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New SD Codefree Meter

xyzzy

xyzzy

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Diet only
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Undeserving authority figures of all kinds and idiots.
My new SD Codefree meter has turned up. Ultra fast delivery from healthcare.co.uk after buying off eBay.

If you've seen mine and iHs other posts this meter is interesting because test strips only cost £4.99 for 50.

So how does it perform compared to my OneTouch Ultra?

Have done 3 readings at my standard 2 hour post breakfast then extra ones. I used the same test site for each pair of tests.

One touch ultra returned 6.3 at 11.00am then 5.8 at 11.20am then 6.1 at 11.30am
SD code free returned 7.5[6.8] at 11.00am then 6.3 at 11.20am then 6.6 at 11.30am

Too soon to say but the 6.3 / 7.5 is a large difference and a bit disappointing! I redid the SD test immediately after the 7.5 with and got a 6.8. If you ignore the 7.5 and go with the replacement 6.8 the the readings are more consistent and showing the SD to be measuring about 0.5 higher than the OneTouch so far.

When I next see my son I'll get him to measure himself on the OneTouch and comapre that to his current meter. That way I can get a bit more idea if the OneTouch is low or the SD is high.

I'll update as I take more readings.
 
Hi

My meter hasn't turned up yet but looking at your readings I would say that they are fairly good really. No 2 meters are going to be identical. Not even my Accu chek Combo and my Expert reveal the same readings even though they are exactly the same meter :?: :roll:

The other thing might be that the SD is measuring whole blood instead of plasma?
 
iHs, just did a small edit to the original post...

Yes don't mind the fact the two meters give slightly different scores so long as its a relatively consistent difference.

Also importantly imo the meter should give relatively consistent readings if two readings are taken very close apart. You don't want to be in the mindset of not trusting the score so that you end up using twice the strips as that makes a nonsense of the savings.
 
:lol: Ahhhh but is the OneTouch meter all that accurate.

I also still have my old Freestyle Mini and the strips in that are a whole mark below what the Combo meter reveals so a reading on the Freestyle Mini will for example say 6.2 but on the Combo it will be 7.1. Which one do you really trust ???
 
I ordered an SD Codeless from healthcare.co.uk through ebay too, so I'll post my comparison readings once I've tried it along side my Aviva nano.

Not sure what this says about the accuracy of my current meter, but when I take 3 tests at the same time and from the same site the second one is always completely different to the first, by as much as 1 mmol, but the third is always the same or very close to the first reading, so I tend to go with the first reading now.

Stuff like this and the differences between meters make me nervous about relying on them for managing my bg, I know that they're only meant to be a guide, but why can't they be made to give more accurate readings, is it a cost issue?
 
I have just gone back to acuchek after using contour due to cheapness of strips on e-bay and am getting higher readings unfortunately I have no contour strips left to compare ,but now I will stop worrying that my BGs have gone up
CAROL
 
Think I've spotted why the difference exists. iHs was on to it but it's the other way round.

Taken from the excellent http://www.bloodsugar101.com site

NOTE: All blood sugar levels discussed on these pages refer to plasma calibrated meter readings which are the readings used by all meters sold in the United States. In other parts of the world where blood calibrated are still in use, including the UK, users should divide the numbers given here by 1.12 to get the blood calibrated equivalents.
Click to expand...

If I look at the tech info page in the manual it says its a plasma calibrated meter so to get an equivalent UK reading you need to divide what it shows by 1.12.

Of course the big elephant in the room that no one mentions (even me!) is that all the safe BG levels that get quoted, like the less than 7.8 after 2 hours are also plasma readings so you should actually be aiming for less than 7 on a UK meter!
 
When my meter turns up what I will do is induce a hypo and then do a test to see my bg level is on the SD meter :lol:
 
xyzzy,

Is the SD Codeless meter a US import then?

Your number's seem pretty comparible between the two meters when you do the division. It's going to be a bit of a pain in the **** converting the numbers back into what I've been used to for the past few months though :?
 
Of course the big elephant in the room that no one mentions (even me!) is that all the safe BG levels that get quoted, like the less than 7.8 after 2 hours are also plasma readings so you should actually be aiming for less than 7 on a UK meter!
Click to expand...

