Machine suddenly got quieter last night

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tuzacat
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Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by tuzacat » Sun May 03, 2015 9:21 am

I have been reading on here how quiet some of your machines are which has puzzled me. Although mine is not superloud it does have an annoying lower register whine on the inhale. No matter what machine I've had since I've started this therapy there has been some version of this noise. Last night, I decided to try the F10 without also using a chinstrap to see how I did. I am trying to get comfortable - I have good therapy on paper - but some nights with all the stuff on my face it feels like I'm wearing a house there. At first, there was no difference in the noise level but I was getting a persistant mask fart under one eye so I tightened a lower strap whch eliminated it. Suddenly and magically the inhale noise disappeared! It stayed gone the whole night.

I think I've been on therapy since 2009 and I've never had such a quite night. What gives? I am certainly hoping to reproduce this again tonight. The sound I'm talking about seems to come from the machine not from the mask. I looked at my numbers this morning on Encore Basic and AHI was 0; Patient Triggered Breaths were 99%; there were a couple of Flow Limitations; Snores were 15. My leak rate seemed high to me at 67 when it looked like my highest pressure was 23. I guess I shouldn't worry about that since I didn't get into Large Leak territory. I'm definitely going to do everything the same tonight except I may have to add the chinstrap back or tape because my mouth was pretty dry this morining. I'll just play that part by ear.

Any way ... thought I'd share ... just thought it was so odd with three different machines and umpteen number of masks that suddenly the noise would disappear.

Best,
Tuza

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chunkyfrog
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by chunkyfrog » Sun May 03, 2015 10:58 am

If it was a high pitched sound, maybe related to my situation.
If noise bothers me, I just sleep with my good ear in the pillow.

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tuzacat
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by tuzacat » Sun May 03, 2015 11:47 am

Hi, CF, it really came from the machine. I just figured it had something to do with how high the pressures were and this was the best it was going to get. I was totally surprised to have it disappear. Hope it doesn't take another couple of years to be able to duplicate. I'm supposed to do some traveling this summer and I don't want to be thrown out of the room because no else can sleep!

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palerider
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by palerider » Sun May 03, 2015 12:51 pm

tuzacat wrote:Hi, CF, it really came from the machine. I just figured it had something to do with how high the pressures were and this was the best it was going to get. I was totally surprised to have it disappear. Hope it doesn't take another couple of years to be able to duplicate. I'm supposed to do some traveling this summer and I don't want to be thrown out of the room because no else can sleep!
I used to get more variable whine/moans from my cpap because of an angle adapter that I had on the back of the machine, and a hose that had more pronounced ridges inside... it caused a whistle/moan sound that came and went at certain flow rates, (usually affected by breathing) getting rid of that right angle adapter and changing to a smoother bore tube has made quite a difference.

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tuzacat
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by tuzacat » Sun May 03, 2015 2:58 pm

Well, PR, I have often wondered if it had to do with the juncture right inside the humidifier under where the hose is connected. It sounds as if you have done some alterations to your machine but the only thing I've done is to install the heated hose - I had the noise on all my machines. Are you saying I could change out the right angle connection at that point and install something that points straight up and that might solve the noise issue?

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palerider
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by palerider » Sun May 03, 2015 8:00 pm

tuzacat wrote:Well, PR, I have often wondered if it had to do with the juncture right inside the humidifier under where the hose is connected. It sounds as if you have done some alterations to your machine but the only thing I've done is to install the heated hose - I had the noise on all my machines. Are you saying I could change out the right angle connection at that point and install something that points straight up and that might solve the noise issue?
it wasn't alterations, I'd just stuck something like this on the back:
Image
so that the hose exited at an angle. I found out later, that instead of having a smooth curve, it had ridges and stuff, and that causes resonances in the airflow at certain speeds...

this was on a resmed, which has the outlet towards the back, instead of on top.

if you're using a heated hose, there's not a lot you can do to change things... other than hope that your luck from last night happens more often

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archangle
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by archangle » Tue May 05, 2015 1:39 am

PRS1 machines sometime seem to send a lot of noise out through the hose. The noise can go into your nose and then vibrate the tissue of your nasal cavity and conduct through your head to get into your inner ear that way. Since it's a "weird" process, it may vary a lot with different conditions. The humidifier and water level seem to have big effects sometimes. It can be really hard to figure out because it tends to confuse your hearing direction sensing.

It took me quite a while to figure out why I would hear my CPAP machine coming from the right side when it sits on the left side.

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tuzacat
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Re: Machine suddenly got quieter last night

Post by tuzacat » Tue May 05, 2015 2:54 pm

Thanks, Archangle and Palerider, I am using the heated hose right now, but, it was happening when I was just using a regular hose. It will be interesting to see this summer if other folks will be able to hear what I am hearing. So far since my first post in this thread I had one night which started normally but when i woke up the next morning the noise was gone. Last night it seemed a bit reduced but maybe that was wishful thinking.