humidifier...hot or cold?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
yawn
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humidifier...hot or cold?

Post by yawn » Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:04 pm

Somebody mentioned putting ice cold distilled water in their humidifier on hot days so that they get cool air blown on them when they use their PAP. That sounded heavenly to me but I thought the heat option had to be activated to make the humidifier work. I never fully read the owners manuals so I figured I must be wrong. Well, I've read my manuals and it says I have to press the "heat" button to activate my humidifier...so I guess my assumption was correct. Can anybody tell me differently??
I am using a Remstar Pro2 with C-Flex and humidifier.
Thanks! Amy


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dsm
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Spot on

Post by dsm » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:18 pm

Amy,

You are right. Putting iced water in a heated humidifier is generally not going to work. It is the temp that regulates how much vapour is created that gets pushed to the patient. Cold water creates no noticable vapour in th humidifier that was designed as a heated one.

The 'passover' humidifier is designed for cold operation and compensates for the lack of heat in the water by passing the air over the water for a long distance (the air path 'snakes' over the water bed).

The colder the water the less the vapour in both types.

Cheers

DSM

PS Amy, on a side note - you are fortunate that you have the ability to talk about your challenges here. People do care & sharing the burden will always lighten the load. Re the house troubles, tell yourself that the plus side is that you both had the courage to go through the worst to get past that unhappy experience. Now you are away from it you are moving ahead. I am feeling happy for you & hope it rubs off to you. You do have a guardian angel

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Last edited by dsm on Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Guest » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:20 pm

I believe the laws of physics are kept at bay on the internet. You'd have to laugh at some of the theories put forward by some. EVen with ice water in the tank hot dry air will transport some moisture out of the tank. Look at the ice cubes in your freezer. Notice how they get smaller over time. Where does it go ? How does it do that ? ...........Sublimation....

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Post by Guest » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:40 pm

Yes, you push the "Heat" button if you want HEATED HUMIDIFICATION. If you do not push that button, you get "passover humidification". This still humidifies the air passing over it (somewhat). This MUST work since there are "passover humidifiers" available from various companies. Just check CPAP.com and see that they ARE available. And, cold water DOES cool the air that's passing over it.


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Post by 4Katie » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:54 pm

Yes, you push the "Heat" button if you want HEATED HUMIDIFICATION. If you do not push that button, you get "passover humidification".
Is this true with the ResMed S7 w/Humidaire 2i? I don't see any place to turn the heat on.

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Sleepyman
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Post by Sleepyman » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:14 pm

I have the remstar auto with cflex and humidifier, I never turn the heat on when it's hot and humid. I do not notice much differnence in the water level in the morning with it off or on, so it is working. I'll try ice tonoght, it sounds heavenly to me. Let you know in the morning


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ozij
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Post by ozij » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:57 pm

Some laughing guests never read carefully enough...

The lager the water surface, the more humidity the air picks up.
As dsm says, passover humidifiers were created with that knowledge in mind

Air passing over the smaller surface of cold water in the non-heating heated humidifier will of course pick up some humidity - but it is questionable whether that amount of humidity will be enough of the cpap user.

In conclusion: Only you know, Amy, how much humidity you need. Try it, at worst you'll find the amount of humidity you got was not enough.
O.


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Swordz
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Post by Swordz » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:02 pm

Is there a Nobel Prize for the study of CPAP humidification?

My reccomendations are DSM and OJIZ.



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dsm
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Post by dsm » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:59 am

ozij wrote:Some laughing guests never read carefully enough...
Yes all we can do is quietly laugh back logic doesn't work for some

But I never sat inside a fridge watching ice cubes shrink nor time how long it took

DSM
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Post by john5757 » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:25 pm

4Katie wrote:
Is this true with the ResMed S7 w/Humidaire 2i? I don't see any place to turn the heat on.
The big knob on the top of the humidaire controls the heater and the temperature. There is no seperate heater button on the ResMed S7 since the heater can only turn on when the machine is running or in the preheat mode. That is the definition of "fully integrated" supposedly means


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4Katie
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Post by 4Katie » Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:09 am

john5757 wrote:
4Katie wrote:Is this true with the ResMed S7 w/Humidaire 2i? I don't see any place to turn the heat on.
The big knob on the top of the humidaire controls the heater and the temperature. There is no seperate heater button on the ResMed S7 since the heater can only turn on when the machine is running or in the preheat mode. That is the definition of "fully integrated" supposedly means
Thank you. I wasn't sure if it controlled the amount of humidification or the temperature.

Geez, they ought to give classes with this equipment!

Or, even better, the URL to this board!

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