CPAPtalk.com

My Remstar Auto with C-flex stopped working on me. It is giving me an error code E-47. I have researched and come up with this

"E-47 ERR_FL12_SENSOR_RAILED •Occluded or restricted pressure tube •Defective flow sensor •Replace flow tube •Replace Main PCA "

I called a couple of repair shops and they can not give an estimate over the phone, plus they want $100 non refundable deposit just to look at it. Or, I can send it back to the manufacturer (via my healthcare provider) and get a free estimate.

My biggest deal with all this is I will have to rent a replacement at $60.00 a week. If it is a reasonable price I would just get it fixed, but nobody can even guess how much it will be. Does anyone have any advice or recomendations for me? Any input would be appreciated.

6PtStar wrote:As I remember this is a problem that has been addressesd before. The tube sometimes breaks off just inside the housing. I think someone listed a repair for this. I thik it was either snordog or wulfman but then they get blamed for a lot on the board.

You might do a google search and find the instructions and see if you have the same problem.

Jerry

Heh, heh......yeah, we do.

Guest,

Is there any chance you got water inside the machine?
If so, (depending on how much), if you want to try using a hair dryer or some other way of blowing some air into the machine through the hose connector where it attaches to the humidifier, you might luck out. You might also want to hold/stand it on end when you do this, too, in case it needs to run to.....somewhere so it doesn't collect on the PCA board.
This has worked for others.....according to the posts I found.

If the water wasn't a factor, you'll have to have the dealer you purchased it from send it back to the Respironics factory for further analysis.
This is precisely why some of us have backup machines......ya just never know......
Do you have a copy (or original) of your prescription? If not, you'd need to have it to get another machine.
For the rental prices they're asking, you could afford to buy a second machine, since your machine could take 6 weeks or more to get to and back from the factory.
Is it under warranty? (less than 2 years old?)

If you do have to send it back, it might be worth having it fixed......that's an EXCELLENT machine.

Den

I could not find any information that 6PtStar was talking about on Google or this forum. I checked all the hoses (totat of 4) inside the machine and they all are connected good with no holes and no moisture.

I do not think there was water that got in there. I used it one night and it was broken the next. I opened the top of it and did not see any moisture at all.

I have tried everything that I feel comfortable doing to this machine. I am done. I guess I will just send it in and keep my fingers crossed.

Just thought I would let anyone who ever researched this error know my outcome. I took my machine apart several times trying to figure out the problem. I could not figure it out. So I sent it back to http://www.thecpapshop.com so that they could send it back to Respironics for repair. (I could not send it to Respironics directly)

Respironics fixed it in less than a week. On top of that they fixed it free of charge. My 2 year warranty has been expired for almost a year. On top of that I did not have to pay any shipping except to get it to thecpapshop.

So I just wanted to give Respironcs and thecpapshop.com props. Now I have a spare machine!!!

Wow, I'm impressed. This is the first time I have heard of them being that generious or that fast for that mater. Congratulations on your good luck.

With that much shipping and it got back in a week. Anyone ever understood why Respronics won't take a repair from us? If it had not had to go around the world maybe it would have been back in 2 days. When you are without having to send or take it back to a dealer only delays it.

Jerry

I forgot to mention that they gave me a new design water tank, new filters, and new seals for free also. I am blown away on this deal. I wonder if they just replaced the whole machine too. It looks brand new and there is plastic protective screen on the LCD display.

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to mention that they gave me a new design water tank, new filters, and new seals for free also. I am blown away on this deal. I wonder if they just replaced the whole machine too. It looks brand new and there is plastic protective screen on the LCD display.

Do you have a record of the serial number before you sent it in? That would be one way to tell if they replaced it.

You lucked out on that one.

Den

This can not be the same Respronics company that I tried to get to fix my humidifier while it was still under warrenty. Why did I not get treated this way?

