Customer Reviews

OneTouch Ultra Mini Blood Glucose Monitoring System, Silver Moon

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

My main meter is a FreeStyle Flash, but I wanted an inexpensive, accurate meter I could keep in my desk drawer. The Ultra Mini, costing anywhere from $25 (list) to $15 (various places online) fills the bill. It's not really "mini", being long and narrow, almost twice the size of my Flash, but it's a lot smaller than many other meters. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, just the basics. No beeps, no computer interface; I don't need that for a backup anyway. What it does well is to give me an accurate reading. The test strips fill up fast, the sample needed is small,and you get readings in about 6 seconds on a nice, large display. I tested it against my Flash, and the readings were very close. (Full disclosure: I don't use the included lancet device, but a Bayer Vaculance that gives me great results when I test on my arm.)

You might want more information from your main meter, but as a desk-drawer convenience, this one is hard to beat.

I've been using this brand to try and establish a no-carb diet. The doctors office gives them out free so I thought why not use it. Well, three different meters later I'm looking for another brand. After following all the instructions and even calling the mfg twice I get readings of 160, 230, 140 and 90 all on the same hand with in a few seconds of each test. Next day I get 140, 170. A few days later 125, 156. I'm lucky it's type 2. If I were using insulin I would be in the nut house.

Self glucose monitoring devices have been around for years and they are state of the art at this point. All scientific reviews state that they are extremely reliable and accurate, the only fault is human error. This unit is so nearly perfect and easy to use even most humans would be hard put to mess it up. My husband was in a position that he needed to monitor his blood sugars frequently for a while to see if he was prediabetic as the lab got an elevated reading and he has diabetes in his family. He was anxious and concerned when I ordered the unit and the short wait for delivery ended up to be the hardest part of it. Upon its arrival he read the quick start guide, learned how to load and cock the lancet unit, turn on the unit by inserting the test strip, calibrate it to the strips, stick himself, and get the tiny drop of blood onto the already loaded test strip. He had his results in 5 seconds. In just a few tests the whole procedure took him about half a minute. And much to his relief, it appears that he is not prediabetic and now he has a unit and can monitor himself again in a few months!

Useless! When I started getting wildly different results throughout the day, pre and post meals, I started suspecting that it was highly inaccurate and could not be trusted, so I started testing with two test strips simultaneously within 1 minute of each other, after 12-hour fasting. The results: 40 mg/dL difference between the 2 strips, 1 minute appart!!! First reading 64 mg/dL, second reading 102 mg/dL. Ha? The control solution test was within range. That makes this device useless and possibly dangerous. Even the manual states that the monitor is considered accurate as long as the results are within + or - 20% from lab blood test. You have to be kidding me! I'm well educated with an engineering degree. This is not rocket science so don't tell me it's the user's fault. This is unacceptable. I paid a lot of money for the monitor and the strips. Both the strips and monitor are new, expensive, paid $64 for 50 strips! I used it at room temperature, with washed hands, and clean lancets, EVERYTHING by the book, per the instruction manual. I recommend finding another monitor.

Being diabetic for 32 years I have had my experiences with glucose meters. This little unit is very accurate and very portable. The case which holds the meter, test strips, lancet device plus it can hold a bottle of insulin, several shots and alcohol pads is 6" X 3". It fits easily in a pocket or purse. I hate carrying around a big case with me, so this meter set is perfect for me and my active lifestyle. I ordered three of them, one for home, one for work and one to keep in my purse. I always have a meter with me. They also come in different colors which is also a fun twist. This meter is worth the 20 bucks!

I got this meter to replace my accu-chek so I could carry it with me. However, I find the glucose readings to be about 20% higher than my Accu-chek which has been exactly the same as my lab readings. When I checked the enclosed literature they even state there could be a plus or minus 20% difference which is another way of saying that it's not very accurate! That's a HUGE difference when your medication and/or diet has to be adjusted according to your readings!!!!

Hopefully you are reading reviews to make your decission on a meter and not being influenced by the choice of colors as I was. I have a, green. red. and silver mini, I have used for quite a while now. At times I would get an obviously wrong reading from one of the meters, and would have to retry again before I "believed" my reading was correct. Recently, I decided to test all three meter's glucose results against each other,(why didn't I try this before? I don't know == Dumby!!!!) Not only did they result in readings that were not close to one and other on the same blood drop, they were not even close on the same mete when a second or third test was done. Some tests were differing from 300 to 150. B-B-W

This meter is compact and great to have when you are out of the house (at the fitness center, a restaurant, traveling light and so on.) It does its job, and is easy to use reasonably discreetly.

I view it as strictly a supplement to my main meter OneTouch Ultra 2 Blood Glucose Monitoring System because the only data recorded by the Mini is the blood glucose level and a date/time stamp. Yo cannot add notes to the data (as you can with the larger one) such as before/after meal, light or heavy exercise, and so on. However, if you make notes or remember, you can add that information to the software (OneTouch Software v2.3.2 CD with USB Cable, 1 ea) after you download the data from this meter.

This meter seemed ok for a long time, then one day it gave readings of 300+. My other two meters gave readings in the 80s. This is unacceptable and could have caused a serious insulin overdose. I will discard this meter immediately.

The expiration date of this product shows 6/2009 which is over 2 years expired. How can we trust this test equipment for testing glucose?