Nicky:
The study I linked said the Relion Prime just missed their accuracy testing benchmark, at 92% overall % compliant results. Just a data point: I used a Relion Prime yesterday at my lab visit. Meter said 112, lab said 109.
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I agree. Contour reads higher than an Accu-chek that I have kicking around. Sometimes by about than 1 mmol/l which is 18 mg/dl.
I like the Contour because it has the most repeatable numbers. Period.
For me Onetouch Verio is a random number generator, especially when above 8.0 (144). I like the Accu-chek meter that I have. I uses a tape on a cassette instead of test-strips. It is is kind of mechanically neat 
but I think it reads too low 
In all seriousness, with the Contour, my “feelings” of low and high match the meter while with the Accu-check will read in the 60s (3’s) when I do not feel like a 60.
So a meter that matches my feelings and is repeatable - just wonderful.
Like music to my ears. 
thank you!
It does. Almost. Except for my ReliOn… I just can’t get anyone to respect the power of it as it’s just not a big player. But, boy, is it a reliable little bugger. It’s just down to that 18… point (i call them points??) spread that you mentioned. As much as I’m pulling for it, I can’t roll with it if it’s going to underread…
I have no idea what that is, and that’s probably better. The last thing i need is another tester, mechanically neat or not. 
Oh my god was that a joke?? See, I’m so technologically challenged that I don’t know if they make meters that use tape on a cassette or not… but I do see you chose a laughy face… so…
Yup. Because then you said, “in all seriousness”…
Anyway, I have “feelings”, too. They’re just completely unreliable. Only occasionally does a meter reading just not jive with how I’m feeling, so I repeat the test. Maybe that’s why I use so many meters. I can be at a 70 one day and feel like my legs are going to give and then a 30 the next and feel 100% fine. Although I did read somewhere around here where someone mentioned feeling the falling blood sugar… and that really made a lot of sense. I do think I can feel the fast fall and climb more than I can feel the low or high.
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I like the Bayer Contour Next one because it’s really accurate. I tested it compared to my lab results and they were the exact same (tested immediately after my blood draw and compared when the results came in) 119 on both! Amazing! Maybe it’s a one time thing but hell, I trust it. It seems accurate to highs. I’ve yet to be low with this meter and I’ve used it for a while. I used the regular bayer contour next meter from December until like march? I liked the accuracy but that meter was glitchy with the batteries. The one’s where it’s at. Strips are cheap too and it works well with the app. I just really love it. I’d recommend it to any diabetic.
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ReliOn meters are not available in Canada - so like faeries or gnomes or unicorns, I have seen pictures of them on the internet but they may not really exist
I will take a video for you. The meter is just overly complicated but it is beautiful in it’s overcomplication.
Last night I was without CGM because my sensor had fallen off. I felt around 3.5 (63) and was going to have some cookie but decided to test anyways. I called out 3.5 to my kids but I had a strip fill problem with the contour (got the message that said add more blood). Reading came out as 2.6 (47). I said no way - I can;t be wrong, so I retested with a giant drop of blood and I was 3.3 (59), which was pretty close to the number I called out.
Moral of the story - I had a chocolate covered hob nob cookie. Moral that wasn’t the moral…
Ok - point 1 - I am either good at feeling my blood sugar or I am just damn lucky.
Point 2 - I find that with the contour, if you add blood to the strip late (after the underflow alarm) the reading will be really low. Happens all the time to me so I would never calibrate a CGM or treat on the number.
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Aaron,
I too have seen this with other brands of meters which would allow blood to be added later. If memory serves, it was a ReliOn Ultima, but can’t remember for sure. Any time I’d add blood after like you describe, the test would be maybe 20-30 points lower than the subsequent, filled-with-one-drop test.
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Ha! We are super laid back about some stuff, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing. (and actually, I’m super neurotic in other ways. And since coming to FUD, we’ve gotten a lot more responsible and knowledgeable. The laid back thing didn’t develop for lack of trying to be educated, we just didn’t know better before landing here.)
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Thanks for sharing!!! I was really curious about that.
Also, when you go to the hospital or get a lab draw, and they do a fingerstick, they always wipe off the first drop of blood with an alcohol swab or a napkin or something, and then they take the second drop. I frequently wondered how accurate that is or why they do it. I could probably Google and answer my own question.
