CPAP noise - whistling and... honking?! :o

I started CPAP therapy in Aug 2014. I didn't notice any noise from my CPAP machine until I moved to a new house in Sep 2015 and got a less obnoxiously loud aircleaner for my bedroom.

When I mentioned a bad whistling noise, my DME didn't even care to know more, they just offered to swap out my unit (Respironics System One 60 w/ humidifer).

But the new one hasn't been much better and, as of the last couple nights, it's gone from whistling [1] to practically honking [2].

Other details: My pressure stays around 11'ish. Placement doesn't seem to matter (have tried putting on a soft pad), getting a new heated hose and P10 airfit mask didn't help, nor did changing the filters, running it without the humidifier, etc. I take out the humidifier chamber every night. I use only distilled water. My house is pretty clean (especially with the air cleaner a few feet from the CPAP machine, feeding it clean air!).

My questions:
1) Am I potentially doing something wrong?
2) Is it possible I've gotten two lemons in a row?
3) Should I escalate to my DME (again) or directly to Philips?
4) What noise IS typical for this particular model? A light whoosh? Or how would you describe it?

Thanks!

[1] Whistling noise (mp3 on my Google Drive)
[2] Honking noise (ditto)

P.S. -- I understand that some may have concerns about clicking on links like this, especially from a new user. Please accept my apologies if there's a better, more transparent way to share mp3s, and if so, please clue me in. Thanks!

Actually, that was a pretty good post describing the issue and providing actual sounds. Should cut down the typical round of posts as people ask what types of sounds it is making.

Don't use one of those machines, so I would not know what is normal. A bit hard to know how loud it actually is even with the sound files.

My old M-Series would make some noise as it went back and forth for bipap as I breathed, and sometimes it had a light whistle to it, but you had to be pretty close to the machine to actually hear it and it was not loud enough to keep me or my wife up. she didn't hear it.

Thanks, Krelvin. I've been lurking for a bit now and tried to include most stuff that I figured people would need to know in order to offer helpful advice .

(and yeah, very true about it being hard to assess how loud the sounds actually are; with photos, you can include a reference object -- like a penny -- but I can't think of a way to do that with sounds. Bummer! Let's just say that it's loud enough to keep me from falling asleep, not loud enough to wake me from a slumber... but I guess that doesn't help all that much, either, given folks' different levels of tolerance. Hmm.)

TuningSnork wrote:I started CPAP therapy in Aug 2014. I didn't notice any noise from my CPAP machine until I moved to a new house in Sep 2015 and got a less obnoxiously loud aircleaner for my bedroom.

When I mentioned a bad whistling noise, my DME didn't even care to know more, they just offered to swap out my unit (Respironics System One 60 w/ humidifer).

But the new one hasn't been much better and, as of the last couple nights, it's gone from whistling [1] to practically honking [2].

Other details: My pressure stays around 11'ish. Placement doesn't seem to matter (have tried putting on a soft pad), getting a new heated hose and P10 airfit mask didn't help, nor did changing the filters, running it without the humidifier, etc. I take out the humidifier chamber every night. I use only distilled water. My house is pretty clean (especially with the air cleaner a few feet from the CPAP machine, feeding it clean air!).

My questions:
1) Am I potentially doing something wrong?
2) Is it possible I've gotten two lemons in a row?
3) Should I escalate to my DME (again) or directly to Philips?
4) What noise IS typical for this particular model? A light whoosh? Or how would you describe it?

Thanks!

[1] Whistling noise (mp3 on my Google Drive)
[2] Honking noise (ditto)

P.S. -- I understand that some may have concerns about clicking on links like this, especially from a new user. Please accept my apologies if there's a better, more transparent way to share mp3s, and if so, please clue me in. Thanks!

My guess is , that it is your mask causing the noise, not the machines. I noticed the same noises several years ago, and as it turned out it was my mask and not the machine. I too use the Resp. System One PR and it is extremely quiet, so was my Resp, M Series auto, You don't have your equipment listed, but it sounds like you are using a full face mask or nasal cushion, the full face cushions (i.e. Quatro) are some times worse for creating the loud noises. I have used the Activa for many years and it is very quiet but all the full face cushions I have used created loud noise from the breathing in and out for some reason.

Hi Jsmythe, and thanks for the reply!

I'm using an Airfit P10 with medium nasal pillow. I've replaced both parts, with no change.

Interestingly enough, last night I tried disconnecting the humidifier again, and this time I found that the honking stopped and all that was left was some quieter whistling... quiet enough so I could sleep without earplugs. So now it seems -- contrary to my earlier findings -- that perhaps it's the humidifier, which seems odd. I'll test again tonight.

Check inside the humidifier to make sure that the 2 gaskets in back are properly seated.
They probably are but hurts nothing to check them.