Dexcom G5 noisy in shower

Has anybody experienced super noisy readings when showering? I use xDrip+ on my Android phone with a Dexcom G5. Every single morning when I shower, I put my phone within Bluetooth range (about 6ft) and immediately with the water on, my readings go nuts and xDrip+ displays a “High Noise” warning. It takes another 30 minutes or so after showering for the readings to return to normal.

Yes!

@sanfran, we find that we can get noisy readings if the water infiltrates the slot between the transmitter and the sensor. Sometimes (rarely) we even lose the signal for a while.

When we remove the transmitter, dry both sides of the contact plates well, then put the transmitter back, we generally get a good signal back. See if that works for you, and let us know :slight_smile:

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Yeah, I’ve noticed that but I don’t worry about it. I try not to calibrate right around when I take a shower since that will mess it up. Lately, I’ve just been calibrating once a day when I’m level-ish. On the other hand, if an injection isn’t working fast enough, a hot shower is a nice lazy way to drop quicker…

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My Dex track always spikes when I take a shower. It will go from 80 when I step into the shower, and by the time I get out it’s gone up 30-50 points.

It comes back down pretty quickly, maybe 10-15 mins.

Just another Dexcom oddity, not attached to reality.

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G4 here, and I used to frequently get the ??? during and after showering. I began to tape a plastic sandwich bag over the sensor – just along the top to keep the water off, not sealing the whole thing in – and the problem vanished. One minor nuisance to get rid of another minor nuisance.

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@Beacher Until the Seven Plus the transmitters were not waterproof. Dexcom provided, for a fee, nifty little stick on shower covers.

Something along the same line as you’re doing, just custom fit. They actually worked pretty good.

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Thank you all for your answers. I’ll clean the transmitter off next time I change the sensor.

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The G6 spikes in a shower. It also spikes in the bath. The Dexcom app doesn’t show this, or at least doesn’t show it as much, but xDrip+ doesn’t seem to do the smoothing that the Dexcom app does.

So far as I can determine it is a skin temperature thing; the shower, or the bath, suddenly raises the skin temperature and the readings go up. I’ve only been using a Dexcom for a few months so I haven’t yet tried the sauna or the jump-into-a-hot-tub experiment but I suspect the readings will go wild. Indeed, even getting out of the car into sub-freezing air has a significant effect.

I’m pretty certain that all the Dexcom implementations are basically 100% waterproof. The sensor on the G6 has a grease spot which pretty much stops any water interference at least for the approved 10 day usage and so far as I can see water penetration would certainly cause the sensor to fail - it would simply short it out.

John Bowler

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I get as much as a 40mg/dl spike when I take a shower. Within 10-15 minutes of getting out of the shower it goes back down, and generally goes a bit lower due to the heat enhanced circulation provided by the hot shower.

I just note it as an artifact with xDrip+ notes. It’s actually quite a trip to watch the track go up and down so quickly!

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