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Blood Glucose Monitors - which one?
- Thread starter bigalxyz
- Start Date
borofergie
Well-Known Member
The one with the cheapest strips (or cartridge).
The actual price of the monitor doesn't matter much because, like printers, they can afford to discount it knowing that you'll spend a fortune on the consumables.
If there isn't one already, maybe we should do a "cost per test" comparison.
The actual price of the monitor doesn't matter much because, like printers, they can afford to discount it knowing that you'll spend a fortune on the consumables.
If there isn't one already, maybe we should do a "cost per test" comparison.
Patch
Well-Known Member
Write a nice letter to (any) meter manufacturer, and tell 'em that you'll get prescription strips (even if you won't be getting a prescription for strips), and that you want a free meter.
It works, and it'll save you £20 - £30.
They'll make their money back from you 10 fold when you start buying the strips anyway! :?
It works, and it'll save you £20 - £30.
They'll make their money back from you 10 fold when you start buying the strips anyway! :?
borofergie
Well-Known Member
(Not following my own advice) I use an Accu-Chek Mobile. I bought it because it seemed the funkiest at the time.
I get 100 tests for £46.99 + 2.67 shipping = 49.7p a test.
4 tests a day would cost me £725 a year.
I get 100 tests for £46.99 + 2.67 shipping = 49.7p a test.
4 tests a day would cost me £725 a year.
CantThinkOfAUsername
Active Member
The GlucoRX Nexus, which is fairly new has quite cheaply priced strips. I have been using a One Touch Ultra for a long time but my GP gave me a GlucoRX Nexus because she wanted me to switch to it as it will save the practice quite a bit of money on every carton I have. They are about £12 for 50 strips compared with around £20 for strips for the One Touch Ultra, so a big saving.
I had some doubts about them after reading about the previous GlucoRx meter and it's inaccuracy. I have done some comparison tests against the One Touch Ultra using blood from the same sample and the results are almost identical at normal blood sugars and are slightly higher than the OTU when with higher blood sugars of around 11/12. I have tested the OTU against my hospitals results in the past from the same sample and it did tend to read about 10% lower so the Nexus could be closer to the true value. I will have to test it against the Hospitals results on Thursday, when I go for a checkup.
One downside to the Nexus is that it's usable temperature range is more limited than the OTU, which is my main gripe.
Why are people having to pay for strips? Can you not get them from your doctor?
I had some doubts about them after reading about the previous GlucoRx meter and it's inaccuracy. I have done some comparison tests against the One Touch Ultra using blood from the same sample and the results are almost identical at normal blood sugars and are slightly higher than the OTU when with higher blood sugars of around 11/12. I have tested the OTU against my hospitals results in the past from the same sample and it did tend to read about 10% lower so the Nexus could be closer to the true value. I will have to test it against the Hospitals results on Thursday, when I go for a checkup.
One downside to the Nexus is that it's usable temperature range is more limited than the OTU, which is my main gripe.
Why are people having to pay for strips? Can you not get them from your doctor?
CantThinkOfAUsername
Active Member
I went to the Diabetic Clinic today and did a test involving my old one touch ultra and the new GlucoRX, the result, which was limited to one test, was fairly surprising.
I purposely tried to get my blood sugar a bit higher than I would usually have it to give a wider possible variance.
The hospital result using their specialist test machine where a sizeable blood sample is taken from the thumb into a fairly large sample tube which does HbA1c, blood fat and current blood glucose. This hospital result was not tested using a common (cheap) blood test meter so should be fairly reliable.
Hospital result of 9.6 mmol/l
One Touch Ultra 9.0 mmol/l
GlucoRx 9.2 mmol/l
By my calculation (which could be wrong) GlucoRx has a 4.2% difference
One Touch Ultra has a 6.3% difference
A few results that I did with both meters from the same blood sample finger prick which are much more varied and no where near as close as the one done in the hospital. However these have no control result to judge them by.
GlucoRx 9.5
OTU 8.4
GlucoRx 9.2
OTU 7.3
GlucoRx 10.3
OTU 8.6
GlucoRx 5.1
OTU 4.4
As you can see, the GlucoRx does read higher than the OTU on every occasion. The difference is very large on some tests.
I have done comparison tests at the hospital in the past using the OTU and the OTU always produced lower results and sometimes fairly significantly for higher blood sugars.
