Modifying your equipment

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Permalink Reply by Tigers Fan on March 24, 2011 at 10:42

The thought of blocking part of the vent port frightens me! Not many people other than scuba divers will recognise CO2 'poisoning' symptoms and thus might get an extremely long, permanent even, sleep.

 

Even partially blocking the vent will cause you to start re-breathing the CO2 of your last exhale and blood CO2 levels will rise - fatally if you block too much of the vent.

 

I'll readily agrre that the makers build in a safety factor to ensure full venting of the mask with every breath and a bit besides. This causes the jet stream into your partners neck, of course. So the trick would have to be - not to block off more than the safety factor area. Clearly, 'after all these years', Caveman knows what area can be blocked.

 

A perfectly safe method of diffusing the jet stream is to stick a strip of ScotchBrite pan scourer loosely over the mask vent. This is not likely to do anything toward Caveman's other benefits, mind.

 

I fell out with Apex CPAP makers over their humidifier. They argued mine was working just fine according to design parameters and I argured it wasn't working at all because the water level didn't drop. That's for back-ground info about me and humidifiers.

 

I don't know the Escape S8 humidifer but it seems unreasonable that it empties in four hours unless you reduce the airflow over the water surface, as Caveman has. Water evaporation slows with the increase in ambient humidity so we can know that Caveman's exhaled air and CO2 are backing up to the humidifier chamber and that with correct, full air flow, the humidifier dries in four hours. The problem therefore has to be the rate of heating of the water in Caveman's humidifier. Either the control is turned up too high (even at max, four hours is very short) and/or the controlling thermocouple (thermostat) is defective, even shorted permanently closed.

 

A heated hose would take care of the cold nose problem.

 

I advocate threating the cause, not the symptoms. Service the humidifier and leave the mask vent unblocked at all.

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Permalink Reply by Caveman on March 24, 2011 at 11:06

 

As I said these mods work for me, I'm not advocating them - they are things people may try at their own risk. A couple of things I would add, firstly regarding CO2 poisoning - even when active you use less than 16 percent of the oxygen you breath in, so unless you go overboard with blocking it's unlikely. I've blocked half of the grid of small holes that form the vent on my Quattro mask.

 

Humidifier - I regard it as poor, my old seperate humidifier had a higher water capacity and worked better. I have this one turned up to maximum and still have problems with dryness but never rainout (as I sometimes did with my old one) so I think it's just a poor system, not faulty. The capacity of the S8 humidifier is maybe half a litre at the most - compare this with my room humidifier that uses around 3 litres of water in 10 hours and in winter (when humidity is low) only raises the humidity to 'comfortable' levels as measured by a room humidistat and it's hard to believe that the small unit really makes much difference.

 

Heated hose - not tried it but to wam the air adequately during the short time the air is in the hose with the usual hairdryer-like airflow would take power - and I think my electricity bills are high enough, in the UK around 12p per kilowatt-hour is average, so even 100 watts  soon adds up at 7 hours a night. That's another advantage of reducing the airflow - it's easier for the blower to maintain pressure so uses less power.

 

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Permalink Reply by Tigers Fan on March 24, 2011 at 13:28

I'm sorry if you felt attacked by me, Caveman - not my intention at all.

 

Blocking the mask vent is potentially a very dangerous act and I feel compelled to point that out to people, even though you clearly stated 'at their own risk'>

 

There is a huge difference between raising room ambient humidity and humidifying the air you breath via a CPAP/APAP.

 

My Respironics humidifier has a small capacity - I guess in the region of 250cl - and it lasts all night at max setting. Over eight hours it will probably dry out.

 

The heated hose is supplied by a 1A 12V DC transformer - so it draws a lot less than 1A. I don't think you'd notice that in your utility bill! You can take my word - and those of thousands of other users - that it warms the CPAP air very comfortably (if you like warm air) and prevents rain-out. I'm reminded of days in the tropics when I breathe the air through it - every night during rain-out season..

 

TF

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on March 24, 2011 at 13:56

Thanks for sharing your experience Caveman, and for pointing out that whilst  blocking part of the bleed port works for you, you're not suggesting others do it unless they choose, as it could cause problems for some.

I love the tip of getting a pivot connecter for the blower end :)

Your humidifier seems to be a problem.  Are you sure it's not faulty, as they should last longer than that?

Glad you appreciate the forum, and look forward to more posts and interaction from you!

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on March 24, 2011 at 14:03

Tigers Fan said:

A heated hose would take care of the cold nose problem.

 

Good tip thanks TF.  I've had numerous people ask how to cure the 'cold nose syndrome' and one person I know has even tried cling film and baco foil on their nose - am not saying who ;)

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Permalink Reply by Caveman on March 24, 2011 at 14:13

Saying that the humidifier should not dry out so quickly implies that it is running too hot? - however I find the humidification to be insufficient even at maximum settings so even if it is faulty, getting it fixed would make it worse!

 

I've put forward these changes knowing that it would be controversial - you could argue that the manufacturers have spent much time and money establishing the correct operating parameters. If you are happy to accept that, then fine- but I'm 52 now and long ago decided that I'd rather research important matters for myself than blindly accept what I am told since the quality of 'experts' varies by a large degree, especially among the medical fraternity.

 

I've been diagnosed with sleep apnoea for 15 years and consider myself to have had enough real world experience to try my own solutions to the problems I have encountered and I'm still a functioning, breathing, opinionated old git.

 

I'm going to throw another couple of things into the hat - I clean my gear in the dishwasher and I remove scale in the humidifier tank with bathroom limescale remover. Nasty, horrible chemicals so rinse carefully.

 

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on March 24, 2011 at 17:03

You can be as controversial as you like on here.  As long as everyone is polite to one another there's no problem.  However, I won't be following suit with the limescale remover LOL.  I won't be putting the mask in the dishwasher either, as I've got a good routine going with the CPAP cleaners and get a good long use out of the masks this way without leaks!

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