Pump decisions MiniMed 640g or Animas Vibe

Hi @vw_anni I use a 640g and am happy with it, I don't have the CGM as its not funded, although I looked into it to self fund and purchase the sensor would of costed £500, then around £100 a month to maintain, I believe if you have a big issue with hypo awareness that the NHS could fund it. My only negative is the cannula, I am forever catching it on trousers and have the shortest cannula length but if given the choice would of preferred not to of had this. It is easy to use and bg results are pinged direct into the pump for your insulin calculations, I have reduced my Hba1c a lot since using and feel that I have fine tuned my control, hope this helps

I use a 640G too, after previously spending 6 months with a combo. It works and I'm reusing reservoirs quite happily.

As I've currently got a working Dexcom transmitter I've not looked at the CGM solution yet, but there are plans to integrate with NightScout and OpenAPS which is my main area of interest.

Good pump in my view.


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Hi @vw_anni I have the vibe and integrate with the deacon g4. Have been using it for a couple of months and whilst I have not tried any others, there is absolutely nothing I dislike or the contents would change about it. for me, the cgm (self funded) integration is the winning feature, but couldn't live without the easycarb and easybg bolus wizards either.

I think the biggest difference that you need to take into consideration if you are going to use the CGM is that the Vibe is a pump with a CGM attached. The 640G is the first step to an artificial pancreas, in that not only has it a CGM attached, but it can also use that data to suspend insulin delivery in the even that the data suggests that a hypo is imminent.

The Dexcom sensors can be made to last around 3-4 weeks (at the cost of accuracy towards the end) while the Enlites seem to limit out at about 3 weeks. The Enlites to cost more, and the Dexcom sensors have a better average error than the Enlites.

My experience of the bolus wizard on the 640G is that it is no worse than any other I've used - it does use the IOB in its calculations.

@vw_anni I'm afraid I can't offer an opinion either way on those two pumps, as I don't know them, so I'm going off-topic by asking this, but do you mind if I ask what the issues have been with your current pump? Am asking purely as a fellow Insight user!

I have a vibe pump and it does all that is required, very easy to fill the cartridges as a bonus.

I have a Vibe and love it It's intuitive to use, robust, comfy to wear, waterproof and has a very good selection of nice quality sets and cannulas.

I don't use a CGM at the moment because I can't afford it, but I did bear that in mind when choosing between the Vibe and the 640G. I looked at both the CGM systems and the Dexcom seemed a lot better to me.

I also prefer the look of the Vibe to the 640G personally. I know it's a tiny thing, but I often wear my pump on my waistband and I wanted it to look good. Wearing something 24/7 is easier if it looks and feels nice, I find.

azure said:

I also prefer the look of the Vibe to the 640G personally. I know it's a tiny thing, but I often wear my pump on my waistband and I wanted it to look good.

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It's funny - in terms of how they look my reaction was entirely the opposite!

tim2000s said:

It's funny - in terms of how they look my reaction was entirely the opposite!

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Lol : D Just shows we might all have diabetes, but we're still individuals

Thanks for the reply @vw_anni !

I had that safety notice too, about the Insight. The way I wear my pump (round my chest, no need to go near it thanks to the handset) means that inadvertent button pressing isn't a risk for me. At least so far so good!

My first handset had a problem which bugged me, but when I told Roche about it they replaced it straight away, and the new one is fine.

Having never really seen anyone wearing insulin pumps until very recently I unexpectedly had a total lack of pump envy when I spent some time with a large gang of fellow pumpers using lots of different pumps. I'm not ashamed of wearing mine - far from it - I'm happy to show people and tend to wax lyrical about it - but I'm happy that because of the remote handset I don't have the pump itself, or its hosepipe, in view all of the time as I go about my daily life.

It's great that we're all different, it's great that there is a range of pumps available, and it's great that I feel I have the right pump for me.

All the best with the new pump, whichever you go for - I'm sure it'll be great.

Had to make the same decision recently. Minimed, Animas or stay with Accuchek. When I started I was only offered the Accuchek Combo. After much research and advice on here I was more confused than ever. The Diabetes 'Professionals' were not much help and they are supposed to be the experts. Decided to stay with Accucheck.

I switched from the Combo to the Vibe 2 yrs. The Vibe has 12 basal rate time slots but could do with 15. It's menu system involves a lot of button presses and the figure entries could be better as its easy to go past the amount of carb to be eaten holding the button down and then use the other button to go back. The text is also small with yellow flashing figure entries being lcd. The Lcd screen is also difficult to see in bright sunlight The Vibes main plus point is that it works very well with Dexcom G4 and the Inset 30 is a b nice 30 degree angle set using a thin introducer needle.

Animas is due to release another pump which is said to be better than the Vibe and will work in similar way to the 640G but the date has not yet been mentioned or what cgm sensor will be used.