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If you frequently run into the can’t-add-more-blood-so-waste-a-strip thing you could look for a meter that takes the smallest amount of blood (currently 0.3 microlitres I think?). There are several on the market including the Freestyle but unfortunately the Contour is not among them. While the Contour is the most accurate, some of us don’t bleed easily so a meter that takes less blood is a blessing multiple times a day.
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The new pdm for Omnipod, the Omnipod dash will be Bluetooth not radio frequency and will not have a built in tester. Everything I have read says the only meter that you will be able to load directly into the Omnipod dash via Bluetooth is the contour. Not a huge deal as you can always manually enter your bg in the pdm, but if you’re in the market for a new meter and currently using the Omnipod pdm you may want to wait for the dash release.
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Yeah, I am not sure why I’d want to switch to that.
Where do you get all those strips? Or are you joking?
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I wasn’t sure you were talking to me. 
yes… I was completely kind of joking. I have 2-4 meters, depending on what I’m looking for, plus Libre and Guardian. It’s overkill, and I’d LIKE to trust one, but when they are so consistently inconsistent…
You’re just gonna have to trust one , or else you’re gonna go bonkers. In my early type 1 days I trusted a one touch ultra 2 , but that meter got too old and I can’t say I want another one after it acted up and gave me a super high (like 423) then normal like (123) on the retest. I have had like ton meters tested with all of them a bunch to find the one I liked. I originally didn’t like the bayer contour next , and I don’t like the regular one at all it is cheapy…but the next one is fine. I have a one touch ultra mini (first meter, but went with the ultra 2 due to the light I like that) , One touch Ultra 2, Relion Confirm, Bayer Contour Next, Freestyle Freedom lite, and a Bayer Contour Next. One Only ones I truly trust are the Contour Next One and the Freestyle Freedom lite. That would of been my main meter if the strips didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
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I get this, I’m frustrated that the technology isn’t where we want it to be yet. I think we just have to accept that we’re never going to know exactly what our blood sugar is with the technology that exists, and it probably doesn’t matter that much. I used the OneTouch for years and didn’t find it as bad as a lot of people say. I used the UltraSmart and Ultra 2, maybe they were better back in the mid-late 2000s when I used them but they worked well enough. Now I rely on xDrip/Dexcom primarily. Sometimes it says I’m 8 or 9 when I’m really 11-12 (it probably doesn’t seem like as big of a difference on the mmol scale). Either way I correct at those numbers and I don’t think correction ratios are an exact science, so it doesn’t matter that much. If my meter says I’m 5 and I’m really 4 or 7 I don’t think it matters that much, and I’d hope all of the meters available today are at least that accurate or better.
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i use to only use the ONE TOUCH meters and test strips b/c Medicare paid 100% for 300 strips/month. when i needed extra strips, i would buy them OOP. but they were all horrible. one ran high, one ran low, and all of them gave vastly different readouts within moments (ie : 127, 115, 142; how could i know what to bolus for if i didnt even feel certain which BG to use??)
then i read on FuD about the Contour. and on Amazon, i could buy 600 strips for $125. i’ve been doing that ever since. i test 20+ times per day, so i am, in effect, my own cgm. also, i get consistent readings from the meter, and when matched up against my A1c, it is really accurate.
as has already been stated : accuracy and its low cost = good investment. i highly recommend this meter!!!
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Canada already sounds nice for so very many reasons, but… there’s no walmart there either?? The ONLY thing I’d miss walmart for is the ReliOn.
You weren’t joking… ?? This kind of communication can be tough on a sense of humor… or a serious conversation. Is there really a meter with a cassette tape?/
I have no idea what a chocolate covered hob nob cookie is, but I bet I’d enjoy one. I have met a couple of cookies I haven’t liked but never any chocolate covered ones…
I’m glad I came back and kept reading… I had just learned that you could continue adding blood to the Contour test strip… and now I’ve learned that you shouldn’t.
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I am not kidding when I say I spent years just doing “a bunch” of insulin if I went too high (which was really above a 350… because anything under was reasonable) and eating all of the crappiest food, and WAY too much of it, if I happened to go too “low” (200 was my cut off. I really disliked crashes). You really have to suck at diabetes to earn a 14+ a1c… like REALLY have to be bad at it. I wasn’t a bad person, and I certainly wasn’t lazy… I just didn’t have the FIRST idea of what to do, and there is really a lot of the disease that’s counter-intuitive. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I can’t deny it. There’s really good stuff here. I’m not sure I’m actually learning anything, but I’m laughing every day… that’s gotta be worth something.
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