I'm finished with the Swift LT

I've decided to switch from my Swift LT for the following reasons

* Pillows don't seem to last as long
* I need to wear a PapCap with the chin strap very tight, i get sores on my chin
* I'm fed up with mouth taping
* I'm starting to get one of my nostrils congested in the early hours and end up gasping for more air.
* After drying out my nose and have it cauterized i want to use more humidity but even with the humidifier on a setting of 2 i get rainout.
* Her majesty complains of air venting directly at her

I've tried the Opus 360 and both hybrid style masks and they all seem to fail on me for one common reason, the nasal pillows do not pivot like the Swift LT. I have a nose that points up in the air a bit so i need to pivot the pillows up into my nostrils. I've also tried the Nasal Aire II and consider it a torture device . Onto full face, i tried the Quattro and got bad sores on my nose bridge and bad leaks also. I tried 2 sizes of the F&P HC432 and don't like the pressure seal and i find my draw drops enough so I still need a chinstrap.

I had been waiting for my DME to get the FullLife mask in stock but after reading all the reviews on that mask i'm slightly discouraged, although i will try it at my next doc visit.

So I have been using just the Quattro again for almost 2 weeks now. I found that previously I had had it too tight, I have it fitted slightly snug now, its not exactly floating on my face but it does not leave any marks or sores (yet!!) For the first 5 nights i was frustrated by leaks constantly in the 0.20 - 0.24 range. I searched this forum and found out i had an older Quattro that had the elbow leak problem, so I fixed it with some Teflon tape and now i'm getting mostly 0.0 leaks. It great not to be bothering with chinstraps and mouth taping anymore and i find i can have the humidifier up as high as 4 without any rainout. The vent is nice in that it vents upwards more so it does not bother the wife any more. I still experience dry mouth and find it harder to doze off again if i wake early but then i just get up because that's what you are supposed to do.

Looks like i could have saved myself some money and worked harder with my Quattro in the first place But then I'm always getting told to work harder

And since ResMed doesn't seem to care about the poor quality of their newer pillows....

I hope you continue to do better with the Quattro, Bob.

Uncle_Bob wrote:I've decided to switch from my Swift LT for the following reasons

* Pillows don't seem to last as long

twokatmew wrote:And since ResMed doesn't seem to care about the poor quality of their newer pillows....

If this next really is ResMed's reasoning for not addressing the flimsy pillows issue, that's shameful.....

tattooyu wrote:I wanted to chime in here and mention that I brought it up to my DME, who is a great guy and very interested in my feedback and my therapy. He spoke with a rep. at ResMed (I don't know what department) and he brought it up to them. According to him, they know about this quality control issue on the nasal pillows but don't want to change anything because, "Patients are allowed new nasal pillows every month anyway."

viewtopic.php?p=366810#p366810
MIRAGE SWIFT LT QUALITY POLL--THE RESMED CHARADE???

Hmm. Maybe cpap.com should just have new, high quality Swift LT nasal pillows designed and produced. It sounds as if ResMed isn't interested in doing it any more.

briank wrote:Hmm. Maybe cpap.com should just have new, high quality Swift LT nasal pillows designed and produced. It sounds as if ResMed isn't interested in doing it any more.

I agree! It's a despicable position for a company to take. Not only do some of us pay out of pocket for DME, but to be so crude at a time when many of us are trying not to trash up the planet...well it's just stupid.

tattooyu wrote:I wanted to chime in here and mention that I brought it up to my DME, who is a great guy and very interested in my feedback and my therapy. He spoke with a rep. at ResMed (I don't know what department) and he brought it up to them. According to him, they know about this quality control issue on the nasal pillows but don't want to change anything because, "Patients are allowed new nasal pillows every month anyway."

They don't want to fix it and just want to make more money off our insurance. Well I have an interest in protecting my insurance against this kind of abuse as my company is self insured meaning they assume all the risk and Blue Cross just handle the administration. My insurance is $200 a month for a good PPO plan with low deductibles and I can even have a machine every 3 years if i want. My premium has not gone up for over 4 years. I know the cost of pillows is pretty low but Resmeds attitude makes me want to distance myself from them.

However i'm back using the Quattro so i wonder how long the replaceable seals will last with this mask.

Uncle_Bob wrote:so I fixed it with some Teflon tape and now i'm getting mostly 0.0 leaks.

Man, that Teflon tape fix really does work. I hadn't read about until your post.
I tried it yesterday on all my masks, and there was a real improvement on the oldest ones. I was considering trying to rig some rubber gaskets, but this was far easier. And cheap!