CRAFTY CPAP'RS Homemade Hose Covers

socknitster · Post by **socknitster** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:11 pm

Well, I'll tell ya.

Last night I had the best sleep I can remember in a long, long time. Between the lovely new hose covers and the overhead hook for the hose, sleep has gotten dramatically less annoying. I sure wish I had done all this sooner. Now I can't wait for my aura to get here today or tomorrow I hope.

With all this in place the Swift II is suddenly behaving itself a whole lot better, but I'm still glad to try yet another mask!

Jen

goose · Post by **goose** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:26 pm

Waaaa. I feel left out

I don't have a hose cover yet. But these are some great ideas!!! The minky sounds good.......

I have to concur with Gerald about the Aura's rain out observation. I don't seem to get any moisture in the hose itself, but there is generally moisture in the nose piece, which I have attributed to exhale condensation. I only use the humidifier on setting 1, and I don't remember who it was that commented about the room being cold -- but I'm with you. I really like the room cold and I like the air cold as well, but with the humidifier that kind of goes by the wayside.
I may have to turn the humidifier up over the winter because we heat with wood and the air is VERY dry.

Great thread for great hose cover ideas!!!! Keep 'em comin'......

Thanks!!
cheers
goose

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:02 am

[quote="odawa"]when I made my cover, I sewed elastic to the ends. It made it harder to pull over the rubber connectors. I wouldnt advise it. I didnt want to use velcro, I was afraid it would stick to my head sometimes lol What I ended up doing was getting some rubber bands and putting that on both ends. It works like a dream and is very easy to take off.
I put the fleece covering over every hose, including the one that goes along my head, and I use little fleece pieces as cushion wherever I could. My mask has a rubber part along the top, so I just threaded the fleece through. It works great.

art mom · Post by **art mom** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:26 pm

I have been too busy to actually sew anything, but if you don't mind a casual look I have had great luck just rolling my hose up in a fleece throw. It's really thick, but I kind of like that. I hold it at each end with a pony tail holder. I only wash my hose once a week, and then I switch to my other hose which is bone dry after a week hanging in my closet. In summer I switched to rolling it up in a sarong-like piece of fabric. My best friend is knitting me a hose cover, like you knit socks, it's going to be purple, and when people ask her what she is knitting she says: "An intestine."

kteague · Post by **kteague** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:52 pm

Socknitster,

Hope you enjoy the Aura. Mine is my first choice in a mask. I did find it louder than the Breeze and spent the first couple nights trying to figure out if I had leaks. Switched from the medium to the large pillows and noise lessened. I use a pantyhose tights leg wrapped directly over my pillows as a stabilizer strap, so I'm guessing that serves to insulate it as I've not yet had rainout with this mask. That as well as one other strap are all that's on mine as I deconstructed it.

Sometimes just so the plastic won't touch my face at all I take a Peds stocking footie and wrap it over the whole nosepiece and snip two little holes and push the pillows thru. Just enough.

I've used several different things for the hose covers - socks, homemade wraps, sweatbands/headbands snipped in half and slid end to end over the hose. But the easiest and fluffiest was when I took one of the long fuzzy stretchy women's knit winter scarves and slid it over the full length of the hose and put a twist tie on each end.

Kathy

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): breeze, hose, rainout, Aura

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:55 am

No I never take pics when I have my mask on. lol It will NEVER happen. You'll have to stick with the mental imaginery

echo · Post by **echo** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:48 am

art mom wrote:I have been too busy to actually sew anything, but if you don't mind a casual look I have had great luck just rolling my hose up in a fleece throw. It's really thick, but I kind of like that. I hold it at each end with a pony tail holder. I only wash my hose once a week, and then I switch to my other hose which is bone dry after a week hanging in my closet. In summer I switched to rolling it up in a sarong-like piece of fabric. My best friend is knitting me a hose cover, like you knit socks, it's going to be purple, and when people ask her what she is knitting she says: "An intestine."[/url]

OK this one actually made laugh out loud. Hillarious!

I think I'd also like to knit a hose cover, but I haven't moved beyond knitting scarves yet

Only comment I can give on the velcro is: don't use it the entire length of the hose! It makes it real bulky, and like guest said it also makes it stiff, noisy, annoying...

What about some sort of draw-string mechanism on either end, to tie up the ends ? In fact, I was having visions of this high-tech drawstring thing that would tighten the entire length of the hose cover, so that you could make the diameter much larger than needed (easy on/off), and then drawstring it , pulling it up to the hose. Then you could also layer multiple covers as well. I'm imaging a spiral shaped drawstring thing. Probably more effort than it's worth, though.

Anyone tried soft corduroy? i bought some but haven't made it yet.

