CPAP and Camping Trip

I'm planning a camping trip to Galveston beach next month. I'm wondering to do about my CPAP. Let me start by saying... when I go camping, I go CAMPING. None of the RV/Hotel crap. I'm planning on pitching a tent behind the dunes at the state park. So they don't have power there, I thought about using my computers APC, but it beeps and it can't be turned off. Any suggestions on power.

Also, there is the little matter of sand. I'm thinking if I pack it in a plastic bag and lock it up tight every morning I can prevent sand from getting into it. Once it's in the tent It shouldn't get sand in it. If I have to leave the tent at night I'll just cover it real good before unzipping the door.

Surely I'm not the first person to attempt this. Someone have any ideas? I don't feel like I should quit my life because I have to cart this thing around everywhere.

I just built a battery power supply setup for camping for under $200. You didn't say if you will be hiking in or if you will be close proximity of your car. The reason I ask is that the setup I made uses a 24lb deep cycle battery which would not be pleasant for back packing, but it suits me just fine.

The one warning I have is to not use your humidifier. I tried to use mine, and blew the fuse within two minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't have a spare so I didn't sleep too well that night.

Dave.

http://www.thebatterygeeks.com/v/vspfil ... _Packs.asp They have a solar battery you can rent or rent to own.

Dave's got it all correct. I've gone with a deep-cycle motorcycle battery from Batteries Plus. No need for a car battery. Radio Shack connectors allowed me to plug the battery to my CPAP. When I switched to a ResMed S8 machine (much better than old Respironics), I sprang for the genuine power regulator to protect the machine from power irregularities. Easily get two days use, haven't tried any longer. And no, the humidifier won't work so leave it home.

Alshain wrote:Surely I'm not the first person to attempt this. Someone have any ideas?

If you type camping into the forum search box you will find plenty of reading. You can then type in other words to narrow the search down further.
The "Advanced Search" link can be found at the top of each forum page -
search.php

The Respironics machines are without a doubt the easiest bc they work on 12V where the Resmeds work on 24V. Plus you can make (or buy) a cable for the Respironics machines. And while Respironics has a humidifier that will work on 12V it is still recommended to use it in passover IF you can't go without.

To make a DC Cable -
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53672&p=498461&hili ... ck#p498461

Well, for my machine the inverter appears to be built in to the unit. It has a straight AC cable and no place that I can find to input direct current.

If rigging up a battery is all that is needed, I work in natural gas well electronics so I have access to batteries and even solar panels, but how many amp hours would be needed? And of course how would I get the power into the AC input?

Alshain, when I clicked on the picture of your machine I found this.

Universal 12 Volt DC Power Cord

This machine come equipped with a DC plug on the back of the unit. This allows the user to connect the CPAP to an external DC battery source. The IntelliPAP can be powered by plugging the 12volt DC Power Cord into a cigarette lighter plug. This is ideal for traveling by car, boat, or recreational vehicle that is equipped with a cigarette lighter plug.

CPAP.com Battery Kit with Universal 12 Volt DC Cable

The 2.5 lb CPAP.com Battery Pack is surprisingly small and lightweight. The lithium ion battery can be recharged at any discharge level without losing charge time due to battery memory loss. This battery has been approved by the United Nations and Department of Transportation as tested safe for travel. This battery kit comes with the CPAP.com battery and the 12 Volt DC Power Cord.

Respironics Battery Kit with Universal 12 Volt DC Cable

This portable battery pack is an external lead acid battery that is the ultimate in power, portability and convenience. This battery kit comes with the Respironics battery and the 12 Volt DC Power Cord (connects CPAP to cigarette lighter socket).

Hope this helps.

tbone421998 wrote:http://www.thebatterygeeks.com/v/vspfil ... _Packs.asp They have a solar battery you can rent or rent to own.

Their solar array they sell or rent to charge the battery is only going to be sufficient in ideal conditions. It just isn't big enough.

tbone421998 wrote:Alshain, when I clicked on the picture of your machine I found this.

Universal 12 Volt DC Power Cord

This machine come equipped with a DC plug on the back of the unit. This allows the user to connect the CPAP to an external DC battery source. The IntelliPAP can be powered by plugging the 12volt DC Power Cord into a cigarette lighter plug. This is ideal for traveling by car, boat, or recreational vehicle that is equipped with a cigarette lighter plug.

CPAP.com Battery Kit with Universal 12 Volt DC Cable

The 2.5 lb CPAP.com Battery Pack is surprisingly small and lightweight. The lithium ion battery can be recharged at any discharge level without losing charge time due to battery memory loss. This battery has been approved by the United Nations and Department of Transportation as tested safe for travel. This battery kit comes with the CPAP.com battery and the 12 Volt DC Power Cord.

Respironics Battery Kit with Universal 12 Volt DC Cable

This portable battery pack is an external lead acid battery that is the ultimate in power, portability and convenience. This battery kit comes with the Respironics battery and the 12 Volt DC Power Cord (connects CPAP to cigarette lighter socket).

Hope this helps.

Interesting. I'll check my machine again, but I didn't see a plug like that on it.

That brings back the question though... how much power do these machines use? Can they run off my car battery all night without draining it beyond use (assuming I drive it every day to recharge)?

Oh to answer a previous question, no hiking (other than beach combing). The campgrounds at the state park at Galveston are behind the dunes and have special 'tent sites' and parking spaces so, I will be in reach of my car, with a good extension cord and a little protective conduit, I can run off of that all night if it won't kill my car battery.

If you've never been, it's a beautiful beach. Calmer than the coast, so unless you like surfing, it's a great place to go. Not as many 'bad critters' either. Jellyfish aren't as populous and Mano-war can be spotted floating on the water and easily avoided. The dunes prevent the huge wind gusts coming off the beach from blowing your tent down making it a great place to camp.