It's over a year (2?) since the last meters/strips in the UK (accu chek)changed to plasma calibrated.
 
Hmm, just had a look at the info with my Accu-Check and it says it's calibrated for plasma readings, so the SD Codeless should be comparible.
 
phoenix said:
Of course the big elephant in the room that no one mentions (even me!) is that all the safe BG levels that get quoted, like the less than 7.8 after 2 hours are also plasma readings so you should actually be aiming for less than 7 on a UK meter!
Click to expand...

It's over a year (2?) since the last meters/strips in the UK (accu chek)changed to plasma calibrated.
Click to expand...

Brilliant so I can eat the same :D . Thanks Phoenix.

Do you know if its the meter or the test strips that determine the plasma calibrated thing as if assume the One Touch Ultra test strips are new but the meter I inherited from my son was old it would account for the differences.

If I divide all the SD meters values by 1.12 I get a lot closer to the One Touch values

One touch ultra returned 6.3 at 11.00am then 5.8 at 11.20am then 6.1 at 11.30am
SD code free returned 6.1 at 11.00am then 5.6 at 11.20am then 5.9 at 11.30am (with divide by 1.12 applied)

Plus pre lunch of 5.7 on the One Touch as compared to 6.3 on the SD so again around 0.5 higher which would come down to 5.6 if I do the divide by 1.12 plasma thing. So once I divide by 1.12 things are within 0.2 of each other.
 
Sirzy said:
xyzzy,

Is the SD Codeless meter a US import then?

Your number's seem pretty comparible between the two meters when you do the division. It's going to be a bit of a pain in the **** converting the numbers back into what I've been used to for the past few months though :?
Click to expand...

Not sure. The manual is only in English, the company is an "Inc" and there appears to be no certification like a CE label. When you buy in on eBay you do have to select if you want a mmol/l reading as opposed to a mg/dl reading meter.
 
I did chose the mmol option when I ordered, so hopefully the results will be similar to what I've been getting with my Accu-chek meter.

It does sound like the difference in your readings between your meters could be due to your One Touch meter being more than two years old and so not being calibrated for plasma readings. I'll post back here when mine arrives and let you know what kind of readings I've been getting too :)
 
Interestingly this afternoon the meters have swapped with the SD Codefree giving results slightly less than the One Touch a 5.4 v 5.8 and a 5.2 v 5.4. I'm beginning to suspect one of two things. Either I should have waited for the SD temperature to come up as it may have been in a cold warehouse waiting for delivery over the weekend or it could be I've have started to use test strips that have come from the 50 extra I ordered rather than the 10 that came with the meter. Either way I hope the results continue to converge.
 
This is my feedback on the SD meter. Well it's very bit as good as my Accu chek Aviva meters. Very very little difference in the readings taken at the same time with same droplet of blood. 6.3 on Aviva meter and 6.2 on SD.

This meter is deffo worth buying IMO :thumbup: As long as it is allowed to get to room temp for a few hours before use, it works very well.
 
That's great! :)

I've got an Aviva Accu-check, so hopefully I'll get similar results. I'm still waiting on mine to arrive, but I'll post with my findings when it comes, sounds like it'll be fine though :)

Still very glad that you posted about this new meter, as I couldn't have kept on buying the Accu-Chek strips, even though I buy them from ebay they're still too expensive for me!
 
The meter hasn't got a backlight on it and it needs a data transfer cable to connect to to a computer but if none of those things are really that important to you, then this meter will be fine. :)

The meter itself is about the size of an Accu Chek Aviva meter but is thinner (depth) and lighter. It has a memory on it and also has pre meal, post meal markers.

The bg monitoring book is not that good, but then none of the meters available in the UK are all that good anyway. I suggest people get a monitoring book from Aventis as they do one that is slightly bigger and gives more room to write info down or get Accu chek to forward a pump bg diary and then people can easily enter the amount of carb that they eat :mrgreen:
 
Would someone be kind and put up a link to the e-bay page for all those that are forced to buy their strips ... thanks :thumbup:
 
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