Alternative to IBP

[mike.jones]

Good evening,

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good alternative to the IBP HDM97?
Flow meter or pressure not essential but solid cond a must.

Cheers
Mike

[Chris Pearson]

In the absence of any other replies perhaps I can clarify.

The MESA 90XL meters are still available direct from MESA at a price similar to what we were charging and apart from FMC's I'm not aware of anything similar otherwise I would have approached them for us to market it in the UK.
If anyone does purchase a 90XL at the moment we can act as an Agent to ship them out to MESA for calibration and repairs however that may change in May 2020 when the new MDR deadline finally comes into force and our application for ISO accreditation is submitted if MESA don't appoint either a Authorised Representative in the EU and/or a Responsible Person in the UK and register with the MHRA.

[Ian Wilde]

Hi Mike,

is it price that's driving your question?  It's slim pickings i think out there.  Calibration costs are not cheap either!

[Steve_B]

What costs and turn around times are you currently able to do on the mesa meters Chris?

We have four IBP monitors that are taking an age to be turned around for calibration at the moment, but have our old Gambro 90DX reference monitor that we could consider calibrating for help to plug our shortfall at present. (If its still supported by mesa?)

[Chris Pearson]

Hi Steve,
Georgina has worked really hard on this after a couple of complaints about our service times and the turnaround time from leaving here to getting them back has been about 4 weeks on recent shipments.
She is sending them in much smaller batches now so the time wasted sitting in our office is reduced to the minimum by e-mailing everyone when a batch is going so this is usually less than a week so total turnaround time is about 6 weeks.

Total cost for a 90XL probe is £190.00 which is all inclusive including any repairs required,calibration,post cal certification and shipping (excl VAT).
Pre-cal certification is £30.00 for those where you suspect a mis-calibration may have been performed.

MESA dropped all support for 90DX's a couple of years ago presumably in the hope it would increase sales but it backfired hence we lost the UK Distribution rights when annual sales of 90XL dropped to 1 leaving  IBP with a monopoly  !!!!
Unfortunately it may even get worse than this after May 2020 if, post Brexit, neither of them appoint a UK "Responsible Person" if the cost is too high for the small profit returns on the small number of sales unless the "soft" MDR deadline implementation is forthcoming .

We should probably have a new thread on the potential implications of that for tiny sales volume imported niche products such as these in the UK ?

Hope this helps.
Chris

[mike.jones]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the Info, looks like its best to wait until after May to consider the MESA.

Ian, cost is always a factor but top of the list is a reliable device, transparent service and turnaround time.

The Fresenius Umed/Hmed might be an option but we can look at the MESA too.

It does certainly look like slim pickings.

Cheers.