Does anyone know how many ACTUAL puffs there are in a blue salbutamol/Ventolin (asthma reliever) metered dose inhaler canister?

[TipulophobiaIsReal]

Yes, it says 200 metered actuations. But I've never met anyone who actually counts the doses. So I'm wondering how many actual puffs the thing will produce in total.

For all I know, it'll happily give me the impression of 300 good solid puffs, with only the first 200 having the actual stated dose of salbutamol, while for the remaining 100, I'm merrily sucking away on a useless spraycan (or, at least, not necessarily receiving a guaranteed dose). Or maybe not… maybe it starts obviously conking out on puff 201.

I mean, yeah, when it's almost totally empty of both drug and propellant, you'll get a few wimpy gasps where you realise that it's no good any more and needs replacing. Then a few presses after that, nothing will come out at all. But I don't know whether there's a big swathe of "doses" I think I'm getting prior to that which may not be all I hope and believe them to be.

I would've bet good money that some curious asthmatic on the internet would've already done this experiment, or that the manufacturers would've been required to release this information, or something, at least — but I can't find any clues to the answer.

I don't suppose any MN posters happen to have any knowledge on this? Short of buying an extra inhaler privately and spending ages squirting it into the air and counting the puffs myself, I'm out of ideas for how to find out.

(Don't anyone suggest the powder inhaler instead — I did my time with those and I refuse to go back 🤣)

My DH reckons he gets about the right number, if he uses it after that he can feel it's not as effective.

I actually tried to count a few times, but always forgot half way through the process!

Please don’t waste inhalers - they are horrifyingly bad for the environment. Don’t puff them just to count!!
there is work being done to make them both more effective AND less bad for the envt, which would be good.

Following because I asked this question at my son's asthma nurse appointment and she seemed to think the canister would start to not compress well as it was running out.
He doesn't use it often (as is ideal!) and I suspect it would expire before it happened. I'm wondering whether to just change it every year so there's an in date one available? If you work out how often you use it and the puffs you could plan a shorter timeframe to be safe.
His brown inhaler has the doses remaining displayed - no idea why the blue doesn't?!

I don't know but I wish there was a counter like on the Clenil inhalers. My son needs the blue inhaler very occasionally, so I have one in all my bags. But I have no idea how many puffs are left in each. Most likely they go out of date before being used up, but how would I know?!

ETA - the asthma nurse said I'll be able to feel it's not working properly when it's run out, but I have also wondered about how much drug he's actually getting if it's running low.

@foxp3 How funny, we've basically posted the same thing 😁

Haha great minds think alike 😂 - it's clearly possible to display remaining doses! And I'd rather not find out DURING an asthma attack that the blue has run out!

Mine is numbered from 120. It’s not the Ventolin, which I have as a ‘just in case’ one, but it goes out of date more often than not.

Don't worry, I'm not going to sit there squirting a Ventolin into the air just to satisfy my curiosity. That's why I'm asking if anyone else knows how long these canisters give the impression of keeping going, after the 200 doses are up.

I tried one of the "environmentally-friendly" dry powder inhalers. Firstly, it instructs you to chuck the whole thing after a few months, and since my asthma is well-controlled I've barely made a dent in it by that point, which isn't exactly the best thing for the environment. Secondly, they make the damn thing so hard to draw on Easyhaler my arse that I instinctively panic about not being able to get air into my lungs fast enough, which is the exact opposite of what I need during an asthma attack — staying calm and keeping my breathing steady is an important part of how I manage them. I use a CFC-free Salamol-branded pMDI, which uses norflurane as a propellant. A powerful greenhouse gas, yeah, but I'm not going to feel guilty about a tiny amount of greenhouse gas for medical purposes.

I had Clenil Modulite for a while before my asthma nurse switched me to Qvar after I mentioned that the Clenil made me cough and what I didn't say was that I was getting fed up of the taste of festering gym socks — but mine didn't have any kind of counter :( Maybe I'm assumed to be a responsible, organised adult and therefore somehow capable of keeping track of three-digit numbers in my head

Never counted. As a pp said some do have a counter on them which is useful but they don't do it on the blue ones. This caused a problem when my daughters ran out on holiday, if it had a counter I would have taken a new one with us. Now I take spares.

If you're having asthma attacks, is your asthma well controlled? I've been on the Turbohaler for years, one puff twice daily, and can't remember the last time I had an attack. I get a bit puffy if I get a chest infection (like now 😓) but that's the only time I need my ventolin.

Once they run out there is no give or sound at all. It doesn’t just blow air. I too wish there was a counter so you knew when to order a new one. Don’t get me started on the new eco ones taste horrible compared to old. I know it’s the same drug but the way it comes out or any other ingredients have changed. Can’t get rid of taste for hours.

Not often. Like you, I can get a little thick-chested if I have an infection, but I'm mostly fine as long as I take my beclometasone. It tends to only happen if there's some huge insult to my lungs, like my MIL shaking an entire tree-branch full of pollen right in my face to show me how it puffs up in clouds, or walking past a house fire, or something. Every few months, maybe? I don't think I'd want to routinely take the amount of steroid inhaler it would probably require to make my lungs impervious to that level of attack

And I'd want to have a salbutamol inhaler with me even if it had been years since my last asthma symptoms — I've made the mistake of complacency before. I started this thread because the question came to my mind after I posted in another thread, about an asthma attack I had in response to a reed diffuser. It had been years since I'd had any symptoms, I wasn't taking any preventative treatment, and I didn't get asked to see the asthma nurse any more. But I really, really missed having a Ventolin right then. (If I'd been at home, I'd have just nicked DP's, though…)

I use Fostair which has a counter (120) and I have occasionally wondered why I'm coughing and got home to realise I used an inhaler that was on zero.

I'm familiar with that, where you press it and just nothing comes out. (The few puffs before that are obviously weak and ineffective, too.) But what I'm wondering is whether that happens immediately after the 200 proper, certified puffs, or whether there's actually a whole load of what seem like proper puffs left in it after the 200 official doses are up, which might not be up to spec.

Gotta admit I preferred the ozone-killing inhalers too 😳 They seemed to work better.