AED'S....What brand do you like and why?

[bakert]

My AED's are almost 10 years old and it's time to replace them. Just looking for what brands you all use, and why you like them, or maybe don't like them!

Right how our old ones are the cardiac science powerheart G3s. I have just started looking into other brands.....so many choices and price differences!

Opinions please!!! I have to buy 9 of them so I want to make the right choice :)

[OldDude]

We were faced with this decision...we have 12 units and ours were out of warranty by a year. They are the Powerheart from Cardiac Science. One of the concerns was the cost of buying batteries versus purchasing new ones that come with a battery and a warranty. Also the next generation of guidelines will be out and that will take a year or so to get the software updates to the existing machines. Since the batteries are warranted for 4 years from the date of installation (not the date of purchase) we decided to get new batteries for our existing AEDs and buy new AEDs when these batteries go out or as needed if one of them goes toes up in the interim. I understand that after about 10 years the only thing you can do for a "broken" AED is throw it away. There wasn't a significant discount in purchasing 1 versus 10. I wouldn't care about the brand. I'd shop for price and warranty value. So, most likely you've already purchased a round of batteries for your machines and are at the end of the replacement battery life. If that's the case you might be better off by buying new AEDs. They would certainly still be in warranty when the new guidelines are ready to be installed.

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

Something you may want to consider is check with your local EMS service to see what brand defibrillator they use.

It's a little different situation, but when our county outfitted our law enforcement w/ AEDS they used the same brand as the EMS cardiac monitors/ defibrillators. It was so nice to simply unplug the pads already on the patient and connect them directly our our monitor/ defib unit on the ambulance. Also, the law enforcement liked it because we would reimburse them AED pads. Saved them money.

[GatezRN]

We have Zoll AED Plus for our district. From what I understand, they chose this model because it is the same as EMS and PD in town use to allow for quick turnover in an emergency. Unplug pads from our machine, plug into theirs. Like previous poster stated, that could be something to consider when choosing new ones for your school/district.