1st Night - AEIOMed Headrest

Aswab · Post by **Aswab** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:01 am

Well, last night was the first 1.5 hours with the AEIOMed Headrest nee Aura. The rest of the night was with the trusty Swift. X-Large pillows are on order for the Headrest and that will likely extend the 1.5 hours significantly because I could not get it to stop leaking. I am waiting for the larger pillows before undertaking any major tweaking. I did like the freedom to sleep on my side and really dig into the pillow but I just couldn’t get it to feel trustworthy.

The second thing was RAINOUT! Really more like drown-out within that 1.5 hours. Amazing! Nothing like this ever happened with the Swift or my nasal interface so, at midnight or so, I had to puzzle it out and understand why and I think I do.

I believe a feature everyone appreciates is what is causing the problem - bad design for good reasons. Not to sound too pedantic but rainout is a bit of Hosehead jargon for simple condensation and condensation occurs when cool air passes over warmer moisture laden air. That is exactly what the Headrest vertical vent causes. I could see a nice little condensation patch exactly where the air hits the hard plastic rising out of the face piece and then lots of huge drops before and after that patch. It is functioning like a condensing coil more or less. I could recoup some of my distilled water expense this way perhaps. I will examine more closely but I wonder if there would be some way to put a deflection shield over the vent to angle the air away from that plastic pipe. I’ll bet the rainout would be substantially reduced if not stopped.

David

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:13 am

David,

My three saving graces for the Aura/Headrest.

1. XL pillows

2. The rubber band trick, invented by jcarn.

3. My Thinsulate solution to NO RAINOUT.

I love the Aura, but did have some leaks without numbers 1 and 2. And now that I did my Thinsulate fix, I have my hh on 3 every night with NO rainout whatsoever.

Here are some threads to help you:

Rubber band tip:
viewtopic.php?t=5962&highlight=rubber+band

Thinsulate tip:
viewtopic.php?t=7427&sid=73cbd7a3b95ec8 ... 3cbcedb6c8

Sometimes it takes some tweaking with a mask that doesn't work ROOTB, but you may find it's worth it. There were many people on this site that didn't find the Aura usable when they first got it due to problems, but they worked at it and love it now. Hope you experience the same. Best of luck to you.

Aswab · Post by **Aswab** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:30 am

I have followed your saga with the Headrest and I have appreciated it greatly. I did use the rubber bands (they detached while I was messing with fit but that was around the time I surrendered for other reasons). As I said, I have the X-Large pillows on order.

My point, don't we all have a point?, is that all that insulation, heated hoses, yadayadayada, should not be necessary. I was looking for the reason why the Headrest gushes water whereas the Swift and Vista don't produce a drop and i believe, not with certainty but reasonable probability, I discovered the reason and perhaps I can contribute another approach or solution.

I am a believer of the "less is more" school and if I could I would prefer to not have to have heated hoses and insulation, or at least to minimize all the accoutrement. I get weary of all of this "stuff" and that weariness puts me at risk of non-compliance. I really do not desire to make xPAP management my hobby.

We will see. I hesitate to tweak something I spent so much money on without some assurance of success and I am not a "handy" person so perhaps some of the really smart people on this list can devise a reasonable way to create a deflection shield for that vent and we can see if that really is the problem.

David

wading thru the muck! · Post by **wading thru the muck!** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:36 am

Lori,

GREAT follow-up for a newbie Aura user!

Your post (credit also to the folks in the links) should be required reading for those using the Aura. I like how it demonstrates that success can be acheived with a few quick fixes... no "LAB RAT" type cutting or strapping required.

One thing I would add, per the folks at AEIOMed, the interface is to be worn with the "lockbox" on the top of your head and not down onto your forehead. This allows for more range of adjustment.

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:45 am

Wading,

Thanks for the reply. I know that sometimes we have to put a little elbow grease into the mix to make things work. And when you have a mask that shows such great potential, and since it is so hard to find one that is really usable, I think a little extra tweaking sometimes can be a beautiful thing. I'm sure you can relate as one Aura user to another.

