Clenil modulite (preventer) inhaler (with dose counter) blocking

[Paul]

In the last year or so I've been getting a new dispenser with my preventer. It's the same L shape, but it has a mechanism within that counts the doses used and displays the remaining doses in a small window at the back of the inhaler.

Does anyone else have one of these? Do you find that it blocks up more easily and then can't be cleaned properly? The instructions say not to wash the dispenser in water and not to remove the gas canister to clean it, which leaves me with the option of dabbing the outside of the delivery jet ineffectively with a cotton bud. I tried and tried, but it just didn't work.

In the end I removed the canister and washed the thing in warm water, but it's completely banjaxed now.

Luckily, I have one of the old dispensers, and putting the canister in that has worked, but is there a known problem with these counting dispensers? I see on this website that (due to demand/supply) they are currently issuing dispensers without the counter, and it made me wonder whether the actual reason might be that the counting dispensers just don't work.

[freeflow]

Raise a medical device complaint


https://www.gov.uk/report-problem-medicine-medical-device

[Paul]

Will do 

[Kim]

I've experimented on some dead ones, with a view to resetting the counter and using it for inhalers that don't come with counters.  This was successful up to the point where the gas cartridge simply didn't fit.

There's nothing magic about it, just a moderately fiddly mechanical mechanism that probably isn't very good at drying out once immersed.

[Paul]

There's nothing magic about it, just a moderately fiddly mechanical mechanism that probably isn't very good at drying out once immersed.

Good point. But I've removed the counter device (easy) and it still doesn't work. The counter isn't part of the dose delivery bit.

Comparing the aperture in the blocked container with one that I know works (a blue reliever) there's quite a difference in size, with the aperture in the blue one being noticeably bigger.

There might be a good reason for that, but I can't help thinking that the smaller aperture is likely to block more easily.

[Paul]

Soaking in hot water made no difference.

Poking the hole with a strand of cable wire has done the trick though.