I have one last thing to say about the GlucoRx and it's about the finger prick device. It's fairly good for pain free tests but I found it very poor when using other test sites such as further up the finger. Getting blood from such sites requires it to be set to the deepest setting and pushed hard against the finger, otherwise it is quite difficult getting enough blood. I have never had such problems using the UTO finger prick device.
I did ask tonight at Sainsbury's chemist whether they had the test strips. They didn't have them. There was a problem for my local chemist getting the strips until a week ago. Now they can get them without a problem. I did mention to the Sainsbury pharmacist that my GP would no longer issue the OTU strips so the GlucoRx was the only one's I could get because my GP said they saved the practice £5 per box. Sainsbury pharmacist said they cost £9.95 so the saving is probably more than £5 which is probably why my GP removed the OTU strips from my repeat prescriptions so quickly. If I had to buy them they would be about half the cost.
I would be interested to see other people's experiences of this meter and the results obtained. The previous GlucoRx meter was supposed to be pretty **** so I still have some doubts about it. I think more people will be moved to them as soon as GP's see they can save money. So if you love your current meter, be prepared to say goodbye to it fairly soon unless you are prepared to pay for the strips yourself.
If anyone else gets the chance to compare while they are being switched, please post some results, especially any higher results as those are more likely to vary.
Sorry for the large post, I do tend to waffle a bit. I hope you found it interesting.
I purposely tried to get my blood sugar a bit higher than I would usually have it to give a wider possible variance.
The hospital result using their specialist test machine where a sizeable blood sample is taken from the thumb into a fairly large sample tube which does HbA1c, blood fat and current blood glucose. This hospital result was not tested using a common (cheap) blood test meter so should be fairly reliable.
Hospital result of 9.6 mmol/l
One Touch Ultra 9.0 mmol/l
GlucoRx 9.2 mmol/l
By my calculation (which could be wrong) GlucoRx has a 4.2% difference
One Touch Ultra has a 6.3% difference
A few results that I did with both meters from the same blood sample finger prick which are much more varied and no where near as close as the one done in the hospital. However these have no control result to judge them by.
GlucoRx 9.5
OTU 8.4
GlucoRx 9.2
OTU 7.3
GlucoRx 10.3
OTU 8.6
GlucoRx 5.1
OTU 4.4
As you can see, the GlucoRx does read higher than the OTU on every occasion. The difference is very large on some tests.
I have done comparison tests at the hospital in the past using the OTU and the OTU always produced lower results and sometimes fairly significantly for higher blood sugars.
I have one last thing to say about the GlucoRx and it's about the finger prick device. It's fairly good for pain free tests but I found it very poor when using other test sites such as further up the finger. Getting blood from such sites requires it to be set to the deepest setting and pushed hard against the finger, otherwise it is quite difficult getting enough blood. I have never had such problems using the UTO finger prick device.
I did ask tonight at Sainsbury's chemist whether they had the test strips. They didn't have them. There was a problem for my local chemist getting the strips until a week ago. Now they can get them without a problem. I did mention to the Sainsbury pharmacist that my GP would no longer issue the OTU strips so the GlucoRx was the only one's I could get because my GP said they saved the practice £5 per box. Sainsbury pharmacist said they cost £9.95 so the saving is probably more than £5 which is probably why my GP removed the OTU strips from my repeat prescriptions so quickly. If I had to buy them they would be about half the cost.
I would be interested to see other people's experiences of this meter and the results obtained. The previous GlucoRx meter was supposed to be pretty **** so I still have some doubts about it. I think more people will be moved to them as soon as GP's see they can save money. So if you love your current meter, be prepared to say goodbye to it fairly soon unless you are prepared to pay for the strips yourself.
If anyone else gets the chance to compare while they are being switched, please post some results, especially any higher results as those are more likely to vary.
Sorry for the large post, I do tend to waffle a bit. I hope you found it interesting.
Bluenosesol
Well-Known Member
Hi Alan,
the issue with testers isnt the cost of the meter, its the cost of the test strips. I buy mine on Ebay and usually wait until I can buy them for about £10 per 50. To give my self the best chance of finding cheap test strips, I have amassed a collection of 6 testers. The testers are relatively cheap. I probably paid about £60 for the lot including some test strips and one tester which I "won" via the forum. I bought the rest from Lloyds chemist and ebay. There isnt a huge difference between any of the meters in my opinion.