And what is Minky? Is that like velvet?

Isn't it difficult to sew fleece?

Any suggestions for those of us who don't have sewing machines and must rely on sewing needles, our index fingers, and hopefully thimbles? (i.e. fabric type?)

I second (third? fourth?) the comment about the source of rain-out being exhalation moisture... what can combat that besides a warm room? I'm imagining a velvet "face cover" here

DreamDiver · Post by **DreamDiver** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:04 am

There are apparently a number of different kinds of fleece. I decided I needed a couple more hose socks so I could wash one set while using the other. I went to Joanne's again and bought another half yard of fleece. This fleece sews easily with a machine, so I did a much better job this time. It's dark red with one-inch wide black 'dog paws' pseudo-randomly placed. This time, I carefully measured strips exactly seven inches wide using my metal ruler and a sharpie marker. I carefully cut the strips, which turned about to be almost six feet long. I ended up with four strips. I took two strips and sewed them end-to-end, with a half-inch hem. Then I spread the center hem flat and sewed the hem edges back to keep them from impeding the hose when it is inserted. Then I sewed the two end hems with an external rolled edge to give it a more professional look. Lastly, I sewed the long hem and inverted the sock. I did the same with the other two strips. I put them both on a six foot hose, with the result looking like a sharpei-clifford snake. Voila! Now I have something that looks only half as silly as my first attempt!

Panhandler · Post by **Panhandler** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:12 am

echo wrote: Isn't it difficult to sew fleece?

I don't think so. Of course I'm not sure what I was working on. I just wandered around the fabric store and found a couple of reminents that looked appropriate. They were soft like a baby blanket. Went home and dug out my wife's sewing machine and did it.

The first one has no closure arrangements, and I'm just using rubber bands at each end to hold it to the rubber cuffs of the hose. I put velcro cable ties on the other.

Fortunately, the manual was still with the machine, so I could figure out the threading, but otherwise, it's just another power tool.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:37 am

Actually you dont have to sew the fleece if you didnt want too.
Fleece does not unravel. You could make the hose cover wider and make slits and tie knots all of the way down. That would work just as well. Dang wish I had thought of that sooner. I could just have a tie at the ends. lol oh well better late than never.

echo · Post by **echo** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:22 pm

Hey that's a great tip, Odawa! Thanks

socknitster · Post by **socknitster** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:55 pm

[quote="art mom"]I have been too busy to actually sew anything, but if you don't mind a casual look I have had great luck just rolling my hose up in a fleece throw. It's really thick, but I kind of like that. I hold it at each end with a pony tail holder. I only wash my hose once a week, and then I switch to my other hose which is bone dry after a week hanging in my closet. In summer I switched to rolling it up in a sarong-like piece of fabric. My best friend is knitting me a hose cover, like you knit socks, it's going to be purple, and when people ask her what she is knitting she says: "An intestine."

Kharris · Post by **Kharris** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:24 pm

I am creative, but not very handy with a needle. The first one I made
was somehow narrower in the middle than it was on ends .
So it was quite the adventure threading the hose from one end to the other,
I ended up having to cut stitches to get it through.
I like the idea of making it double thick, I like a cool bedroom, but one
experience with high velocity water drops was enough. I didn't bother to
turn it inside out.
I did make it long enough to cover the exhale port on my mask. It made
it a little quieter, and when the hose goes above my head it cuts way down
on air squirted into my eyes.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:09 am

I have to share this. Just for grins, when I ordered my new mask and hose this week, I ordered a SnuggleHose.

WHAT A PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It must have taken me 30 minutes to get the hose into the cover. And yes, I used the cellophane wrapper....

With my radial tunnel syndrome, it was both painful and difficult.

I'm sticking with MY design - loose fleece tube, heavily scrunched up. WAY easier to get on the tube (in like 2 seconds) and works just as well.

THHHHPPPTTTT I say to these tight designs!!!!!

LOL,
Babette

echo · Post by **echo** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:36 am

Jen, i did find a good yarn shop (well good I dont know about, its about the only one in the area I could find!).. it's just I haven't had much time. About 2 years ago I bought enough yarn and materials to make 2 sweaters but then life got in the way, and i just haven't had time to start again. I'm not intimidated (too much) , and my aunt, mother, grandmother, even mother-in-law who only lives a couple of hours away, all knit, so I'm not in too bad company either

When you knit the spiral, do you use the round knitting needle with two points on either end.. or something else? What I don't understand is the knitting with more than 2 needles, what's up with that? Anyway, i just need to find more time to get back into it....

CRAFTY CPAP'RS Homemade Hose Covers

Aura cover

Another Hose Cover