Humidifier settings and room temperature

Just started finding some water in nose cushion in the morning. Nothing that wakes me up; nothing that is forcing water into my nose. My room temp is 69 and my humidifier is set on auto with temp being 80. Should I be making any adjustments as we move into warmer weather and use of a/c in the bedroom.

Thanks,

I will get that in my nasal pillows sometimes and especially in the winter when my bedroom gets really cold...even with a heated hose.
Unless it wakes you often and/or is annoying there's no urgent need to do anything if you don't want to.
Most likely it is the moisture in your own exhaled breath that is condensing because it's getting cooled in the mask from the cooler bedroom temps and the heated hose part of the warmed air simply isn't maintained long enough though the whatever distance there is from the end of the heated hose to the mask.

Several options available...simplest would be to increase the hose temp a couple of degrees and see if the air in the mask will stay warm enough to not allow the moisture to condense.
Reducing the humidity level to your nose....may or may not help. I know people getting rain out/condensation in the mask that aren't even using a humidifier at all. So it's all exhaled moisture and physics at work with the cooler bedroom temps.

I have a little barrel cozy for my nasal pillows that I can use. It helps keep that temp in the pillows from cooling down.
Not sure if there is something similar for a nasal mask.
Padacheek.com is where I got mine.

But I feel the easiest is most likely one or two degrees more to the heated hose.
This way your nasal mucosa still get the level of moisture they are accustomed to. Sometimes when they are unhappy they can get really ugly and the symptoms aren't so nice....been there and done that and that's why I mention it. Took me 3 days to get over the ugly symptoms.

Thanks Pugsy. I would have gone in the wrong direction tempwise. So I will raise the temp a couple degrees and see what happens.

As i had mentioned it really is a bothersome issue but more of why is it happening issue and should it be adjusted.

It's Physics in action.

Warm air will hold more moisture than cold air.

You have the moisture in the air coming in from the humidifier and you have the moisture in your own exhaled breath...the hose if it is heated does a good job keeping things warm enough so the air doesn't cool to the point of releasing the moisture but once the air leaves the heated hose and makes its way to the mask...either a short hose or no additional hose...the air starts to cool due to ambient room temps.
Then not only do we have the air cooling but we are adding in the moisture in our own exhaled breaths and if there's too much moisture for the air temp to maintain a hold on...we get condensation.

So you pretty much have two choices 1...warm up the air a bit 2...reduce incoming humidity a bit.
and I think it's just simpler to warm the air up just a little bit. Often all it takes is 1 or 2 degrees depending on how cool the room is.

Lowering the machine/humidifier doesn't really help for condensation in the mask due to mainly the way the mask to long hose is structured....water can't flow uphill and if you lay in bed with your mask on and really look at the position of where the hose meets the mask...it's pretty much uphill unless you are totally face down.
Besides...most of the time there isn't that much water in the cushion or mask...there's just enough to be annoying or spray you with a cold shower.

Should it happen that increasing the hose air temp a bit creates too much warmth for comfort then a person gets to decide if they want to try lowering the humidity a bit (might or might not help and might upset the nasal mucosa) or maybe use some sort of cozy. If the mask has a short hose to the heated hose a person could make a short hose cozy (or buy one from Padacheek). That might be enough to prevent the condensation from happening.

Often it is just something we have to try various methods to end up with desired results. For me...I am lazy and increasing the hose air temp doesn't make the air too warm for comfort so I take the easy way out.

Several options are available though both for heated and non heated hose users. We just keep trying them till we find one that suits our needs the best.

Pugsy,

Ever since I started cpap therapy, I've had my humidity set to "auto." I've been having a very dry mouth/throat lately so I decided to go to "manual" on humidity and set the level at 6 (I believe my auto setting had been producing 4). While making the change, I noticed that my "tube temp" is 81 degrees. I left that alone. Last night at level 6, I had my first experience of excessive tube/cushion condensation. If my objective is to get more overall moisture while avoiding condensation in the tube/cushion, should I increase the "tube temp" a little at a time to see if that solves the problem? Sounds like that's what you're saying, but I don't have a feel for "tube temps." Maybe 81 degrees is already excessive? thanks

The options for controlling “rainout” (i.e. condensation) are as follows (you can do one, several, or even all of the below):


• Make sure that the machine is lower than your head.
• Raise the temperature in the room (already discussed).
• Lower the setting on the humidifier.
• Wrap (insulate) the hose.
• Use a heated hose if you’re not already doing so; raise the setting if you are. Don’t be afraid of the max setting, you won’t burn yourself.
• Make sure that the hose, tank, and mask are thoroughly clean (impurities can increase rainout).

Comfortably Numb wrote:Pugsy,

Ever since I started cpap therapy, I've had my humidity set to "auto." I've been having a very dry mouth/throat lately so I decided to go to "manual" on humidity and set the level at 6 (I believe my auto setting had been producing 4). While making the change, I noticed that my "tube temp" is 81 degrees. I left that alone. Last night at level 6, I had my first experience of excessive tube/cushion condensation. If my objective is to get more overall moisture while avoiding condensation in the tube/cushion, should I increase the "tube temp" a little at a time to see if that solves the problem? Sounds like that's what you're saying, but I don't have a feel for "tube temps." Maybe 81 degrees is already excessive? thanks

I thought auto produced 85%...but I have never seen what the numbers produce. Doesn't matter though.
It's Physics...if a person gets condensation no matter what the setting...the air is cooling and can't hold onto the moisture.
The only fix is to prevent the cooling in some fashion or reduce amount of moisture in the air.

So yes...if the objective is to increase the humidity and reduce condensation...more heated air. I use 86 degrees in the winter...not so much during the summer...a lot will depend on where you live and are you using A/C and at what temp. Use whatever it takes to prevent the condensation. Forget about words like "excessive"...use whatever works that is comfortable for you and to heck with what the setting ends up being.
Now you might find that more warmer air feels like swamp air and not so comfortable but that's just a subjective feeling for you.
Again a lot depends on your ambient room temp.
86 for me feels real good in the winter when the bedroom ambient temp is 55 degress...but now that the ambient bedroom temp is maybe 74 (A/C running) that 86 feels a bit "swampy/muggy" so I dial it back to about 74 which still prevents condensation for me. If it didn't then I would inch it up a bit until I found the spot where it wasn't too muggy but still prevented the condensation.


I am not so sure that more moisture going up your nose is going to help your mouth if you are using a nasal type of mask but worth a try.