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Has anyone got a link to a meter accuracy testing web site

douglas99 thank you I will look into that meter if this new one fails me :¬) im not worried about a .5 change
I opened a new tub and I got a 1.6 mmol baseline change(every day for 4 days so far)
that's not good
its not a one off as I have said above this happens up or down EVERY tub I buy
 
Thanks all again for more info :¬)

AndBreathe im not after much TBH I just don't want each tub jumping my baselines from 4.6 up to 6.5 then back down to 5.4 for the next tub etc etc etc
individual wacky readings due to per strip problems can be sorted out using take 3 and average but you CANT fix it when the whole tubs bonkers

phoenix exactly my point - im looking at trends and I don't need my baseline shifing every time i open a new tub - as I said I means you see a trend up or down for the life of that tub and its not acceptable

:¬)

But the tub will have trends of it's own. If your readings are varying Pre > Post by x, y or z, whether it starts at 3, 5 or 7, that trend is likely to be replicable, surely? I know those may be extreme figures, but surely that's where the trend viewing and attitude to variation has to go?

(OK. Maybe I'm grumpy today. :( Mowing the lawns will sort that out. :))
 
douglas99 thank you I will look into that meter if this new one fails me :¬) im not worried about a .5 change
I opened a new tub and I got a 1.6 mmol baseline change(every day for 4 days so far)
that's not good
its not a one off as I have said above this happens up or down EVERY tub I buy

How many manufacturers have you tried?
 
AndBreathe
I guess one of the reasons im so annoyed about this is that I don't see much variance within a tub
im on LCHF diet and I get exactly what I expect and during the whole tub im quite ok

But I see massive shift when I open a new tub - either UP or down of up to 1.8MMOL either way - normaly not that much but I just got that on this particular tub.

I guess I could normalise this per tub variance using some function based on the 1st 4 days readings of each new tub - but why should I have to and more the point why don't all you nice people have or see this problem.

I have tried 2 vendors on amazon.co.uk then 1 from abbot direct and another 4 tubs from our own shop here on this web site

all show MY problem

moving over now to this new Jazz

if it works out I will jump up and down on my freestyle lite and its pesky strips till I get blisters :¬)
 
So what temperature are you keeping your tubs? temperature, humidilty, etc.
Was one left in the sun at any point?
Do you shut the tub immediately after removing every strip?
Are your hands bonedry when extracting the strip?
How are they delivered? Hot weather, left in porch, etc.

I'm kind of thinking,
'get a grip man'
and
'if a tub is internally consistent then what's the problem? just look for the trends'

All you have to do is mark on your records that you started a new tub, and allow for it when viewing the chart.

I'm really struggling to see why this is such an issue.
 
The Jazz is one of the meters given out currently by GPs as it is one with cheaper strips. I don't like the squarish numbers and the beep it makes when it has enough blood (you can't turn this off).
 
Brunneria hehe :¬) - as for your Q. - there is nothing different in anyway - all posted all stored in a proper medicine cabinet before use etc etc

))Denise(( yep I don't think I will like it either but I got to try :¬) personal recommendation from Dexcom constant monitoring people
 
Surely the part that actually matters is the test strips themselves as they're what contains the enzymes which are converted into a voltage by the blood sample. And that's what will vary from batch to batch due to inevitable variations in the manufacturing process. If all your tubs are from the same manufaturing batch and are kept under the same conditions then it would seem reasonable that they should produce a similar reading. Surely what the OP actually needs to do is to find a manufacturer who produces consistent test strips from one manufacturing batch to the next.
 
julifriend You have hit the nail on the head :¬)

The same batch number - from the same distributer - bought at the same time - using the same postal service - stored in the same medicine cabinet - used at the same room temperature (in my case 21C) - etc etc etc

should not cause wildly varying baselines between each tub - which is all I was saying all along.

I am going to dump this freestyle lite meter in the bin and
I am now going to find a meter that CURRENTLY does not have this problem with its strips
and I will report back when I find it
starting with my purchase today of the AgaMatrix | WaveSense JAZZ - I bought 3 packs of strips and will do 4 days of each.
if that fails me I will try newest Bayer Contour

I know people don't understand why I care
But I do and It annoys me intensely
 
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Hi. I don't think you understand how manufacturing works? In almost any manufactured product there will be batch variances and this is what you are seeing per tub. The tubs will have been made in different batches but each strip within the tub will be very similar. The variance claimed by most suppliers is +/- 15%. This is probably the best their manufacturing process or technology can do; nothing is perfect. So, you are expecting too much of how meters behave. It may be annoying but that's life.
 
julifriend You have hit the nail on the head :¬)

The same batch number - from the same distributer - bought at the same time - using the same postal service - stored in the same medicine cabinet - used at the same room temperature (in my case 21C) - etc etc etc

should not cause wildly varying baselines between each tub - which is all I was saying all along.

