Exceeds my expectations for a Med tray, let alone a plastic one.
1. The text rubs off. I tried lightly coating with clear nail polish, but that comes off, too. A Sharpie rubs off with time as well. The text is not really necessary with 4 color-coordinated by time of day containers. But it would be better if this could be fixed.
2.. Don't forget you can pop each container out for taking, filling or traveling by pushing your fingertip through the hole on the bottom of the tray under the pill container where it says Push Here To Remove. See photo.
3. Tray lays flat or stands horizontally if space is an issue. See photos.
4. I use all 4 daily compartments in my tray so I have purchased 3 more to be able to fill a month's worth.
5. Plastic sides of tray are smooth to use stickers or write name with Sharpie. It comes with one large impractical sticker to list info for 1 pill and 1 pharmacy. I just write my name on the top with a Sharpie. First responders can look at/see through the containers and presume when I've last taken pills, how many and what shapes. If they need to know what kind, they can go through the cabinet or talk to family. See photo.
6. I've dropped the containers and the lids stayed secure. For travel, I always place individual containers inside a baggy for precaution.
7. To take pills, I pop the container out, open the lid and pour pills onto a tiny dish (my pill plate, lol) instead of my hand.
8. If all containers aren't needed, consider re-purposing them.
9. Well worth the price for peace of mind for myself and family.
10. Containers hold 8 large tablets if filled carefully and tamped down. See photo.
BONUS TIP: Keep the clear plastic package the trays are sold inow if you plan on traveling with filled trays. They will secure your trays preventing the lids from popping if the tray should be dropped or jostled and give you a pseudo carrying handle.
This is a well designed product with thought put into how people organize and take medications or vitamins...
A few notes about the little boxes:
-Before you put your set to use, place a piece of transparent tape across the hinge to reinforce it. These are plastic and eventually the hinge will deteriorate from use. It's not a fault of the product, just how plastic is. A little time on a tedious task will save frustration down the road.
-The lids are not child-proof, spill-proof, purse-proof, watertight, etc. This makes them easy to open which is a nice change from the organizers that require a third thumb to hold the safety mechanisms.
-The lids snap down securely, but are easy to open without much strength. The will survive a drop to the floor (at least so far!) but can easily open if jostled about in a purse or pocket. Because of this you will need to find another container to dump your lil' box into if you need to keep the pills in your purse.
-The small boxes easily pop in and out of the main tray by using the holes beneath them, whether dainty fingers or sausage stubs like my husbands.
-The boxes nest in the tray securely, but not so strongly that it requires force to put them in or take them out.
-The boxes are similar in size, shape, and function to dental floss packaging. Similar, not identical.
-Casually packed, the little boxes hold about 8 medium sized capsules with a few smaller tablets. If you went to meticulous effort, you could likely stuff in more.
-The different colors for time of day (or however you decide to categorize your lil' boxes) makes it easy to visually grab the box you need.
-The plastic is transparent so you are able to see the contents if you need to.
-When taking medications it is easy to take them straight from the little box (like a pill cup) instead of dumping into your hand. Of course this depends on the size and amount of capsules and tablets you need to take.
-Setting out only the boxes needed for one day can save confusion if someone has cognitive or emotional challenges. They don't need to recall if it is Tuesday or Friday, only need to look and see if the "noon" box is empty.
-Medications that are taken as needed and remain in a lil' box at the end of the day can give care providers an easy review of what was taken without having to open the container or touch medications. Those remaining can be popped back into the tray for use next week.
-The tray is large, but if in a public place or traveling with friends, it is nice to have individual petite boxes to pull out instead of four 7 day strips.
-The tray can rest upright, like a book, and doesn't need to remain flat. It is easy to slide in and out of a narrow space instead of trying to cram together numerous clunky 7 day strips that don't stack nicely. It is more discrete if you have nosy guests looking through your cupboards.
-The little boxes can seem excessively large if you only take one or two small tablets at a given time. However, the tidy storage more than makes up for this if compared to other options.
-Medication compliance is a significant concern for patients' family and healthcare teams. If prescriptions are stored in a variety of bottles from the pharmacy it is hard for some patients to remember if they took their medication, so some miss a dose and others take more than one dose. Dispensing a week's worth of medication into an organized system can decrease patient and care giver stress and anxiety because they can easily see what has or has not been taken.
-You don't need to have something to fill every little box for this to be practical. Even if you only take 3 tiny tablets in the morning, this is still a better tool than the 7 day strips. Different family members could be assigned a color. You could load up four weeks for yourself, just ignoring the labels of "noon," "eve," etc. There are lots of ways to use this beyond the generic labels assigned to the boxes.
