence of damning criticism.

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I find this problem causes me to end up with higher blood glucose when I eat closer than 5 hours apart. Invalid assumption, likely caused by Tandem X2 only being approved for use with Novolog and Humulog. But ■■■■■■ me off.

I will also repeat my bitch about the 160-180 targets. I dislike that. Going to try @Jason99’s suggestion of leaving it in sleep mode, since I tend to balance out with Afrezza anyway.

I’ve had to significantly increase my basal rates with CIQ as well. I’m still not certain why, because the two hour sensor warmup where the pump is not getting any readings, cause me to have very low bg issues. I need to use a much lower rate during those two hours. The pump is not actively lowering my rates most of the time, my basals are correct. Just another strange quirk.

Just noticed that after eating 2 small pieces of Pizza, my bg has steadily risen to 206 and still climbing. Yet is shows a bolus of only 3.45u since my bolus and basal not increased at all. Strange animal. Just don’t know what to think yet.

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Probably a picky thing but, I would like the ability to move the Options up or down to suit my preferences. The Start/Resume of course should be held at the top, but I would like the Today’s Bolus History moved to the first screen. I use that a lot to enter the information into xDrip. It takes 6 selections to get that information.
I also do not like that it does not show the time after the IOB and the 5 hour insulin duration.
I DO like that it fills in the current Glucose on the Bolus screen.
Thanks for creating this threat!

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Does it know what you ate or is it only guessing based on the rise?

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I bolused for the carbs. It keeps track of the rise, and is supposed to adjust the basal and add additional bolus to cover the rise (something like 60% of what it would consider the correction). The bolus I took should have covered the pizza - and the rise should have been adjusted more. So it’s not “set and forget” by all means. Just a test on my part.

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Welcome @Toddrich, glad you have started posting here. And no problem starting the thread. Nothing worse than fan-boys (girls) that advocate for the good and overlook the issues.

The most serious test. The Pizza Effect has been reported since, I think, the '80s. Aggressive looping should handle it, I think [again]. However from what I’ve seen Control Iq is extremely conservative, and conservatives do not eat pizza.

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Control IQ is not conservative in sleep mode. I have no issues with pizza anymore. It takes care of any late spikes that try to cause trouble. Before control iq, pizza was a 12 hour long battle. Now, it’s no worse than a coke.

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I just finished the training and believe there was a statement that BIQ would not adjust for highs until after an hour after a food bolus. It was a lot to go through all at once so I may be mistaken.

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@Jason99 I think that this may be more than an annoyance. After breakfast is bad for me. My blood glucose will go high but when I try to take a correction bolus, the pump won’t let me because of IOB. A half hour later and my blood glucose hasn’t fallen and the pump then lets me take the correction. I had to change IOB time from 4.0 to 3.5 hours to offset this. 5 hours might be a big problem for me.

Basal-iq doesn’t adjust for highs whatsoever. The only thing it does, is suspend insulin delivery if you’re BG is predicted to fall below 80

Sorry @Jason99 I’m using Basal IQ right now but was talking about Control IQ. Will be starting that as soon as I update my pump.