Hi all - new to the forum! Looking for people who can help!
I have been trying to swim and enjoy the water, but my pump fails and has cracks in it every time! Is there something. I can put over it to help it? Is the chlorine causing the cracks? TIA!
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@caroldowns24 I’ve been in pools, the ocean, and hot tubs with my pods and never experienced cracks or failures, though a hot tub apparently “cooked” my insulin once. Are you diving down with scuba under pressure or something like that?
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It is very unlikely for pool chlorine to harm a pod. If I had to guess I’d say it is a case of “bad luck” over the pool water physically harming the pod. No there really isn’t any kind of fully water proof dressing or cover for that. The pod is advertised as sufficiently water resistant for swimming.
I would complain to insulet if a pod failed before it’s time, and ask for a replacement.
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Hi Carol. I know people who use Omnipod instead of other pumps because they can swim with it. Can you please post of picture of the cracks? Are you using the Omnipod 5 or the Dash? What happens when the pod fails, like is there an error message in the PDM or app?
No scuba diving - just regular swimming. I try very hard not to submerge it because of the failures I get, but they happen anyway. I was originally told it was the spray sunscreen so now I use liquid only. Just went on my honeymoon and pump failed after 36 hrs and pool/ocean time.
I don’t know if it’s maybe over heating? Like not the water but just being out in the sun?
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Hi - I know it’s supposed to be ok, but every time I swim it happens. I will post pictures next time. Just tossed the one that recently did it. The case or white part of pod is what’s cracking, causing it to alarm and say pod failure. I never have problems showering or anything, so my thinking was the submersion but I’m not sure. I’m on the Omnipod 5 and use a pdm not my phone.
Could also be the rapid temperature change of being in the sun to being dunked in cool water. Although I’d start to wonder if like Tom experienced the pod is getting hot enough that the insulin is cooking. What is the specific alarm with the ref code if there is one.?
If you post a pic try to make sure your new rings are featured. Congratulations.
Hmmm good question! I guess I hadn’t considered that the insulin could be the problem, but that makes sense! No reference code 
Thanks for the congrats!
I am new to Omnipod this year and also had this happen to me a few weeks ago! The only thing I could think of was the temperature change from laying out in the sun to going into the cold pool like one other person said. So frustrating when you have to get out of the pool because of the screaming pod! 
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@caroldowns24 @jma704 some information on “waterproof” and IP28.
there is not a single electronic device that is waterproof. Not one. Pods are rated IP28 (25 feet (7.6 meters) deep for up to 60 minutes). IP28 means water resistance tested, at least 1 time, in a laboratory, so no statistical proof is necessary for IP28 “rating”. It is perfectly acceptable from a rating aspect, that an individual pod can fail each and every time it is submerged. In fact, given the rating system for water resistance, failure from submersion is likely to happen. Failures from water submersion happens in 2 modes, the first is water intrusion onto electrical components, the second is bluetooth cannot operate underwater so the pods will lose contact with the CGM after 10 minutes of submersion unless the CGM is literally 1-2 inches from the pod. There is a small scale NIH study outlining the high failure rate of communications for submerged pods when the CGM is located at a distance from the Pod.
engineering plastics can take temperatures from freezing to boiling. and because it’s plastic it is unlikely that a fast temperature change can “crack” the case. it’s not pyrex, it’s soft plastic. Still, deviations in plastic manufacturing can make any plastic brittle. Brittle plastic develops cracks without outside forces. you wouldn’t ordinarily notice any cracks until you submerged a pod. In my opinion this is why people generally see Pod failures in “batches”. Such as a high failure rate in a given order of pods form the supplier. (I admit I am guessing but basing my guess on my 30 years of engineering/manufacturing/instrumentation career)
Given that Omnipod advertises - on the device packaging and internet - that it is okay to submerge, it is my opinion that they owe you a new one for each failure. I would bring extra pods for each swim anticipating a high failure rate for submerging pods. good luck and I hope you all have a great and safe time in the water! 
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Another option - some people take a pump break/vacation, and swimmers and divers may do that while they train during competition season. You might consider switching to injections while you’re vacationing at the beach.
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@caroldowns24 I can’t help but wonder if what you are referring to as a “failure” may be a disconnection followed by slow or non-reconnection. The Bluetooth signal will not penetrate water even if you place the PDM or Phone in a waterproof bag or similar. After swimming, the pod needs to reconnect to the PDM or phone and may not do so. Could that be the issue?
@wadawabbit Glad you jumped in here. Have you noticed any difference in the way your pods look or feel in the past year? Maybe there was a manufacturing change and Carol is the first person here to hit the new limits. I also thought about suggesting a pump vacation but for a honeymoon activity mode or suspending basal is worth dealing with a pump in water.
@Tlholz I was wondering about the Pod Shut-off error too because it is the only one that won’t show a ref code but after reading more about it the timeout also applies to unlocking the PDM which means it has to be set to longer than you sleep.
At this point I’m assuming when a pod drowns it starts screaming but can’t communicate an error to the PDM. Hopefully Carol replies to you to clear that up and shares if Insulet had anything to say when she called in the pod replacement(s).
Hi @spdif. I haven’t noticed anything myself, which begs the question Why do you ask?
I hadn’t heard of pods cracking from the people I talk with and google didn’t find much other than the sunscreen issue so I wondered if Insulet made a manufacturing change to the OM5’s shell.