We love this product. I purchased 2 for my husband and we travel a lot for medical care and this really simplifies life/packing. The only negative thing is that the lids do seem to pop open easily, which is simply remedied by using rubber bands and a slip of cardboard over the top. When he takes the individual boxes out, they seem to keep their lids closed ok for him. (I've never heard him complain.) I do like the holes that are underneath each individual box because it allows you to pop out the box of pills more easily and if when putting the pills into the boxes you miss, you can pop the box out and the pill will fall through the hole.
I do want to warn people that this company has changed their color scheme and the red row is now green. We purchased 2 a couple of years ago and now that my husband's medication regime (he's disabled) has stopped changing, I purchased 2 more so that I only have to do his meds once a month. The green vs red isn't a big issue for us, but we are youngish and in our 40's. If you are an elder or helping someone who is elderly, I could see where the change from red to green could get confusing if you were using this product before the change and are seeking to purchase more of them.
These are intended to be used for a week's worth of meds at a time and are marked as such.
It holds a lot of pills. Not as many as what my sons and I need (we are disabled as well) and we use the MPO case, which is wonderful for someone like us who may take upwards of 49 pills per day. But, it works for people with a lot of pills that aren't excessive.
I put 3 meds in the morning cases, 7 vitamins in the noon cases, 2 meds in the evening cases, and 2 meds in the bed cases. For capacity discussion then, assuming you don't take any really large pills, you could probably put up to 7 pills in each individual case. I've been using this tray for a couple months. The lettering is holding up well, as is the hinges for each little case. They pop right out just like the picture, making it easy to pour them into your hand. That's the good news. I've taken it on 2 trips. In both trips, I've had at least one case come out of the tray as I traveled. Since it was inside my bag, this was no problem. All the pills had stayed inside the cases (on one trip) so all I had to do was put the cases back in the tray. In one instance, the individual case had opened up. I found the pills quickly so it was no problem. The tray will fit into a gallon size Ziploc bag so I'm going to try that on my next trip. What I like about it is that it's perfect for me at home in everyday use. It's acceptable for use on the road. I've tried many different med dispensers and I haven't found any that were any better. My mom has this case and it works really well for her because she takes meds 4 times a day and doesn't travel.
Not much to add to what other people have said.
PROS:
* Good for organizing all my vitamins, minerals and medications for the week. Much easier than having to open multiple bottles each time I need to take meds. This also allows me to check if I took my meds, in case I can't remember if I did today or if it was yesterday I am remembering - you can see through the clear plastic sides & bottom.
* Boxes are big enough to hold many pills including large capsules.
* Boxes pop in and out of the tray easily, by pushing through the openings on the bottom of the tray. The boxes fit securely in the tray , so that they don't fall out if the tray is turned sideways or upside down (but the lids might be accidentally opened if brushed against something).
* The colors make it obvious which time of day each box is for. They are labeled for that too.
* The colors make the medication minder more cheerful - I know I'm weird, but I like colorful things.
* The lids open very easily, which should be helpful for those with weak, stiff or painful hands.
CONS:
* The lids do come open very easily. I would not want to carry one of the boxes in a purse or pocket. Perhaps securing the lid with a rubber band would help.
* The boxes are deep enough that digging the pills out can be a bit awkward - like getting small pills out from a medicine bottle. My solution is to pour them into a medicine cup. You can get 100 little disposable cups for just over $4. I am more likely to lose a cup then to dispose of it.
* The ink labeling each box is rubbing off of the boxes I grip when I pick up the tray. I've had it for just over 2 months.
NEUTRAL:
The ink on the box labels is black rather than white as pictured.
CONCLUSION:
Works very well for my needs.
Feature Product
- REMOVABLE POD COMPARTMENTS - Each planner compartment can be removed and taken on the go and easily fits in pockets, purses and bags
- LARGE CAPACITY - Each compartment can hold 28 aspirin sized tablets and has plenty of room for you daily medications
- TRANSPARENT PLASTIC BODY -The planners body is made from a transparent platic that increase medication visability and help prevent missed doses
- CLEARLY LABLED - Each compartment is clearly labled with the date and time at which medication should be taken
- MULTI DOSE COMPARTMENTS - Each day has 4 seperate compartments for different doses in the morning, afternoon, evening and night
Description
Ezy Dose Med Control Tray. This product has removable compartments that can be taken on the go. It also has 4 compartments for each day of the week so that you can plan different doses through the day. This planner is easy to use and extremely high quality. Planner features include : removable compartments that can be taken on the go easily, large capacity compartments which can hold all of your days medicine, transparent plastic body to help prevent missed doses and easy to open lids that are clearly labeled. About Ezy Dose: Ezy Dose is the leader in easy-to-use medication management products. Many of our push-button pill planners are endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation for our ease-of-use design. Ezy Dose products make living healthier simply easier with products like pill cutters, pill crushers and a full line of easy-fill planners.