All the best - Steve
the issue with testers isnt the cost of the meter, its the cost of the test strips. I buy mine on Ebay and usually wait until I can buy them for about £10 per 50. To give my self the best chance of finding cheap test strips, I have amassed a collection of 6 testers. The testers are relatively cheap. I probably paid about £60 for the lot including some test strips and one tester which I "won" via the forum. I bought the rest from Lloyds chemist and ebay. There isnt a huge difference between any of the meters in my opinion.
All the best - Steve
nippysweets
Member
Alan
I am also a T2 newby. I got one of those Bayer Contour USB testers because there was a £5 off.
Easy to use and painless. However it is my first so nothing to compare against.
Good luck
Duncan
I am also a T2 newby. I got one of those Bayer Contour USB testers because there was a £5 off.
Easy to use and painless. However it is my first so nothing to compare against.
Good luck
Duncan
Simon Anderson
Member
CantThinkOfAUsername said:
CantThinkOfAUsername
Active Member
The GlucoRX lancing device is hopeless, extremely poor IMO. At times I had to do three pricks in order to get enough blood to do a test and the drop size needed is very small which indicates how poor the lancing device is.
I visited my hospital nurses to ask them about lancing devices and I managed to get a Multiclix for free.
If anyone wants to use the Multiclix with GlucoRX meter I recommend that the strips container opening be placed facing the zip side of the case and positioned as far across towards the zip as possible. This allows room for the Multiclix so that it does not touch the strip container.
When I first put the Multiclix into the zip case I had the test strip container around the other way and it meant that the Multiclix was touching the strip container opening. After only a few hours the Multiclix had developed markings where it had touched the strip container. These developed into sticky white marks which had to be wiped away with a tissue wetted with water in order to remove the stickiness. White marks still remain although they are no longer sticky. It must be something to do with the way the coloured coating on the Multiclix is applied which doesn't react well with other plastics.
I visited my hospital nurses to ask them about lancing devices and I managed to get a Multiclix for free.
If anyone wants to use the Multiclix with GlucoRX meter I recommend that the strips container opening be placed facing the zip side of the case and positioned as far across towards the zip as possible. This allows room for the Multiclix so that it does not touch the strip container.
When I first put the Multiclix into the zip case I had the test strip container around the other way and it meant that the Multiclix was touching the strip container opening. After only a few hours the Multiclix had developed markings where it had touched the strip container. These developed into sticky white marks which had to be wiped away with a tissue wetted with water in order to remove the stickiness. White marks still remain although they are no longer sticky. It must be something to do with the way the coloured coating on the Multiclix is applied which doesn't react well with other plastics.
Grazer
Well-Known Member
I use a bayer contour as well. If you ring them on 0845 600 6030, they'll probably give you a meter free. I got one free from them. I entered their "competition", didn't win, but they sent me one anyway! Came with a starter pack of 20 strips and a letter saying "with our compliments, to make you a customer". Patch is right on this. If you tell them you'll be buying the strips very regular for testing, they'll be pleased to give you one. Once you get it, if you phone them to register it, they'll replace anything that packs up on it free, even the battery!
Malc
Malc
norwichbondy
Member
hi i have 2 monitors a one touch provided by nhs and a nes usb bayer one when i test and use to to be nosey the give different reading i have used the test liquid and they test correct any ideas why ???
I have just posted on another thread I have compared One Touch Ultra with the SD Code Free last few weeks and the OTU was lower on every occasion - I checked with manufacturer of the OTU and they assure me all correct - I have yet to double check the SD one with that company. Will keep you posted. Waiting for results of some GP blood tests to see which one is closest.
LesleyAnne2
Well-Known Member
I am also thinking about getting a meter, but am put of by the expense... can I ask about the Accu Chek lancet device.. how often do you have to buy new lancets for it?
hi,my doctor has asked me to use the microdot meter and test strips, as the accu-chek test strips are quite costly (he said) although i have not started to use the microdot meter until i have used all the accu-chek test strips with the nano meter,
lesleyanne2..your doctor should supply you with test strips on prescription,i get all my meds on prescription.free of charge. :thumbup: .
lesleyanne2..your doctor should supply you with test strips on prescription,i get all my meds on prescription.free of charge. :thumbup: .
