Autoramp feature on Resmed Airsense 10

My machine is set to ramp up for 10 minutes up to base pressure of 9 when I turn it on. I just noticed that the machine has an autoramp feature that starts ramping up after it detects that you are asleep, presumably by your breathing pattern. Sounds good, but has anyone tried this out? Any info out there on whether this actually works in practice?

I've used it on my machine, it seems to be fairly accurate, on occasion I will feel it ramp up while I am still awake, but I'd say in general it works fairly well.

You are correct that it guesses that you are asleep by a change in your breathing pattern, breathing pattern is a good proxy, but not 100% accurate. If the machine does not sense you have fallen asleep within 30 minutes it will go ahead and ramp up anyway. You may already be aware that you can also adjust the start pressure of the ramp feature to any pressure you want, the default is 4cm which is very low, usually to low for most people's comfort. I mention this because a lot of new users aren't aware that it can be adjusted and they get frustrated because it starts at such a low pressure at the default setting. It can be set in the clinician's menu.

Go ahead and give the auto ramp feature a try, experiment with it and see what you think, ramp is considered a comfort feature, don't be afraid to play with it and find what works best for you.

Thanks. Yes, my ramp starts at 4. I might push that up because sometimes I don't feel like I'm getting enough air at first. This would be even more important if I use autoramp because it can take awhile to fall asleep.

If your Ramp setting on the A10 is AUTO, it will stay in ramp mode (at the ramp pressure setting) until you go go sleep. The DME used that setting when I first got my A10. It took many hours for me to get to sleep, and I was set on RAMP all that time and couldn't breathe. I realized that I was stuck as some ridiculously low pressure at which I was likely to NEVER fall asleep. That is how the Auto setting on Ramp works. I would not recommend it. I didn't know how to change the settings until the next day, at which time I turned RAMP off entirely. I had been using a PR System One machine for 5.5 years and now prefer no ramp. I told the DME that but he set it to AUTO anyway.

When you put on the mask when the A10 is set to AutoSense, you will see the pressure numbers increase on the display. If you are using ramp, it will take it to your ramp number. I was used to the machine coming on at the minimum pressure in my APAP range on the Phillips Respironics System One Autoset, so I did not like the 0 to 10 pressure increase at first. There is nothing I can do about it on the A10, so I have gotten used to it.

That's not how the Auto Ramp feature works Maryland......

TangledHose wrote:That's not how the Auto Ramp feature works Maryland......

Perhaps that is how it is supposed to work, but in actual practice, it never went to my minimum target pressure. It stayed at the lower ramp pressure all night. This is on a brand new machine tht has not otherwise malfunctioned in the last month.

I use it all the time and love it. Most things said here are correct. I adjusted the pre-ramp pressure a lot to get it right. 4 & 5 were way too low for me. 6 was too high. I settled on 5.6 or 5.8 as about perfect. I recently raised it to 5.8, perhaps I am getting used to starting at 5.6 and am ready to boost it up a bit.

Sometimes it does start to ramp up too soon, I just reach over and cycle the A10 power to reset the ramp timer.

The reason I started using Auto was because I noticed that I had trouble falling asleep, but once I got to sleep I tolerated CPAP pretty well. I did not like breathing out into pressure, ERP set to 3 (max) and still did not like it.

These things are adjustable, so I do just that until it's better.

MarylandCPAPer wrote:

TangledHose wrote:That's not how the Auto Ramp feature works Maryland......

Perhaps that is how it is supposed to work, but in actual practice, it never went to my minimum target pressure. It stayed at the lower ramp pressure all night. This is on a brand new machine tht has not otherwise malfunctioned in the last month.

Not only is it supposed to work that way, it DOES work that way.

If it does not on your machine you either have your therapy pressures miss-set, or your machine is not functioning as it should, if this is the case you should take it to your DME and have it checked for proper function.

MarylandCPAPer wrote:

TangledHose wrote:That's not how the Auto Ramp feature works Maryland......

Perhaps that is how it is supposed to work, but in actual practice, it never went to my minimum target pressure. It stayed at the lower ramp pressure all night. This is on a brand new machine tht has not otherwise malfunctioned in the last month.

or, more likely, you just misinterpreted what it was doing.

palerider wrote:

MarylandCPAPer wrote:

TangledHose wrote:That's not how the Auto Ramp feature works Maryland......

Perhaps that is how it is supposed to work, but in actual practice, it never went to my minimum target pressure. It stayed at the lower ramp pressure all night. This is on a brand new machine tht has not otherwise malfunctioned in the last month.

or, more likely, you just misinterpreted what it was doing.

Well, that too.......I was attempting to give her the benefit of the doubt

My User Guide says:

"Ramp Time: You can set your ramp time to OFF, 5 to 45 minutes or Auto. When Ramp Time is set to Auto, the device will detect when you have fallen asleep and then automatically rise to the prescribed treatment pressure."

My treatment pressure range is 10 to 20. When I first got the A10 FOR HER on June30, the DME set ramp to 7 and Ramp Time to Auto, even though I told him I don't use Ramp and want the machine to start at 10. I didn't get to sleep. The pressure never went above 7. It worked EXACTLY as stated in the user's manual I have.

I have a FOR HER model, but the User Guide is for Airsense 10 Autoset, Autoset for Her, Elite and CPAP.

MarylandCPAPer wrote:My User Guide says:

"Ramp Time: You can set your ramp time to OFF, 5 to 45 minutes or Auto. When Ramp Time is set to Auto, the device will detect when you have fallen asleep and then automatically rise to the prescribed treatment pressure."

My treatment pressure range is 10 to 20. When I first got the A10 FOR HER on July 31, the DME set ramp to 7 and Ramp Time to Auto, even though I told him I don't use Ramp and want the machine to start at 10. I didn't get to sleep. The pressure never went above 7. It worked EXACTLY as stated in the user's manual I have.

I have a FOR HER model, but the User Guide is for Airsense 10 Autoset, Autoset for Her, Elite and CPAP.

the for her and autoset and the elite behave exactly the same as far as the ramp goes, maybe even the cpap. the special bits of the 'for her' model are other things.

Perhaps ResMed changed their user manual and/or the way the A10 machines operate, so that the A10 TangledHose is using is a slightly different generation of A10 than mine, and they work DIFFERENTLY and have DIFFERENT wording in their user guides?

Palerider, have you ever used an A10?? Your signature says you use "S9 VPAP™ Auto BiLevel Machine". You have been very helpful to me in adjusting to ResMed machines and I appreciate it. The conclusion I draw from TangledHose and my experiences is that not all ResMed A10 machines are the same. My manual covers the entire A10 series, so i don't think it indicates this is a special feature of the FOR HER model. However, IT IS HOW MY A10 WORKS.

So, for the OP, I recommend trying the setting at a time when you don't really care about going to sleep to see how YOUR A10 works and whether you like the way the feature works FOR YOU. We all have our individual preferences, and evidently all A10 machines (regardless of their gender) are not the same as to how they handle certain settings, such as this "Ramp -- Auto" setting.

MarylandCPAPer wrote:Perhaps ResMed changed their user manual and/or the way the A10 machines operate, so that the A10 TangledHose is using is a slightly different generation of A10 than mine, and they work DIFFERENTLY and have DIFFERENT wording in their user guides?

only, what you quoted from your manual says the same thing as what tangled quoted from the clinicians manual, just in a simpler way.

AUTO ramp doesn't start increasing pressure until it thinks you have fallen asleep, as opposed to REGULAR ramp that immediately starts increasing pressure.

you state "It worked EXACTLY as stated in the user's manual I have." your manual says: "When Ramp Time is set to Auto, the device will detect when you have fallen asleep and then automatically rise to the prescribed treatment pressure."

the clinician manual that tangled quoted says: "When Ramp Time is set to Auto, the device will detect sleep onset and then gradually increase from the start pressure to the minimum treatment pressure at a rate of 1 cm H 2 O per minute."

that's the *same thing*.

the AUTO ramp feature is new in the as10 line, so, no, I haven't used it, I haven't used an as10 or ac10.

My manual is missing the line that says 'However, if sleep onset is not detected,the device will reach the target pressure within 30 minutes."

AND THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED THE NIGHT MY A10 WAS SET TO RAMP: AUTO by the DME, SO MY MANUAL CORRECTLY STATES HOW MY A10 OPERATES. I don't know how anyone else's A10 operates, but evidently they were not all set up to work the same way.

That night, I didn't go to sleep within 30 minutes and the ramp stayed at the same low ramp level until I was ready to toss the machine off the top of a tall building because i could not sleep. I had already tried to get to sleep with my old malfunctioning PR System One machine that night and had to try to get some sleep because of a cardiologist appt. that day.