- Messages
- 1,945
- Type of diabetes
- LADA
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Has anyone had success with storing their insulin in a cooler rather than a fridge?
Our family fridge is over-full and sometimes freezes. So I looked for a mini-fridge to keep my insulin in separately, and found only full-size fridges or coolers. I tried a cooler, which claims that the thermostat cuts in at 5 degrees C, but it didn’t work. The thermostat wasn’t precise enough and went too low (2 degrees C, sometimes 1 degree C). As it hadn’t frozen I wondered whether this would be okay, but it seems that it isn’t, as the Novorapid I started yesterday just didn’t work properly. So it’s spoiled and I’ve binned it.
Novorapid say insulin in the fridge should be kept between 2 and 8 degrees C, see below.
What do people do? Does anyone else have an extra fridge? I think coolers just aren’t precise enough. We can’t try a different fridge (ours is quite new), because only one firm makes it for the specific weird space it sits in.
Novorapid says:
“This table with permitted temperature and exposure times applies to single exposures only and repeated exposures to higher temperatures will gradually reduce the efficacy of the insulin. It shows permitted temperature and exposure times that will not reduce the efficacy of the insulin, PROVIDED it is then returned to the refrigerator."
Permitted Exposure Times For Various Temperature Ranges
http://iddt.org/about/living-with-d...insulin-and-injection-devices/storing-insulin
Our family fridge is over-full and sometimes freezes. So I looked for a mini-fridge to keep my insulin in separately, and found only full-size fridges or coolers. I tried a cooler, which claims that the thermostat cuts in at 5 degrees C, but it didn’t work. The thermostat wasn’t precise enough and went too low (2 degrees C, sometimes 1 degree C). As it hadn’t frozen I wondered whether this would be okay, but it seems that it isn’t, as the Novorapid I started yesterday just didn’t work properly. So it’s spoiled and I’ve binned it.
Novorapid say insulin in the fridge should be kept between 2 and 8 degrees C, see below.
What do people do? Does anyone else have an extra fridge? I think coolers just aren’t precise enough. We can’t try a different fridge (ours is quite new), because only one firm makes it for the specific weird space it sits in.
Novorapid says:
“This table with permitted temperature and exposure times applies to single exposures only and repeated exposures to higher temperatures will gradually reduce the efficacy of the insulin. It shows permitted temperature and exposure times that will not reduce the efficacy of the insulin, PROVIDED it is then returned to the refrigerator."
Permitted Exposure Times For Various Temperature Ranges
- Insulin preparations should not be exposed to temperatures between:
- -20 to –10 degrees C for more than 15 minutes
- -10 to –5 degrees C for more than 30 minutes
- -5 to +2 degrees C for more than 2 hours
- 8 to 15 degrees C for more than 96 hours
- 15 to 30 degrees C for more than 48 hours
- 30 to 40 degrees C for more than 6 hours
- Insulin should never be stored above 40 degrees C.
- It is important that insulin is never frozen, or exposed to a combination of high temperatures and excessive vibration.
http://iddt.org/about/living-with-d...insulin-and-injection-devices/storing-insulin