David,

Yes, in a perfect world, masks would come out of the box and fit beautifully with no leaks. Unfortunately this world is far from perfect. There are flaws in most masks for most users, if not all. It's a rare thing when you hear someone say they bought a mask, took it out, put it on and it is just absolutely perfect, no complaints. But I would imagine it does occasionally happen. But when it doesn't, if you can fix the things that aren't working perfectly with simple tweaking, I feel you are ahead of the game. It took me about six masks to find the Aura and I felt it was so good that it was worth the investment of a little time to make it the best mask I've ever used.

Maybe one day the manufactuers will really listen to all the things we do to these masks and perfect their construction. Until that day, thank goodness for this site where you can take a less than perfect one and make it good enough to want to use every night. Keep us informed on your own progress. I think you'll like the XL pillows as much as I do.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:29 pm

Linda3032 wrote:Well, my over-the-top of my head strap didn't work, so I tried RG's "leggings" straps instead of my strong elastic straps with velcro. What a difference! RG girl, you are the best. The leggings straps hold without being too tight, and are soft and comfortable. Here are 3 pictures of how I rigged my two straps with written information below:

The headgear and box are entirely removed. Even the vertical adjustment bar at the very top was cut off (once you get the adjustment right of course). I have my vertical adjustment on the shortest (bottom) notch.

Both straps are worn just over the ears and tied behind the head (similar to a band holding on eyeglasses but tighter).

1. My upper legging strap is about 3” wide (it curls), and I ran it thru the lower portion of the adjustment bar. Running it thru keeps it in place when you slip the whole unit over your head. I tied the strap to fit snug but comfortable, and left it tied. So once you have it fitted nicely, no need to untie and retie it every night.

2. I also pre-tied the lower legging strap, the same as above, snug but comfortable. It is about 2” wide. Now, if you notice in the photo, I have the strap spread out just under my nose. There is a small ridge about 2” long running on the underside of the pillows. I take the very edge of the strap and hook it over that ridge. With it barely hooked over the ridge, it doesn't even touch the skin (see 2nd picture). With the upward angle of the strap over my ears, and with the strap lightly hooked over the ridge, it keeps the pillows snug to the nares. Until I did that, I had a slight leak because the pillows weren’t snug.

3. I gently tied the bridge area together to keep the pillows from spreading apart.

4. Put a pad where the unit touches your forehead. I used a swatch of cushioned sock, but I’m going to get small foam makeup applicators next time I go to town. They will cushion nicely and stay in place.

Ladies, as you can see by the profile photo (picture 3), your hair can hang quite naturally if you lift it over the straps once you get everything in place. No more hat hair.

If you decide to deconstruct, good luck. And a big thanks to Rested Gal for coming up with this excellent idea.

Linda

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 4:03 pm

Linda3032 wrote:RestedGal, I was wondering if you are still using your "boxless" Aura without the Aura head-gear.

In getting mine fitted today, I see what you were talking about 6 weeks ago. The headgear does little to hold the whole thing in place - without additional straps.

I was able to get a comfortable fit which I believe will stay in place, but not without putting a stretchy band across the bridge of the nose area, extended around behind my neck.

That Aura headgear is huge . There is no way that neck strap will tighten up enough on a small or normal sized head. And I can't believe you Ladies haven't complained about how badly the rubberized cap messes up the hair (and I only wore it for 1 hour).

So please tell me you still like the "boxless" Aura best.

Linda

rested gal wrote:
So please tell me you still like the "boxless" Aura best.
Yep.

Deconstructed Aura is what I've been happily using for almost a year now, since March 2005.

Occasionally I'll use an intact one, but I still have to put one "homemade strap that shall be nameless" around it at eyebrow level, like a sweatband. Or down around the nasal part -- just depends on where it seems to work best on any given night.

But the boxless one is what I use almost all the time. Lets me sleep on either side with my face snuggled down against the pillow almost like sleeping without any mask on at all. Nothing gouging my face.

These are the two ways I usually arrange the homemade straps on my "boxless" Aura: