Customer Reviews

Bayer 7393 Contour Usb Blood Glucose Monitoring System, Black

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

After many years of using Lifescan One Touch meters I'm now switching to Bayer Contour. The Contour strips use less blood and suck up the sample easily. The color screen is very easy to see. Since I use the backlight on my Lifescan UltraSmart constantly having a backlight is necessary. The color screen does that one better as well as adding a lighted test strip port. The meter is very easy to use and comes with a wall charger and USB extension cord in case you can't plug it directly into a computer's USB port to charge. I plan on keeping the wall charger at work because I have an older computer there and it does not have USB 2.0 ports.

At home I have a very inexpensive Acer desktop running Windows Vista and have no problems with the software.

The lancet device is cheap and I recommend tossing it in a drawer and replacing it with an Accu-Chek MultiClix device. The strips vial is very big and could really be downsized. The case overall is poorly designed and bulky due to the big strip vial.

This meter reads very close to my Lifescan One Touch meters and since I'm used to those I don't anticipate any problems switching over to the Contour faily of meters. You can get regular Contour meters for free or close to it for backups which is always a good thing. Nobody should have just one meter and since the Contour meters do not need coding you can move you vial of strips between meters.

I've had this new meter for about 6 weeks and it has been great,small,color display, and the USB connection is far easier than keeping up with yet another cable in the writhing mass of gadget cables we all seem to collect. One reviewer says it isn't supported on Windows 7 64 bit but it works fine on my Vista 64 bit system. Does not work on Snow Leopard Mac but big surprise there... The test strips are the usual rip off but if you search Amazon there are mail order vesions of (as far as I can tell) the same test strips for about half the price. I had been using One Touch and was happy except for getting reults into the computer via one off cable they charged for hence move to USB meter.

So all in all only imporvemets I could wish for are Mac Support and an Iphone app to display my results..

Having been using this new meter for about a week now and it is much beter than the Freestyle Freedom Lite. It is extremely easy to use and the fact that you can specify when the reading was taken and other comments on the meter is great. The software is another issue. While I am not an IT person I am much more familiar with computer operations that the average user. I am using Windows 7 professional 32 bit edition, and like others have stated the software will not autoload, you must go in and find the .bat file and manually start it, and also load the correct version of Java, however even that did not work, I then downloaded the software from the website and true to form just like other users received the error message that a previous version was in use. At that point I called tech support Ha, what a joke that was, some off shore third world country. after back and forth for an hour she had me downlaod a differant version of Java and low and behold that sovled the problem. It is now operating as it is supposed to and downloads everything from the meter to the Glucofacts program. The only problem is as with every usb storage device when you plug it in to the the computer it opens a dialouge box asking you what you want to do and in the case of the USB Meter 2 boxes open one for each percieved drive. You just have to close them and proggram recognizes the meter and then proceeds to ask you what you would like to do. All in all the concept is great and makes testing much easier. Just keep in mind that unless you are running XP, you are in for some frustration till you are able to get the software working, once that happens you are home free! Bayer should work on updating the software to be more compatible with Windows 7, and move their tech support to the USA, we need the jobs here in this country and the vast majority of us speak English much better than those whom you now employ for tech support.

I have been trying for four days now to get this meter to work on a computer, any computer. Under Mac Snow Leopard, the installation software crashes. Under any version of Windows 7, you have to start the installation manually and install Sun Java RTE6. After you install that, the software will run off the meter exactly once. It will ask you if you want to download the software to install on your machine, and the Bayer web site will time out with a message saying An error occurred, please try again later. This will happen every time you go to the web site to try to download the software for either Mac or Windows. It will happen on any computer you try.

Once the software has run in Windows 7 off the meter exactly once and the download has failed, every time you try to run the software again, it will tell you another meter is already connected, please disconnect that meter and reconnect the 2nd meter.

If you call Bayer, a recorded voice will tell you about how much they care, but no one will ever, ever, ever, ever answer the phone. You will leave many messages, but no one will call you back.

Mind you, I have successfully programed Logitech Harmony remotes and installed third party open source software on my linksys router; I've successfully removed my Macbook pro's hard drive and upgraded it to a larger one; I've hacked my iPhone. So it's not that I just don't understand how to install software. This is easily the worst software installation I have ever seen.

I could try installing it on a Windows XP with service pack 3, but I don't have any Windows XP install cds lying around anymore.

On the plus side, the meter is cute. I like being able to mark readings before or after meal, something I could not do on my One Touch Ultra mini, making the reading downloads useless because I never started or finished meals in any preset time frame. I was hoping with the USB Contour, I could stop having to enter my readings eight times a day manually, but no such luck. I don't believe Bayer actually provides working software for this meter.

I am very disappointed in both the meter and the software. First, the meter cannot be used outside. It's close to impossible to see the screen. The case barely zips close when you include the strips and the layout of the straps seems to imply that you're supposed to take everything out of the case in order to use it. Production quality for both the meter and case is much lower than the old Bayer Contour. And the USB/software side of it is a flop. The software doesn't work properly on Snow Leopard or Win 7, so the only thing I can run it on is my netbook. This software has a completely rigid, clunky interface. It can't be displayed or navigated properly on smaller screens and its feature list is a bare fraction of the old WinGlucofacts software--which is badly in need of an overhaul, but much better than this new piece of Java junk.
Save your money. The Bayer Contour meter is much better.

This product will not work on MAC OS Snow Leopard and you should not buy it if you have a Mac using Snow Leopard.
Once the meter is hooked up to the Mac USB port and you manage to open the GlucoFacts software you will get an error: "Bayer Glucofacts quit unexpectantly while using the BayerHIDOO.dll plug-in." and the program quits.
To be sure, I even downloaded the software from the Bayer website (after giving away much personal information) and that software too crashes for the same reason.

Let me start off by saying that this meter is awesome! I switched from a Accu-Check Compact Plus that I have been using for about 2 years and prior to that had an Accu-check compact meter as well.

I am a tech geek and have had diabetes for about 3 years now so, I have been on the hunt for a meter that I could use with software and unfortunately till now most meters had the option to buy software for them at an additional cost of the software and infrared cables. Very outdated and way too expensive!

I saw this meter and found it at my local walgreens for $30 dollars and just couldnt pass it up especially since it had been priced at $80 when I first saw it.

The meter: It is the size of a larger thumb drive with a color display on it. The display is bright and colorful and very user friendly. The usb connector is on one end and the strip port is on the other. The numbers are large and very easy to read. You also get to add pre-defined notes such as before meals, times after meals, sick, etc.

The strips: the strips do only require a very small drop of blood and do suck it up quick unlike the Accu-check that required more blood and most times you needed more. I did however love that the Accu-check has the automatic strip drum inside of it and you never had to feed them into the machine. This machine has to be loaded each time with a strip and the strips come in this huge round container.

The software: I am a computer technician and my laptop is running windows 7 64 bit and the software that was on the device did not work with my system. I had to go to Bayer's web site and download a different version of the software and install it. The software does not automatically load when the device is plugged into the pc. You have to double click on a desktop icon wait about a minute for it to load then plug the device in and wait another minute for it to register it. It takes pretty long for the software to load and open up the database and I am on a brand new laptop with tons of memory and hard drive space so I know its the software that is taking forever to load. The software is nice as it loads your test results but you cant edit any of the results or notes that were done on the device. Only manually entered notes and such can be edited. The software is pretty basic but it does allow for some reports, graphs, etc and you can save, print, and view them all. You get averages, total tests, and other info as well. The one thing I have noticed that is annoying to me is that the logbook (main page where test results are) is always showing the days in decending order so I have to scroll down a ton of days just to get to the current one to see results etc and there is no way to change that other than to set it to only view for that day. So all in all the software is ok but could be better.

Overall I am happy with the meter and the software and would without a doubt recommend it to a friend or family member. I have already told my mom about it!

**Update 01.12.11***

The software is still terrible and it is still taking forever to load. There have been no updates to the software since last review. I am really getting annoyed with the software!

Overall, this meter is awesome. It is really small, and if you use a smaller container for your test strips, the case is pretty small too.

This product does not work with Windows 7 as of 7/12/2010. I have tried and I've read that many other people have too. I have a degree in Computer Science, so I am no newbie to computers. Windows 7 just won't work with it.

But, if you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, there is a feature called XP Mode. This will allow you to somewhat-easily run the software in Windows XP on your Windows 7 computer. Doing it this way works flawlessly (Though it is a bit more complicated).

The software does what I need it to do. It is not as bad as my Onetouch software which looked archaic.

My old meter did not have the capability to make notes on the reading from the meter. This made interpreting the results later almost impossible because I do not eat at the same time each day. Now I can mark before/after meal, or feeling sick, and I can see in the report what was going on when I tested it.

The test strip light is somewhat useless to me. It illuminates the test strip and that's it. It is not bright enough to let me see if I have enough blood drawn on my finger. It is also not bright enough to be able to grab a test strip from the container and insert it the right side up. Also it turns off too soon. This doesn't bother me, though, because I have no need for it anyway.

The screen is very easy to read with nice bright colors to indicate when the sugar is too high or too low.

I am glad I bought this meter. It is nice to see some innovation in glucose meters finally. I would recommend this meter to anyone who has diabetes.

I purchased a Contour USB meter a couple months ago, intrigued by the fact that it has a USB connection for plugging directly into your Mac/PC. I've used LifeScan OneTouch meters for years, and having to plug things in with a separate cable isn't very convenient, which makes me not want to use any software to analyze BG results. After using the Contour USB meter for a while I have a couple of observations:

Pros:
- great form factor and size (it's not much larger than a big thumb drive)
- portability (the small size makes it easy to carry, which makes me more likely to use it)
- well designed user interface (very intuitive and easy to use)
- color display (very readable, contributes to the exceptional ease of use)
- uses a smaller blood sample than my OneTouch meters
- USB port (makes charging easy, and theoretically, downloading BG results more likely)

Cons:
- poor software support (I'm a new Mac user, and this is a killer for me)
- lancet device (the one provided doesn't work well, get an Accu-chek Multiclix instead)
- size/shape of the strip container (it's bigger than necessary and somewhat bulky)
- price (it's a bit expensive, and not as readily covered by insurance companies yet)
- accuracy (unsure about this, I frequently saw readings that differed from my OneTouch)

Overall, I really wanted this meter to work for me. The size and usability were great. However, the killer was not being able to get data off the meter to my Mac for further analysis. The software doesn't work on Snow Leopard and I was never successful in getting it to work well on the Mac using Windows under either VMWare or Parallels.

The accuracy could also be an issue but, due to the poor software, I quit using the Contour USB meter before I could really get a sense of how big an issue this might be.

Overall, if all you want to do is measure an occasional BG reading, this is a very simple and convenient choice. However, if you really want to use a BG meter to help you manage your diabetes you and/or your doctor need to be able to do some level of analysis on the BG readings, and this meter fell short.

If you are a Mac user, I'd suggest waiting until Bayer gets serious about fixing their software (come on, how tough can it be to hire a couple of good programmers to make your software work). Bayer's Customer Support generally seemed apologetic but uninformed about any plans to address this. As it is, my Contour USB sits in a box under the sink and I've gone back to using my OneTouch. LifeScan doesn't have native Mac support for their software but at least it reliably works using Parallels.

Perhaps I'm overly harsh on my review rating, but since the meter was expensive and goes unused (due to poor software) I'm giving this one star. Maybe that will make Bayer take notice and fix things.

I was very excited to get this product, but I was not happy with its results.

Everytime I go for routine blood examination, I would carry my old machine (made my a different manufacturer) and tally the result with the lab, most of the time it was within +-10 units. Which is acceptable.

I tried the Contour along with my old machine for about 10 tests over 4 days and the results are varying considerably. The extreme examples? 209 in old machine, 159 in contour. and the closest, old 149, contour 159.
I borrowed a third machine (again a different manufacturer) and was relieved when is results tallied with my old trusted one.

It becomes extremely risky to base your insulin intake on the faulty reading.

Please exercise caution with this machine.