Water spill in PR S1 humidifier

This morning I found about half an ounce of water in the bottom of my PR S1 humidifier; it poured out when I removed the tank and tilted the machine. I know the unit didn't fall off the night table or get tipped over during the night, plus I'm always careful to not overfill the tank. I hope the humidifier internals, ie. heater element, can't be ruined by good soaking. Has anyone had this happen to them? I would think that PR would take a great deal of care in its design to protect the humidifier internals.

The only thing I can suspect for this spill is that for the last week I've been running my PR S1 humidifier in 'classic mode' (search for it on CPAPtalk). It results in significantly higher humidifier temps in the tank and heater element. This means more moisture in me and especially in my unheated hose. I think the water condensed in my unheated hose as it dangled below my bed, then when I got up the water ran back down the hose towards the humidifier tank. I’ve had problems before trying to add water thru the hole in the top of the tank because it would spill out of the side hole. Still, I can’t see how it would make its way to the bottom of the humidifier if the tank was inserted correctly and the seal was engaged. Any ideas? Right now my humidifier is sitting in direct sunlight, so I’m hoping by bedtime any residual moisture will be driven off.

Put some rice in it and that will soak it all up.

Have you checked your tank for a hair line crack.

squid13 wrote:Have you checked your tank for a hair line crack.

One of my tanks leaked at the seal of the metal bottom to the plastic. One day no leak, the next morning a small puddle and when filled up, a slow drip.

Sir Noddinoff

The lid of the humidifier chamber comes off easily so filling through the hole is unnecessary.
If you orient the tank so that the end that slides into the humidifier is on the right, place the thumb of your left hand inside the hole and press on the latch that is down just a little. That will release the catch and therefore the lid and allow you to lift from the left side.

After filling, connect the hinges on the right side and press down on the left until it snaps closed. Not much pressure is required so if it appears stiff, it is likely you don't have the hinges placed correctly.

I use bottles left over from Aquapod bottled individual servings. They hold exactly the amount required to fill the Respironics humidifier tank. I just refill them from my gallon of distilled (NOT PURIFIED) water and then just dump them in to the empty tank.

BlackSpinner wrote:

squid13 wrote:Have you checked your tank for a hair line crack.

One of my tanks leaked at the seal of the metal bottom to the plastic. One day no leak, the next morning a small puddle and when filled up, a slow drip.

Friend of mine had exact same issue. SNO, do the "slow drip" test.

Thanks to everyone for the comments... the dry out in the sun seemed to remove all the moisture tho I had to keep chasing off curious cats LATER NOTE: My machine and humidifier worked fine after that severe soaking so I guess PR did design the heating element to take a soaking from time to time, still I wouldn't want to do it too often.

squid13: Yes, I'll try that leak test. The tank is less than a month old plus I have a spare so there are several different ways to go.

JDS74: I learned long ago that filling the tank without removing the lid is a wet mistake.