Old Omnipod user, brand new to Dash. Don’t even have the pods yet!
But I noticed pretty immediately that the battery didn’t last at all. Ran down really fast, charges fast too, which I know is a sign that it just can’t hold a charge.
Omnipod is already sending a replacement PDM (it lost 2% battery life while changing screen timeout setting while she was on the phone), but I wondered: Do you Dash users find that the PDM can easily go 16 hours without charging? Supposedly 16 hours is the minimum.
Hello @theNoz it sure sounds like a faulty battery to me but I don’t have/use the PDM. You can also try your question on our colleague site “Beyond Type 1” if no one answers. good luck!
Hi, @joe , definitely faulty and the replacement is on its way already. I’m looking for more generic information. In my cell phone experience battery life has never lived up to the spec. Often it’s not SO far off - as long as I kept screen brightness to a minimum - but I was looking to compare actual DASH user experience against the spec, such as it was quoted to me.
Hi @theNoz . Glad to hear your discovered the issue before you started using the pods, and that a new PDM is on the way.
In reading about and lightly considering the Omnipod I told myself I would want to invest in a second PDM so I would have a backup and wouldn’t be up the creek if I lost my main one or something hapoened to it. I hapoened like to have a backup plan so just thought I would mention it. Hopefully your next one will be problem free and you will enjoy dashing.
My PDM usually lasts a day (17-18 hours) and I plug it at night on my bedside table, works in case I wake up and need to dose or temp basal (up or down). However, I have had a problem with it going from 30-50% down to zero in short order; so much so I finally called Insulet, asked if this was normal, told “No”, and they sent me a replacement overnight delivery. They new PDM hasn’t developed the problem yet, but the more I read, the more I find others with the same issue; so it may be just a matter of time. I’m hopeful the Omni 5 will be out soon with iPhone compatibility (thought it would be here already…as did many); I’m looking forward to not needing a separate device at all! I don’t have problems with my iPhone charge, though one more app working full time may make it more of an issue.
Thanks for the confirmation, @Tlholz . They did replace the PDM, and I’m finding that the replacement can go overnight using only about 9% of the battery, so as long as I charge it before bed I’m good. It charges so fast that that’s not a problem. (I wear the PDM around my neck because I know the limits of my memory about everyday routine stuff, and I can predict that it will be lost in short order if I don’t tether it to me, so charging overnight is not an option. Ask me about the interesting stuff I learned about nutrition 30-40 years ago and I can spout it off. But where are my glasses??)
I charged it last night and 13 hours later it’s at 89% still.
FWIW, when I was transitioning to Dash, each of the reps was unwilling to predict a release date more definite than “before the end of the year”. Yeah, I remember when they were saying that about Dash. For what, 2 years? 2 1/2?
So I’m not actually setting my expectations for Dash 5 for 2022, even.
Hello all, I use the Omnipod Dash and the PDM battery is not staying charged like it used to. I opened up the back of the case and removed the battery to find the model number and my suspicions were confirmed. The PDM is actually a NUU Mobile model A1 smart phone running the omnipod app. If you need a new battery just get a replacement battery for the model A1 smart phone.
You’re brilliant, @rm31859! I had opened up the case, and removed the battery, but it never occurred to me that “NUU” was a phone brand or A1 the model of a NUUphone. And did I Google it? Not even once. Duh.
I will say, just only a little in my defense, that my formative lesson in Insulet PDM batteries was with my Omnipod. Being a good doobie (arguably a cheapskate), I immediately put rechargeable batteries in it. Wrong. They wrecked the PDM. The simple white markings inside the battery cavity turned bright red within 2 weeks, and then the phone started acting really wonky - I don’t remember the specifics any more, but it wasn’t exactly usable already, at only 4 or 6 weeks old. So I just figured that with Dash I wasn’t going to try putting in a battery that didn’t come straight from Insulet themselves.
I contacted NUU Mobile customer service and received two new batteries free of charge. The new battery is down to just 94% after 8 hrs. What irritates me is that rather than designing their own custom PDM, Insulet bought a bunch of older cheap smart phones, had the phone and camera functions disabled, Installed their app and are passing these things off as medical devices. They probably paid pennies for these things so this is why they can afford to send a replacement PDM rather than a new battery.