Excellent customer service

I really liked the built in food database that helps you when bolusing for meals. The Animas lets you bolus in 0.05 unit increments and set basal rates in 0.025 unit increments. So it's great for anyone who's really sensitive to insulin. It's fully waterproof, the O-rings on the battery cover and the insulin reservoir really emphasize this. It also delivers the insulin boluses very quickly compared to my old Minimed. And despite the bright screen it doesn't seem to drain the single AA battery too quickly.
On the down side. I didn't like the speed at which the up and down arrows worked. The numbers scroll extremely quickly and it's hard to stop at exactly the right spot. I also missed seeing the carb information on the summary screen that's shown just before you get a chance to take a bolus. The history on the pump is very insulin centric, with no information about carbohydrate consumption or blood glucose values. I also wish the daily summary showed the ratio of meal boluses to correction boluses. Finally the accompanying software has a very dated feel, the reports are pretty basic and there is no data export capability.
Even though I was just trying out the pump, Animas was very supportive any time I had a question from Bernard's Diabetes Blog

I could easily cancel the combo bolus, add the remainder to the new amount I am giving and give another combo bolus. Animas gives IOB with the total bolus on 1 screen (no scrolling) so you can make the decision to subtract the IOB or not based on the BG. Faster insulin delivery can cause some discomfort. Animas shows you the entire basal list with times and amounts on 1 screen so you can view the changes you make on 1 time period along with the rest of the time periods and amounts. I could do a negative temp basal (usually -10% for 30 minutes) AND it would show me how long we have left on the home screen. I do NOT change the insulin cartridge with a site change (that's wasteful). I change it when the pump tells me there are 20 units left in the cartridge.  With Animas, there is simply a needle to get the insulin into the cartridge which is wonderful to be able to tip a nearly empty bottle to get all the insulin out. Animas has a much better "windows" based set up and much easier to read and bigger screens than Minimed. from Rachel

Medtronic:

"We used Cozmo for 2 years then switched to the MM Real Time in able to have the CGMS.  It took us many months to get used to the small differences between Cozmo and MM but once we got used to it it was just as good as the Cozmo.  We sort of had to retrain ourselves to REMEMBER site change days b/c there is no alarm to tell you on the MM.  There were a few other little things too that drove me nuts but I can now officially say I love my MM pump just as much as my Cozmo pump. "

"I'll put in another plug for the Paradigm Real Time.  I love the fact that I can leave the house and the husband (no hands so he can't monitor his blood glucose levels) and he can monitor his own blood gluocse level by just looking at the face of the pump. I also like the fact that he can go out and I don't really worry that much that he'll have a low on the road.  I sleep a lot better at night knowing that the sensor will wake him up if he goes low or high.  We have the low set at 5.0 and the high set at 10.0.  Before, I'd get up and monitor at 3 in the morning and I'd administer juice, if necessary or extra insulin, if necessary and all that got me wide awake and I couldn't back to sleep again for hours.  I think I was sleep deprived for 5 years.  I used to monitor 10 or 11 times / day, now, usually, it's about 6 or 7.  I have a better A1C to boot so we are losing nothing by reading less often.  The A1C is not much better .072 as opposed to .074, but I can even go out of town now for the day.  We also don't measure manually if we are across the border or in Toronto.  Measuring bgs on the leg is a very difficult task in mid-winter in a parking lot, I assure you.  So I reaaaaally reaaaaaaaly love my CGMS system.  Lately, it has been very, very much in control.  The readings do not vary much from the monitor's readings.  We've been getting close to 7 days on each sensor, too, lately.  I'm wondering if the fact we had higher readings in the summer meant that the pump only lasted 4 or 5 days or if Medtronic smarened up when the Dex 7 came out. "

"I have a medtronic insulin pump and it has change my life. Medtronic inuslin pumps are great"

"We have the Medtronic Minimed (which is the realtime one). The constant glucose monitors aren't covered by insurances yet, but they are working on it. We love the minimed. It is so easy to use! _____ is able to do most of it herself, and she has only been on it since June 19th. It is very user-friendly. Her a1c's dropped by 10% in the first two weeks on it. I would highly recommend it."

"We have only used Medtronic pumps and products. What a difference my husband's insulin pump and sensor has made to both our lives.  My husband has much better control even with a chronic bone infection and heavy (750 mg twice a  day) cipro and ciprodex use and has not had a bad low in over a year.  This morning I counted up the number of readings I'd done before I got one over 10.0.  I had 21 readings, nearly 2 days' worth of readings where none were under 3.4 and none were over 10.0.  And my husband has been diabetic since 1978.  Sweet!"

"We have the MM712, it is 3 years old and already behind the curve where smart pumps are today. With that being said I may love the newer smart pumps. I do not love this pump. I don’t like knowing that I only have 4 or 5 sets to chose from, since the connector is only with Paradigm pumps. There is the quickset, the silhouette, the sure-t, the sof-set (not recommended for smaller children) and the polyfin (not recommended for small children). We have had many problems with customer support…anytime anything has gone wrong it has been classified “user error” before you even explain what happened."

I cannot cancel the dual wave/square wave boluses so I can give a new dual wave.   Also, when you have a dual wave or square wave bolus going and you hit "act", it automatically goes to "suspend" instead of back to bolus.  That will take some getting used to. One advantage Minimed has is the "easy bolus" key. You can bypass all the menus and go straight to the bolus wizard. Minimed is better with straight (normal) boluses because it goes in slower than Animas. Minimed shows the total bolus and you have to scroll down to see the Active insulin making it more difficult to remember the amount and making the decision to subtract the active insulin tricky for my math challenged mind. *you can cancel the dual wave..you just don't like the steps that it takes you through to get to it...but it can be done.  You can see all the basal on a screen, just look at basal review...when changing, yes, you have one basal on a screen at a time. Minimed does not have a protective cover for the cartridge cap. There is an activity guard that "is perfect for participating in rough-and-tumble sports." It locks over the battery cover and resevoir compartment for extra protection. Minimed does not give you this info so you can determine if you have the basal vs. bolus ratio semi correct (basal 40% and bolus 60%). When you download your pump to Carelink, it gives you all that information and more. And you can forward it to your MD or CDE and they also can view it immediately, helping to adjust dosages very quickly. The download itself takes very little effort or time. In fact, you do not even need to disconnect the pump to do it. 

OnmiPod

'I tried a demo of the Omnipod, but decided against it and went with the Minimed. I think that the Omnipod is great, it just wasn't for me. I wore it for three days and had a lot of trouble sleeping with it on. That was probably the biggest reason I chose not to go with it."

Please contact manufacturers for pump prices. Most pumps start at approximately $6500CAD+ but can vary. Also check with your provincial health care provider as more provinces are now covering pumps and/or supplies.