Insane G6 failure rate during warmup

Hello everyone! I’m new to the forum but I’m at my wit’s end with this.

I have had literally six Dexcom G6s fail during sensor warmup in a row.

10 days ago, I had two in a row fail during the warmup period. It would count down from 2 hours for a few minutes, then go ‘sensor error’, and then eventually ‘sensor failed’ (and ask me to insert a new sensor. I phoned Dexcom Support, and they offered to replace those two failed sensors. I inserted a third one, and somehow it worked-- got ten days out of it. Yey.

Since then, I literally have not been able to get a single one to work. I’ve gone through four dexcom sensors and every single one has failed during the two hour sensor warmup. I’m now completely out of dexcom sensors. Now, Dexcom support is going to replace these (I’ve had to phone them up four times…), but I am beyond frustrated and disheartened.

Does anyone know what on earth could be going wrong? I’m inserting in my abdomen, my transmitter battery seems to be fine, I’ve used both my phone and my dexcom reader… What could possibly be the issue? Has anyone had any problems with sensor failures during warmup?

I’m new to the forum, so apologies if this is not an appropriate post, or is in the wrong place. But I am exhausted and in need of help.

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Welcome, @whyg6why! So sorry to hear of your sensor blues. I’m also a G6 wearer but haven’t had these problems. Yet. They sound very frustrating. The only thing that comes to mind is trying a restart… have you tried restarting the sensor? Or do you know which transmitter ID you’re using?

I wish you the best of luck with it and hope you get some answers!

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I would consider that perhaps the transmitter may be the problem. A couple failed sensors in a row makes some sense, i.e. a manufacturing defect. Once you get above 4 in a row, I would be looking at the other parts of the system. One of our members had something like this happen and when they got a new transmitter it cleared up all the problems.

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Welcome to the group. I am really sorry you’re having such difficulties with the G6. I can only think of two things:

  1. If all the failed sensors were from the same lot #, then ask Dexcom to be sure any replacements they send are from a different lot.

  2. Along the same line as what Chris said, with 6 sensor failures in such a short period of time, I would call Dexcom tonight and request they overnight you a replacement transmitter (along with th 6 sensors).

Let us know how it goes.

Lisa

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Thank you so much everyone. I’ll keep you all updated. I just got off the phone with Dexcom and this time they agreed with you guys that it’s probably something with the transmitter. One thing I hadn’t been doing is giving the transmitter a proper clean with an alcohol wipe between each session (I’d give it a bit of a wipe but not much more than that-- I know, I know, that wasn’t clever of me). The person on the phone thought it could possibly be some gunk on the transmitter preventing it from properly reading the sensor wire. It looks pretty clean to me so I’m slightly sceptical that this is the problem, but I’ll try one more time once the replacement sensor arrives, cleaning the transmitter thoroughly. If that doesn’t work I’ll phone them again and plead for a new transmitter. Before now the G6 has been pretty amazing-- I’m really hopeful I get it sorted soon. Thanks again, everyone.

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I’ve been using Dexcom G5/6 for 4 years and have ONLY cleaned the transmitter between sensors if the previous one was a bleeder. I can count those instances on one hand. And I have not had similar failure problem. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, but that’s not the cause of the failures.

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My first 2 or 3 sensors failed. After I used my outside voice, dexcom replaced the transmitter, and there have been no significant issues since. I have never cleaned the transmitter.

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One other thought - were the sensors sitting out in high heat at some point? That may affect how well they work… but I bet it’s really the transmitter, like you’ve figured.

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I had a bunch of similar failures in a row when I first got my G6 and solved it by waiting 20 minutes after stopping the old sensor before starting the process of starting a new one.

My recollection is that it was because of a software bug that has probably been fixed, but i still wait 20 minutes out of fear that it will happen again. So probably not the cause of your problem but you could try anyway just in case.

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I have also had similar issues with G6. However, not only do I experience failure during warmup, but my sessions rarely last 10 days. For me it’s frightening to get a failure just before going to bed. My biggest fear is having a low while asleep. Before CGM, have been awakened to discover the fire department (bless them) in my bedroom. I depend on the G6 alarm when my BG begins to drop. My Endo, also a G6 user, hasn’t had any problems and many of his patients, but not all, don’t have issues. Dexcom is quick to replace failed G6 sensors. To me this is tacit acknowledgement of a problem.

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You should also know that as a rule we don’t have many rules. As long as you aren’t trying to sell us something before you get to know us, we are good. Diabetes is frustrating enough, your diabetes forum shouldn’t be part of the problem.

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