DARIO Smart Glucose Monitor Kit | Test Blood Sugar Levels & Manage Diabetes, Testing Kit Includes: Glucometer with 25 Strips, 10 Sterile lancets (Lightning Adapter – For iPhones Up To 14 Only)

im t1d. i prefer dario
Update: three cases, lids cracked on every one of them. See photo
End update /
but that’s mainly because of the cost.
the good, it’s easy to use, for a man it slides in your pocket which is super nice (i use a frio pump pouch for my insulin vial, the pump pouch you can use for needles, in the summer, and in the winter i use the mini dario case for insulin vial and needles – not with the dario in it, just for vial and needles). one case cracked, they replaced it. it’s a bit fiddly, much easier to use if you can place your phone on the counter in front of you, but i can use it standing with my eyes closed without dropping a thing. similar to a regular blood sugar meter though
one thing i didnt like, their customer service is a bit weird. im off grid and far away, i have to go for a walk to use the cell phone. so, i try to stick with email. when you email them, you don’t get real responses (even if you beg them, youll still get generic responses–some of which didn’t come close to answering my questions), and then youll get an email later on saying that the problem was solved. like, no it wasn’t. dario needs to take care of this. also, the coach feature in the app, same deal. asked questions when i first got dario, got no response. when you call them, they are super helpful though. so, my experience, all communication was horrid, except for phone calls, which were all great. again, dario, if you are listening, fix this – get john the head of customer service to take care of email based customer support; you could have a written support ticket system or a simple chat system rather than the generic emails, which were really frustrating.
the app, if you have bad service, turn it on airplane mode – sometimes it tries to connects and takes forever. when you need to check, you need to check; in airplane mode it will load right up. was getting weird hanging delays on loading the app.
the cost, if you search for promos, sometimes there are specials. i was able to get a year for $20/month, unlimited strips, this was mid 2020 when i first signed up. youll spend up to $35 a month for unlimited strips. best deal in the business if you check a lot. im at the end of my contract, i have a boatload of left over strips.
another problem, once they forgot to send me my replacements (probably because i using it with my phone offline, so for fairly extended periods my phone didn’t sync to dario). i was waiting, asked once, they said theyll come, they didnt come. so, what the manager at dario told me was, call when you’re on your last box, they’ll send them regardless of what their algorythm says. similarly, if you are going on a trip and want your strips early, call and they’ll take care of it.
accuracy – the dario reads slightly higher than other meters. this is GREAT for me. im used to libre, which gives you false lows all the time (my first day with libre, it told me it was 40 while i was alone on a hike ; i was actually 90 and stable. well, needless to say i left immediately, ate basically the entire glucose tab tube i had, and ended up sky high). conversely, dario averaging 5 or 10 points high, helps me stay in range. the last thing i want is to have my numbers showing me with an average blood glucose at 100 (a1c of 5), and then i run my a1c and it’s way over. im not sure if dario reading high applies in lower ranges, thats just the norm i noticed in normal range (80-160 for instance).
on blood, it really is a smaller amount, that checks out. and, it seems to save more strips ; ie if you dont fill the strip with blood, it seems like a decently high percentage of dario strips will end up working out. i lose way more strips with other meters compared to dario.
the app, is not bad. i dont use a lot of the features. the graphs, i think the data could be better, but theyre usable and fine. it is sometimes giving me pop ups, or when im out of service, asking me to sync. dario should make the app a cleaner user experience. no, i dont want a pop up about syncing when i am checking my blood sugar. this is a medical device. you should stick the device int he phone, and it should pop up asking for the strip, right away, with no delays or pop ups, 100% of the time. still, this is the case the overwhelming majority of the time, and i think it’s sweet.
mysugr might be a little more user friendly, gets a lot of good reviews. if you have extra money, i would probably go for my sugr. but, dario is cheaper. can’t beat it, for the price. five stars. and someone tell john from customer service to fix his email support program, create a customer ticket system, and make sure no chat requests on the app are ignored for longer than 24-48 hours – what is the purpose of paying for support, and then no support comes? the cost is cheap enough, and calls are available, so who cares. but it would be better if you could fix this.