The Medtronic 670g Minimed Insulin Pump requires an AA battery.  It ships with alkaline batteries but the manual recommends lithium batteries.  I bought the “Energizer AA Ultimate Lithium Batteries.”  These batteries claim to be the “world’s longest lasting double A battery.”

How long does the battery last?

I put a new lithium battery in my pump on April 5th and on May 7th I got the “low battery” notification, so the lithium battery lasted 32 days.

Note that I am a person who looks at my pump frequently, and I use about 15 units of insulin daily.   Your experience may differ.   I’m sure that the amount of pumping required as well as other factors will cause the battery length to vary.  I have a fair number of alarms turned on and I have both sound and vibrate on.  I am using my pump with the Medtronic Guardian CGM as well.

Other people say that the lithium battery lasts them a month to 6 weeks, according to this post on the tudiabetes forum.

As I write this, a 24 pack of lithium batteries is about $25 on Amazon.  If you buy though my link, I will make a little bit of money.  At this rate, that’s about 2 years worth of batteries.  This is definitely one of the lower costs of owning an insulin pump.

My battery doesn’t last as long? Why?

I’m sure there are multiple reasons this could be, but the first thing I’d recommend is adjusting your screen brightness and time out. The longer the screen stays on, and the brighter it is, the more energy it will use.

You may also consider disabling vibrate, if you don’t use that. I imagine vibrating the pump may cause more battery use, but just a guess.

How to replace the Medtronic 670g battery?

Replacing the Medtronic 670G battery is easy.  Here are the official instructions from Medtronic’s support site.

If you can’t get the belt clip off of your pump (or don’t have the belt clip), you can use a coin to put in the slot to open the battery compartment.

Living the Insulin Pump Life

This post is one of my posts about my insulin pump.  When I bought my pump, thinking about the battery was like the last thing on my mind.  It was like, on top of everything else, oh yeah, I’ll also have to keep batteries on hand…

I haven’t had any problems with the battery length.  I’m not sure how long the pump will continue to run on a “low battery” warning.  I don’t really like the idea that the battery is low, so I changed it within an hour of getting the warning.  The battery indicator on this pump is just color coded green, yellow, and red.  On the pump status screen, after replacing the battery, the battery life says “full.”  It doesn’t show a percentage.