This seems like a dumb question but it's my last one.

I would delete this if I could. I found my other package of strips and that last one seemed fine when I used it.

I've had a terrible time with glucometers, especially getting accurate and repeatable measurements. I had an opened vial of strips sitting in a drawer for 3 years and they seem to measure fine. Other new test strip vials are 20 or 30% off from the previous ones, and others are almost dead on with each other. It's gotta be me, right?
From what I know strips are sensitive to heat and humidity, according to the package. Not much beyond that from the manufacture.

My own tidbits:
be careful of touching the tip that takes up blood because any contamination can throw off readings big time. Inside the strip is an extremely sensitive enzyme that has to combine with just exactly the right amount of blood-any contamination will alter the chemical reaction of the enzyme-blood and offset the ultra-ultra sensitive electronic measurement in the glucometer.

I always make a big hole to get a BIG drop, set up the meter, wipe away the first drop and squeeze a second for measurement. The tip goes inside the drop but NEVER touches the skin underneath. The first drop is wiped off and a thin coating dries to give the second drop an isolation barrier from the skin. Making the measurement quickly keeps the blood from oxidizing.
I wash with lots of soap, rinse with lots of water, dry with a fresh towel, air dry, wipe the area with a new kleenex, then take the blood sample. Never use alcohol, it contaminates.
Keep everything very clean- for example lets say you eat a banana then lay out your BG kit, then wash your hands, then discover your BG sample is very high. What happened? You can't see it but the BG meter is so sensitive it can pick up the tiniest sugar molecules.

After re-reading my text it sounds a little over the top but this is the only way I can improve results. Also took meters to doc for blood tests and took 5 readings each to compare with lab results. One was +9.5 and the other was -8-- so at least I have correction factors--but both change with magnitude and new strip lots. I over lap lot readings to get new correction factors. I'm using a Freestyle Freedom lite and a Walmart type Relion/Agamatrix.

Thanks Amylaze, for the benefit of your painstaking comparison and analysis. Since it is fairly detailed, I will save it to a word file so I can have it to refer to easily over the next week or so.
As of now, DH is largely just sticking to plan and we are limited to working toward an overall downward trend, as we can only test fasting in the morning and then pre-meal when he gets home with his pp reading after his supper. I send healthy lc snacks (pork rinds, nuts (subject to evaluation and adjustment) boiled eggs, and cream cheese (also up for review if he doesn't come down some more, pretty soon) and make him a good lc breakfast. His lunch is a challenge for him but he has fairly good lc knowledge from my several runs with it. He still has some to learn but he's coming down, so it's getting better.
I myself, am testing frequently and getting some encouraging numbers and then some confusing ones.
Thanks again for the help. I've already started paying better attention to the details. I'm between 100 and 120 nearly all the time, with one pp reading of 99, so these small tweaks are most necessary for my own efforts but will help me with him more when he starts getting down into tweaking range.

I put this comment in a new window so it will stand out. I forgot to tell you I am using a Nova Max meter that does blood and ketones. I used my Amex points to pay for the strips on Amazon but the company sent me the meter just for me writing to them to ask for it.
Just as I was concerned I would do, I forgot to avoid touching the skin under the blood drop. I don't know if it makes the difference but I took my 2 hr. reading after lunch, according to your information (or so I thought) but my number was five points higher than my 1hr. number, which was only 2 pts higher than my pre-prandial reading. (105, 107 and 112, respectively)
Also, does it make any difference that it took me a long time to finish lunch, due to making my mom's meal after starting mine but before I finished it? I time my tests, starting from when I finish eating.
Also, how sensitive is the time frame? What if it took me ten minutes after the strict hour mark before I did my test? BTW, my meal was roughly six ounces of pork roast, half and avocado with mayo (no more than 2T) and about two T. of handmade pimento cheese (deli-made, from the supermarket) with 2g./carb listed, for a serving of that size. So, no more than 5g, by my count.