Jerry

Here's a thought... if Respironics won't take a machine back for repair from the patient, only from the DME or vendor who sold it.... what do you do if the DME goes out of business? I only ask because the only DME in my town did go out of business about a year ago. It doesn't matter to me, because my BC/BS insurance didn't contract with them anyway, but I do wonder.....

What Resmed told me when I called them about their Recall last year for my Vantage that I had purchased used (505 hours on it) was that my local DME supplier should handle the Recall for me, that people moved from state to state or across the country often and any DME supplier who handled Resmed equipment should be willing to handle the replacment for me.

HA! Not the sheister local DME I had gotten my Elite from!!! They said they didn't sell it, they weren't replacing it. I called Resmed back to tell them that. They wanted to know who my local DME supplier was and told me that Resmed would handle my Recall thru SteriCycle. And it was thru SteriCycle that I got my replacement Vantage.

I assume that these manufacturers insist on our returning non-functioning CPAPs to our local DME suppliers as the first step in an effort to ensure that it isn't some simple problem and that the device really did have a problem and wasn't just some simple mistake on the patient's part.

$60 a week rental is OUTRAGEOUS. The rental of an xPAP whilst a damaged CPAP is being shipped for repair should be no more than the monthly capped rental price which in our area is billed at $135 a month and reimbursed at $74.96 a month. Plus it would seem that our insurance would pay the rental whilst our xPAP is being replaced or repaired.

I'd venture a guess that perhaps your machine might have been one subject to recall for that poorly designed humidifier, that you had not been contacted and notified of that or perhaps even that it was still sitting on your DME supplier's shelf at the time of the recall and they didn't bother to respond to the recall and instead sold it to you and that is why Respironics replaced/repaired it at no charge to you.

I'll make a bet that cpapshop just replaced it. I really don't see how it could have gotten from him to cpapshop then from cpapshop to Respronics and again from Respronics to cpapshop and back to him in one week. Even if it was sent next day it would have taken longer than that.

Slinky, thats the same thing I ran into with myDME and my Humidifier but Respronics would not give me a company like Stericycle to send it to. Another + for Resmed. My first DME that I bought it from was such a shiester that I moved to DME #2 (almoist as bad). When it got a short in the heating element from sitting in water from the leak (only 10 months old). DME #1 said I was no longer their patient so they would not send it in. DME #2 said they did not sell it so they would not send it in because they did not sell it. Respronics would not take it from me. I still have it but it is junk.


Jerry

6PtStar wrote:I'll make a bet that cpapshop just replaced it. I really don't see how it could have gotten from him to cpapshop then from cpapshop to Respronics and again from Respronics to cpapshop and back to him in one week. Even if it was sent next day it would have taken longer than that.

Slinky, thats the same thing I ran into with myDME and my Humidifier but Respronics would not give me a company like Stericycle to send it to. Another + for Resmed. My first DME that I bought it from was such a shiester that I moved to DME #2 (almoist as bad). When it got a short in the heating element from sitting in water from the leak (only 10 months old). DME #1 said I was no longer their patient so they would not send it in. DME #2 said they did not sell it so they would not send it in because they did not sell it. Respronics would not take it from me. I still have it but it is junk.


Jerry

Hey, Jerry.

Did you ever take that issue up with Respironics? I've heard of those things happening before.....or if someone moves to a different part of the country (or world for that matter)......but yet these companies are so protective of the relationship they have of the brick & mortar DMEs. It seems to me that if you have a "whatever" brand of machine, you should be able to take it in to ANY DME and they should be able to help you.

This is why CPAP.COM makes sense to me. If you have have a problem, they're as near as your computer of phone. Or, if YOU move, they're still close by.

Den

I e-mailed Respronics and all I got was "it had to come from a DME". I did not pursue it any further. Just got on e-bay and bought a F&P. The Respronics is still in the back of my closet but it is now been 14 months so it is out of warrenty.
SAG (used to post, haven't heard from him in a while) PMed me and was going to try to get approval from someone to send it in. Even asked for the S/N but never did follow up. I guess he could not get it done eather.

Jerry