Hey folks,

Technology moves quickly, and I imagine there has been much progress in this regard since I last did research. I know there are medical professionals and first responders abound on this board, so I’m interested in knowing what models y’all have had good luck with and where I might be able to get one or two to stash at our house or work. What works? Where to buy from?

I have a friend who runs an org called "Bolt for the Heart" in Indiana. They supply first responders with AEDs for their vehicles. He recommended Cardiac Sciences when I was looking for one for the gun club. I bought it and so far we haven't needed it fortunately. Seems to be a well thought out unit. Totally automatic following pad placement.

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Totally automatic following pad placement.

Cardiac Sciences makes excellent units. The only difference between semi and fully automatic AEDs however, is whether the unit will deliver a shock to a shockable rhythm by itself, or whether it will tell you to shock and rely on you to press a button. Either way, the machine will read the rhythm and set the charge. It's not like using a completely manual unit designed for medical professionals.

It may not matter, but with fully automatic units, if someone doesn't heed the warning to back off, they may get hurt. The semi-automatic variety gives the rescuer the opportunity to make sure nobody is touching the victim before the shock is administered.

-Rob

I order our AED supplies for work. I ordered replacement pads back in May and still have not received them. The website I ordered from updated the page to say "Global Backorder".

I would wait a bit to see how this shortage pays out. You might buy a brand and have it go under if they can produce supplies.

I am only familiar with Philips HeartStart AED's through work but they seem very well made and easy to use, I do think they are on the expensive end.

We have two Philips Heartstart units for the gun club. Do they work well? Don't know, hope to never find out!

One recommendation I’d give is to pick one that provides a compression rate metronome. Beeps to let you know how fast to push on the chest. I’ve taught a few thousand people CPR and it’s amazing how much that helps them perform better once it’s on.

Otherwise I’ve used several brands and types and I don’t really think any are better than the other. If there are funds to get an identical training version I would do that and let the people that would use it practice.

As Public Safety Chair for our board of Commissioners, I just coordinated the purchase of new AED's for all our county buildings. The units have been on back order for about 9 months now. No delivery date in site. They are Zoll units as the majority of ALS ambulance services in our county use Zoll monitors and they can simply connect the pads from our AED to their monitor when a medic gets on scene.

We also purchased a reconditioned Zoll unit recently for our fire department. It was in stock and we just trained on it and put it into service. It was obtained from the AED Superstore website. It has the metronome feature, and a feedback compression pad and voice prompts.

I would suggest going with either Lifepack or Zoll.

Thank you all. This is very helpful

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by rduckwor:
Totally automatic following pad placement.

It may not matter, but with fully automatic units, if someone doesn't heed the warning to back off, they may get hurt. The semi-automatic variety gives the rescuer the opportunity to make sure nobody is touching the victim before the shock is administered.

-Rob

Yes, I know this is a risk but dealing with the average member of this gun club, its less a risk then having them sitting beside a victim and failing to push the shock button out of stupidity.

It is a mistake they will only make once!!

RMD

When buying a few for our church we simply called the local fire dept/EMS to see what they were using. We figured it would simplify things in a crisis.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I am only familiar with Philips HeartStart AED's through work but they seem very well made and easy to use, I do think they are on the expensive end.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Same here

quote:

Originally posted by asonie:
When buying a few for our church we simply called the local fire dept/EMS to see what they were using. We figured it would simplify things in a crisis.

Honestly this is a good way to go. It also means that the pads will likely be interchangeable so they can swap over to theirs if need be without changing pads. And with some manufacturers, when paramedics arrive if the AED is the same brand as the cardiac monitor they use, they can plug the AED pads directly into the monitor without having to rip them off and put theirs on.

At my old department our AEDs and monitors were LifePak, and the pads were interchangeable between the two.

jonrem...

I am a EHS (Environmental, Health, and Safety) Professional. Most refer to people in my profession as "The Safety Guy" at work.

I have purchased several AED's over my career for different locations at different employers.

Although having something that is compatible with the local FD is great, you need to think about long term maintenance as well and the ongoing cost of that maintenance.

Over the years I have concluded that the Zoll AED Plus is a very good choice for many locations. Reason is, it does not use a proprietary battery. It uses off-the-shelf CR123 batteries (12 of them I think). They are also one of the lower cost units available.

They are not the most flashy units available, but they are rugged and get the job done.

Pads have a 5 year shelf life and include CPR assistance technology. Shelf life of pads really comes down to the adhesive. After 5 years, the adhesive will degrade enough that the pads may not stick adequately on moist skin.

Last thing I can add is that, over the course of my 28 years in the field, many brands have been gobbled up by the bigger players. If you are going to consider a smaller manufacturer, be prepared for that company to be bought by one of the biggies. Support may continue for your unit for a while, but not long term. That is the fear with proprietary batteries. That and the fact that manufacturers are always pushing out new units that use different batteries and pads than their other offerings.

Just my experience with these in my career. Hope it helps a little.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
At my old department our AEDs and monitors were LifePak, and the pads were interchangeable between the two.

The reason we went with Zoll both at my FD and at the county is that it's a high probability that ALS transport will be slinging Zoll monitors. I can't tell you how many times I've been on a code as rescue and the first thing that happens when we get medics there is they pull off our pads and put on theirs. That's $60= wasted. By using the same brand and style, not only do the same ones get used, we can usually talk the crew into giving us a new package to replace ours.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
At my old department our AEDs and monitors were LifePak, and the pads were interchangeable between the two.

The reason we went with Zoll both at my FD and at the county is that it's a high probability that ALS transport will be slinging Zoll monitors. I can't tell you how many times I've been on a code as rescue and the first thing that happens when we get medics there is they pull off our pads and put on theirs. That's $60= wasted. By using the same brand and style, not only do the same ones get used, we can usually talk the crew into giving us a new package to replace ours.

This is exactly what we did, both in my squad car, and also the First Responder rig I volunteered on. So, find out what your local EMS/LE/FD are using and get a unit compatible with their leads & pads.


.

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:


The reason we went with Zoll both at my FD and at the county is that it's a high probability that ALS transport will be slinging Zoll monitors. I can't tell you how many times I've been on a code as rescue and the first thing that happens when we get medics there is they pull off our pads and put on theirs. That's $60= wasted. By using the same brand and style, not only do the same ones get used, we can usually talk the crew into giving us a new package to replace ours.

Same here for the fire department I volunteered with. Zoll pads plugged right into the monitor on the ambulance. Also had to use the AED a few times, but I don't have any experience with other brands to compare.