Smart Automated Medication Dispenser - Pria™ by BLACK+DECKER™ - Connected Home Care Companion - Simplify Your Loved One's Home Healthcare

I do not like writing this type of review namely because I know one experience may not speak to everyone’s experience. In this case with the majority of this review I think it will in fact do that.1. PILL Storage, NOT MUCH!:First, I expected to get at least 30 days worth of pill dispensing, which is generally how meds are filled. My hope was to get rid of any bottles and simply store the meds in the dispenser. Wrong from the start as it seems the most it can hold is a 28 day supply. However, this is not exactly true because as you load your various medicines and if your are taking the meds at different times the machine DRASTICALLY cuts the storage capacity. I am not taking many meds and just loading the machine to dispense them at the times I take them has now cut the capacity of storage to 9 days —- 9 days of storage? Not much help there.2. PIll Dispensing, not helpful if it does not work:From the first dosage I received a message on the unit that all my pills may not have dispensed and I should open the bin and check. I did this and sure enough the pill was stuck. You have to open the entire bin and use something like tweezers to remove —- not much difference from the board game “Operation” but with no buzzer LOL. On my second dispense the same thing happened and I opened the bin and nothing was stuck. I called customer service and they said the machine uses a little camera to “see” if all pills are out —- maybe my camera was dirty and needed to be cleaned. How? I had to take ALL the pills out clean it and then reload the pills (about 30 minutes*** more on loading latter). This is a mess really in that anyone who has memory issues will become quite challenged should they need to take the machine apart, clean and reload the meds often.3. Loading pills:You must load pill by pill —- there is NO bulk loading. The unit tells you this will take about 15 minutes. It’s not hard but the interface is a bit much for anyone who has memory or cognitive problems. There are several steps and you must confirm each by pressing a button on the machine —- cumbersome.4. Don’t change your meds or schedule!:Loading is a bit annoying but it gets worse. If you change your meds (add a new one or eliminate one) you MUST empty the entire machine of any meds and start all over again! If you take multiple meds you will have to sort all of them out and reload them in. (Keep in mind that if you take a few meds at different times you be will down to about 9 days —maybe less— of storage so you going to be loading somewhat often anyway.)Other non media problems:1. The machine uses “facial recognition” to dispense meds or a PIN number. This is great if a person has memory issues because the machine will recognize their face and they will not need a PIN number. However, the face recognition seems to be from tricky to non working which will require you to use the PIN numbers. The face recognition does seem to improve in VERY bright light that is in front (not behind or over) the face.2. PRIVACY —- given that the unit is a internet connected one and has a working camera (one is inside the unit one outside) the manufacturer seems to be concerned about someone being able to “see” you if you do not intend this. They give you a “sticky” patch of plastic to put over the camera. Honestly, this is really BAD design. It’s a flat thin sticky film that will be EXTREMELY hard for anyone with joint problem to do (arthritis). Why would they not put a toggle switch that could just be slid over the camera? The unit looks very good so this patch just doesn’t make sense on so many levels. Also please remember to remove your patch so face recognition can work —- a lot of steps there for potentially somewhat or actually incapacitated people.3. ANNOYING bell.When it’s time to take your meds the unit will sound bell sound —- forever—- until you take the meds. It’s a good feature until you don’t want it to happen (nap?). You can turn this off by going to settings on the unit itself but then it turns off all voice functions not only the little bell sound.I’m returning the unit — very pleased I can do so —- due to it having at delivery the pill dispensing problem. I am going to try the “Medacube” even though it is double the price. For me it’s worth it as it can bulk load 90 pills so you only load every 90 days. No sorting pills at all. Can’t say anything about it now since I have never tried it before but after this experience ANY bulk loading machine would be worth trying.I hope this helps and if any questions about the review I will be happy to let you know!

6 month update: Still love it! We manage this for a family member, and it is still working well. Some advice after 6 months... 1. any large medications that can be split in half should be- it cuts dramatically down on meds getting wedged at the bottom of the bin, reducing the times you have to remove the pill wheel and get the med. 2. When it is time to fill, do not select "The pkll wheel is empty", let the unit empty all bins, even if you know it is empty. Every week, the Pria thinks there are still meds in a few bins, and it creates issues with dispensing doses later in the week. 3. Reboot the Pria and check for updates before refilling.Still think it works great once you get it programmed, and it's allowing us to keep a loved one out of assisted living for now

[update 12/7/21]- (1) The pill dispenser works 4 or 5 times per week. Then the user has to manually pull out the pill wheel to then slide open the wheel to a particular bin number. However, users dexterity won’t allow her to open the pill wheel so we have to skip the pills for that night. (2) user has managed to bypass the system and take double doses the same night. Omg…. This is so not worth the headache.[original post]When it works, it’s great - It tracks the dosage and time my mother takes her medication. But in the two weeks - (1) it’s gotten stuck once and didn’t dispense the pills. (2) Tonight, the app is completely blank and I had to FaceTime my mom and walk her through Pria prompts to see if she took her medications.Cons(1) filling the machine is time consuming(2) when a pill gets stuck, my mom (and others who’s dexterity is limited, will not be able to manually open the pill slot.(3) hard to tell which slot the machine is starting at. Makes a difference when loading medications and one medication is almost out.Pros:(1) monthly fee is much more reasonable(2) when working, app reports if pills and when pills were taken.Considering returning because of the glitches!

This product would be great for someone that has an elderly parent or grandparent that needs help taking medication. You have to physically load each compartment one pill at a time. For example you have to fill all this compartments with pill A before you can do pill B, instead of just loading pills A & B at the same time. It just seemed like a lot of work and if you take pills multiple times a day, then you are filling it up weekly instead of once a month. I had mine glitch on me several times. For the price you pay for the machine plus the monthly subscription fee for the app it wasn't worth the hassle and is now sitting in my closet. Really would not recommend.

The media could not be loaded. Pria does as advertised. She loads and tracks medicine. For us, it holds two weeks worth of medicine, taken twice a day (28 total doses). I have not missed a dose yet. The "check in's" are getting a little bit out of control, but that is how we programed it. It asks if I drank two glasses of water, have I gone outside, have I talked to my friends.... Etc. We have had it for two weeks, so this is our first time loading up the medicine tray. You can load it manually or Pria will walk you through the process (after you enter all of your medication details via the app). Pria is not as "smart" as Alexa, but Alexa does not do medicine... You can do a video call with your caregivers (or family) if they have the pria app and I invited them to use it. Overall, I would buy it again or for a loved one. 4 stars because Black and Decker reduced the price a week after I bought it and the app has a few minor bugs (make video calls are glitchy, but drop in calls seem to work Everytime)... I think this device will keep my caregivers off my back (did you take your medicine.... Every time they call, twice a day. Now I hope they call just to talk to me.