Due to chronic illness, I've had to use pill minders like this for years, and none of them are ideal. If anyone ever develops a perfect one, they'll make a mint.
That said, this is one of the best I've found if you need to take pills based on certain times of day. When a family member was diagnosed with cancer, we had to find a way to manage the ridiculous number of medicines and supplements he now had to take daily--and do it in a way that he could manage even on a chemo-fogged brain. Having purchased two of these, we're able to set up two weeks' worth of pills at a time, which makes the chore of "what do I take and when?" SO much easier. Unlike many of the larger sized pill minders, each container is removable and perfore easily portable. The labels are easy to read, the color coding helps you see at a glance whether or not you've grabbed the right box for that time of day, and the lids are neither too difficult nor too easy to pop up. And thus far, none have popped open on their own when carried in a pocket or purse.
The drawback to individually removeable cases, of course,is that you do have to put them back, or the entire pill case becomes useless! Additionally, the individual boxes are a tight fit in the outer tray. A hole beneath each box makes it easier to push the container out, but those with less dexterity or hand strength may not find that a easy task. It's not bad, but it may take a little effort. I suspect that's a compromise between having them be accessible for portability versus having a tray full of boxes that all fall out if tilted or dropped.
The positives outweigh the negatives on this one; I like these cases better than the best of the ones I've bought for myself over the years, and if you're looking for a multi-daily-dose weekly pill minder, I'd say this is a good choice for most uses.
This is a great item if you have trouble remembering your meds or whether or not you even took them and have a four times per day schedule. The size of the little containers if just about right. I toss in several "horse pills" for vitamins, joint products, and the like and still have room for all my (all too many) Rx pills. The fact that each box is removable is a major plus.
The negatives I see are mainly two.
First, closure on the little boxes is a little insecure. They can open very easily, They are absolutely not going to stay shut in a pocket or purse.
Second, the form factor, probably by necessity, is pretty tight. Filling it can be a challenge. I find that with old or fat (or in my case, old AND fat) fingers, getting pills into the right bin can be a challenge, and if you hit the wrong box, getting the pill out requires tweezers or dumping the whole box out. Slows the process of reloading. I've found that by filling the two non adjacent rows simultaneously and keeping a fine pair of tweezers at hand I can minimize loading time. I'm not sure what I'd recommend to fix this, but be aware you'll use more time filling these than two of the large twice a day single-piece bins take.
For me, it's been worth the minor hassle filling. I'd like to just be able to pop one box in my pocket instead of transfering pills to a more secure containter. But I'd probably just loose them...
I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to load the individual containers. The lids stay upright and out of the way while you load, and the compartments are large enough to hold at least 3 large pills (like fish oil) plus several small ones. I had a pill organizer that had the four in a solid row (the most popular kind) and I had to take the whole row even when I just wanted the one for morning. Then I bought the one that has the am pm boxes with large compartments, but the boxes have butterfly wing type openings and it makes them difficult to load. I bought 2 of these as presents for my brother and mother so they would take their supplements. They both really liked that you can take just one compartment with you, and since I was the one who loaded them, I now have pill organizer envy. The lids seem to stay shut very well, but it's only plastic, so I'm sure they will wear out at some point, just like all the rest. All I know is that when my am pm boxes wear out, this will definitely be my next organizer!
I have used this med tray for over 2 years now, and like it so much I am now getting a replacement. I love being able to take individual boxes if I'm just going out for an evening, rather than taking the entire tray. My only "complaint" is that the letters and times on each box wear off too easily, but while the days are useful, the times don't correspond with when I take my meds, so its really no big concern. In the two years Ive used my first one, only one corner has broken off -- probably because I carry it in a backpack every day -- and have never lost a pill from a container accidentally opening in my bag.
I have used all kinds of pill sorters and dispensers over the years - I have a drawer full of them! I wanted something that I could take the specific day/time compartment out and open it. I've dumped a lot of pills on the floor using the type that are all connected together.
The quality of this is very nice. The clear holder and the individual boxes are sturdy. One of the nice features is that you can turn the whole thing upside down and the individual containers stay in place. It's easy to pop them out because of the finger hole in the bottom. The little boxes snap shut very well and stay shut even when I've put them in my pocket or purse.
I take medications that are in capsule form and I also take supplements that can be the size of horse pills. These are big enough to handle all of my pills with room to spare.
This is exactly what I was looking for - I'm very pleased with the quality - I like the different colors for various times of day - the print is very easy to read. Most importantly, I no longer have pills spilling on the floor like I did with the 7 day strip type and I can take just what I need with me without having to lug the entire container.
Highly recommend!
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