Ours decided to ask for a new date and time when we changed the battery yesterday. Once we had done so, it compelled us to toss the Pod and start another one. I was unhappy about having to start another Pod unexpectedly (it’s really inconvenient right before school, my son ended up late by 15 minutes) and called Insulet. Customer service told me that our PDM is kaput and that they will send a replacement.
We do have a spare, by the way. I bought another PDM OOP just in case (Kim mentioned that the latest price for OOP PDMs in the US is $200 in case anyone wants to make the purchase) but we have not had to use it.
It is a bit frustrating to think that PDMs are so consumable.
Try not to think about it. I don’t want to imagine what the waste stream from a diabetic looks like. Or wait, maybe that would be a good school project for one of my urchins…
You should plan your battery changes for when you change your pod (not every time you change your pod, but just when the battery is low).
The only thing wrong with your PDM is the internal battery is bad. The internal battery is only used to maintain date and time when you change batteries.
I have a PDM like that, but I haven’t had it replaced. When the battery indicator shows it is low, I just change the batteries at pod change time.
Anyway, this would be worth mentioning to people starting on the pod, that it is best to do battery changes when you don’t have an active pod.
Sorry to hear about your PDM failure. I did hear that they have a four year warranty, but it’s not very helpful at three in the morning when yours is broken.
I love that I have spent over an hour on the phone with Insulet in the last couple weeks, and I find out from you that I can buy a spare PDM. Mind you, I have asked every person on the telephone, and no one can answer that question for me. HA! I FUD.
While I was quoted $200, we were charged $500 by their third party distributor, and I’m attempting to get that sorted out. Despite that $200 quote, I’ve not succeeded at getting another PDM yet. Sent an email today. Will report back.
The 4 year warranty is a double edged sword. On one hand, you will get it replaced within the 4 years, but if it were warrantied like Dexcom’s receiver (annually)–we could get a new one each year. This pretty much guarantees an emergency situation when the PDM dies (each year on average) and prevents us from having a backup.
I’d say I’ve done about 10 battery changes in the past year, and always while a pod was active, and there’s never been a problem. Should I worry? Should I change how I do things?
If your internal battery is fine, you can do a battery change with an active pod and it won’t matter.
The reason I do the battery change when the pod is not active is because the internal battery on mine doesn’t maintain date/time, and that causes it to want to deactivate a pod when I change the battery.
Keep in mind though…at some point if your internal battery goes bad, and you change the battery when you have an active pod, then it will deactivate it. Not a big deal as long as you have plenty of pods and are at home and have a few extra minutes to replace a pod. And they will send you a pod for the one that got screwed up, so it isn’t too big of a deal.
But…if you are on the road or in a hurry or running out of pods, it can suck a bit.
So you can keep doing it the way you are now with no problem. But just be forewarned that this may happen at some point.
@TravelingOn, this is the scoop on buying a spare PDM:
Insulet charges a lower charge to people who pay Out Of Pocket. But I believe you need to buy it directly from them. The regular “discount” charge in the first half of the year was $300, but you had to ask for it. Then they would ship it to you directly, and without all the bells and whistles they include normally (gel skin etc.). I was pleasantly surprised when you mentioned that it was now $200.
the only thing you need to do the OOP purchase is a prescription from your doctor. Since you pay OOP, no need to ask the insurance and no need to go through the distributor.
I do not believe that it is possible to get the same pricing from a distributor. But who knows—I have not tried
I’ll call them Monday! Having a spare PDM would be great, but not for $6300 (what @Bradford was quoted).
After many hours on the phone on Friday, we are awaiting a shipment for Monday of our new pods and our vacation override! I’m very excited about this. I managed to accomplish in the course of a week what would’ve taken me a month with her previous endocrinologists office, totally feels like a win!!
FUD.