I am going to dump this freestyle freedom lite meter in the bin and
I am now going to find a meter that CURRENTLY does not have this problem with its strips
and I will report back when I find it
starting with my purchase today of the AgaMatrix | WaveSense JAZZ - I bought 3 packs of strips and will do 4 days of each.
if that fails me I will try newest Bayer Contour

I know people don't understand why I care
But I do and It annoys me intensely

I'm utterly astonished you managed to buy six tubs, "2 vendors on amazon.co.uk then 1 from abbot direct and another 4 tubs from our own shop here", and for them all to be the same batch. Over what span of time were these bought?

If it's any consolation, for half of my time overseas, I was using a iBGStar meter and strips. The strips were all bought in Boots (before I discovered this place) and stored in humid, tropical temperatures, without issue. The iBGStar meter looks exactly the same as the Wavesense JAZZ, and fits apple devices. Those were several boxes (I can't recall how many), to last me a four month period.

Edit: I may have misread, but now don't really understand. I won't deleted what I wrote, or it'll get silly.
 
I found a very complicated over my head government document on this

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3570840/pdf/dst-06-1060.pdf

from another ranting person like me in another forum hehehe

http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/topic/75045-annoying-realization-about-glucose-meters-standards/

an interesting quote at the bottom of that page is this

"The Scandinavians have test reports for all meters provided under their health system (http://www.skup.nu). One of the interesting things is the variance between batches of strips and the variance in repeatability between the test lab and real diabetics (they have diabetics perform some of the testing for real life numbers).
For those that understandably don't want to plough through all the reports the executive summary is that in testing they used three lots of strips for each meter and some of those lots were up to 5% apart. They also allowed up to 6% error in real world use since the environment is not controlled. That's a lot of error before you even get to the meter and the strips intrinsic error rate."
 
AndBreathe
I am afraid you are reading into my posts what you want to hear
this probably partially because I don't want to retype the same thing over and over

but for clarity sake I will

Obviously its almost impossible to get the same batch number for all 6 tubs. that should havegone with out saying

OK here goes because I have to type this now

tub I got with the meter I was happy with - as I didn't know any better
1st tub was amazon was wildly different so I assumed it was a bad vendor
2nd tub from abbot after talking to them they even sent me free control solutions
3rd and 4th tub had same batch numbers and purchased from chemist direct - wildly differing baselines
5th and 6th tub where form this shop here and had same batch numbers - wildly varying baselines

Ok I admit it its all my fault I didn't type all that in before. :¬)
 
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AndBreathe
I am afraid you are reading into my posts what you want to hear
this probably partially because I don't want to retype the same thing over and over

but for clarity sake I will

Obviously its almost impossible to get the same batch number for all 6 tubs. that should havegone with out saying
My sentence I typed was to clarify what has happened

very clever to pick me up on my lazy ness

OK here goes because I have to type this now

tub I got with the meter was happy with - as I didn't know any better
1st tub was amazon was wildly different so I assumed it was a bad vendor
2nd tub from abbot after talking to them they even sent me free control solutions
3rd and 4th tub had same batch numbers and purchased from chemist direct - wildly differing baselines
5th and 6th tub where form this shop here and had same batch numbers - wildly varying baselines

Ok I admit it its all my fault I didn't type all that in before. :¬)

That is an odd result.
You could expect a different reading from different batches, due to process variation and drift.
I would expect the same batch to be reasonably close though.
That would suggest there may be another variable, but then I would expect to see a variance in test to test.

I think you have done the right thing in changing meters, if only to remove the variance that may be attributed to the meter.

If would have been worth getting a test solution, and trying one strip from each batch, to see what the readings were.
Maybe with the new one?
 
douglas99 :¬)

I have IN-DATE upper and lower test solutions abbott so kindly supplied me for free and
I have used them on all batches I purchased
These solutions will only show if the test strips are realy realy realy bad!
You would know this easily with out the solutions

And all of them tubs I've tested are within range although they do show offsets within that range

Anyways no need for me to rant anymore

Ill jump ship and try another meter and write a SMALL :¬) thread on my results

Thanks all :¬)
 
douglas99 :¬)

I have IN-DATE upper and lower test solutions abbott so kindly supplied me for free and
I have used them on all batches I purchased
These solutions will only show if the test strips are realy realy realy bad!
You would know this easily with out the solutions

And all of them tubs I've tested are within range although they do show offsets within that range

Anyways no need for me to rant anymore

Ill jump ship and try another meter and write a SMALL :¬) thread on my results

Thanks all :¬)

What are the results?
 
douglas99

sorry, when I realise these tests are really of no use,
I no longer kept the results and its too late now as all the tubs are gone
but they all reported inside the tub printed ranges
and showed differences between tubs
(everything legal and within specs)

My current freestyle lite tub for batch 1462763 - are
Low = 1.7 - 3.3 MMOL
High= 13.8 - 20.7 MMOL
The ranges are to protect manufacturers and people by Identifying - realy realy realy bad or damaged sticks
But if you were outside these vast check ranges it would show up like a beacon anyway so no use to us really

they do not supply you with - low solution is XX.XX mmol and high solution is YY.YY MMOL
this would be far too useful if they did that and would cause problems for them if they did.
(In my opinion)

Night all :¬)
 
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