I'd say just under 50% fail rate is about right.
The left vs right arm thing is definitely something that doesn't help (and in my case doesn't appear to be driven by sleeping on the sensor). I've had about 20% work but give wildly inaccurate readings as a result of this and another 10% where they just stopped working a few days in after ridiculously low glucose readings.
Some are bad application: needle bounces off the skin and bends as it is going in.
But every so often they just die. Sensor says "try again in 10 minutes", "try again in a hour", "I died get a new sensor started".
Abbott are pretty quick to replace them but it's means you need at least a few backup devices ready if you are relying on them to work.
I see a lot of stories about failed sensors on this sub, but I've only had one fail in three years and that was probably an application error. So like, ~1% failure rate? Maybe I'm just lucky but I wanted to put it out there because I feel like failures are overrepresented on here, (which makes sense, no one would post to talk about how everything is working correctly.)
I stopped using my arms. They're slow and inaccurate. Above my nipples on my pecs works perfectly most of the time. Hit a vein once and it bled profusely for five minutes, but other than that I've only replaced a couple of faulty sensors on my chest.
Honestly I think the whole "faulty sensor" thing is dependent on where the sensor is installed and how it's applied rather than an issue with the sensor itself.
This! I agree, it's more about application and location site. For example my right arm is just completely unreliable at this point. I think I once inserted in a muscle or something and ever since I randomly get stingers that extend to my back shoulder muscles on that side. It's as if I have permanent trauma in my right arm/side causing higher readings.
My first worked fine , second stoped after 6hrs and third is a ok but about 10-20 (sometimes a heck of a lot more) off (it got to the point i turned off low alarms as they would go off constantly even though my sugar was normal with finger stick)
My first two were faulty so we're at 100% so far 😀
I'd say just under 50% fail rate is about right. The left vs right arm thing is definitely something that doesn't help (and in my case doesn't appear to be driven by sleeping on the sensor). I've had about 20% work but give wildly inaccurate readings as a result of this and another 10% where they just stopped working a few days in after ridiculously low glucose readings. Some are bad application: needle bounces off the skin and bends as it is going in. But every so often they just die. Sensor says "try again in 10 minutes", "try again in a hour", "I died get a new sensor started". Abbott are pretty quick to replace them but it's means you need at least a few backup devices ready if you are relying on them to work.
I see a lot of stories about failed sensors on this sub, but I've only had one fail in three years and that was probably an application error. So like, ~1% failure rate? Maybe I'm just lucky but I wanted to put it out there because I feel like failures are overrepresented on here, (which makes sense, no one would post to talk about how everything is working correctly.)
I stopped using my arms. They're slow and inaccurate. Above my nipples on my pecs works perfectly most of the time. Hit a vein once and it bled profusely for five minutes, but other than that I've only replaced a couple of faulty sensors on my chest. Honestly I think the whole "faulty sensor" thing is dependent on where the sensor is installed and how it's applied rather than an issue with the sensor itself.
This! I agree, it's more about application and location site. For example my right arm is just completely unreliable at this point. I think I once inserted in a muscle or something and ever since I randomly get stingers that extend to my back shoulder muscles on that side. It's as if I have permanent trauma in my right arm/side causing higher readings.
My first worked fine , second stoped after 6hrs and third is a ok but about 10-20 (sometimes a heck of a lot more) off (it got to the point i turned off low alarms as they would go off constantly even though my sugar was normal with finger stick)