Alshain wrote:Interesting. I'll check my machine again, but I didn't see a plug like that on it.

Be sure to check the Owners Manual too. Could save yourself some trouble.

Alshain wrote: ...

That brings back the question though... how much power do these machines use? Can they run off my car battery all night without draining it beyond use (assuming I drive it every day to recharge)?

Oh to answer a previous question, no hiking (other than beach combing). The campgrounds at the state park at Galveston are behind the dunes and have special 'tent sites' and parking spaces so, I will be in reach of my car, with a good extension cord and a little protective conduit, I can run off of that all night if it won't kill my car battery.

If you've never been, it's a beautiful beach. Calmer than the coast, so unless you like surfing, it's a great place to go. Not as many 'bad critters' either. Jellyfish aren't as populous and Mano-war can be spotted floating on the water and easily avoided. The dunes prevent the huge wind gusts coming off the beach from blowing your tent down making it a great place to camp.

You probably can run your CPAP off your car battery for one night and it will probably damage your battery.

Car batteries are not deep cycle batteries. That is, they are meant to provide a short burst of power for starting a car, not a long continuous power supply. If you drain a car battery too much, it won't be able to hold a charge. That is why you need a deep cycle battery.

The amount of power you need depends on too many factors to say what will is required for you. The most significant is your pressure setting. I just searched on cpap.com to find a battery pack for my machine. Then I used the form at the bottom that allowed me to select my machine and pressure setting, then it would say roughly how many hours of usage you can expect from that battery pack. I then used the ratio of Amp Hours for the battery pack to the expected hours usage for my machine to determine the size battery I would want for the number of hours I wanted to be able to use the cpap w/o recharge.

Here is a link to my recent adventure building a battery:
Camping battery for PR System One RemStar Auto

And here is a link to a summary of alternate sources of power for CPAPs:
LINKS to Battery operation, camping, power outage

Alshain wrote:Well, for my machine the inverter appears to be built in to the unit. It has a straight AC cable and no place that I can find to input direct current.

If rigging up a battery is all that is needed, I work in natural gas well electronics so I have access to batteries and even solar panels, but how many amp hours would be needed? And of course how would I get the power into the AC input?

If you really have the REMstar "legacy" auto machine in your profile, I have the same model and it does have a DC connector on the back. It's a round jack on the back with one pin in the middle. It's fairly close to where the cord from the humidifier plugs into the blower unit. (Assuming they didn't make versions with and without DC connectors. Respironics is bad about changing designs without changing the model number. )

The humidifier will not run on DC.

As for running off the car battery, you're probably OK, but buy one of the "jump starter" batteries like Gumby is so happy with. They're worthwhile having in the car all the time in case you need a jump start even if you don't do CPAP. They're also useful for CPAP if you have a power outage at home. They'll probably run your machine a few nights without charging, but you can also hook it to your car during the day to recharge it. I'm surprised Gumby hasn't already posted a link to the jumper battery/power station he has. There are also some units that are a little cheaper than that one, but probably still adequate.

Don't hook the CPAP up to the car if the engine is running. ESPECIALLY don't leave it hooked up when you start the car.

A good solar charging system is harder than you might think. You still need a couple of days worth of battery capability in case you have a cloudy day. Having enough solar cell capability to charge back what you lose at night may require a fairly big solar cell array. You also have to put your cells where they get sun for most of the day, and then not get your cells stolen if you go away on a hike, to the store, etc. Unless you're having a long time off the grid in one location, they may be impractical.

How long are you planning to camp out?

archangle wrote:The humidifier will not run on DC.

Bingo. I didn't look at the machine, I looked at the humidifier. That's probably why I didn't see it.

archangle wrote:How long are you planning to camp out?

About a week, but I won't spend the whole time in the state park. We will be going to all the various attractions in the city too. So the car will get driven.

davelikesbeer wrote:Car batteries are not deep cycle batteries. That is, they are meant to provide a short burst of power for starting a car, not a long continuous power supply. If you drain a car battery too much, it won't be able to hold a charge. That is why you need a deep cycle battery.

Thanks for the info, like I mentioned, I have access to 7 & 12 Ah 12V lead acid batteries and solar panels I can probably borrow from our test lab, so I may rig something to work for the one week. I was hoping to avoid buying a whole lot of expensive stuff because as much as I love it, I usually only get to do this once a year (especially since I'd like to put that money toward a machine that can tell me more information). I think I have a good idea of what I have to do now though.

I didn't read all the posts, but will convey my system. I started taking a small battery on whitewater trips 11 years ago along with a solar panel to recharge the "mother battery" for all my photo and video toys and those of my friends. When CPAP came into my life, the little battery no longer kept up. I went immediately to a deepcycle dry, sealed battery. I find that with no humidifier, I get about 4 user nights per full charge, at a draw of 4 amps. If it's sunny and I can recharge most of the day, I get the luxury of the humidifier. If there's a cloudy cycle I conserve the battery with no humidity!

As I moved from my original Respironics Remstar (2005), to a M series, to now a Series One I found that the newer machines needed heavier cords, if you're putting together some of your own component wiring. I use Respironics cord from the cig lighter to the unit, but already had the cig lighter wired in. I did put a Fuse holder in the Positive side and carry numerous strength fuses in case they get a mood to not work!

I also have a dedicated cord, for drawing power from the HOT lead in my trailer plug in on the pickup, if that's available, when not towing my raft trailer.

Good Luck!! Watch out. You might get buddies that share your battery, cuz they haven't evolved into their own. I've been on two trips this year for the first time with that phenomenon.

Just got back from a week at the lake..with my cpap and trusty 12 volt deep cycle marine battery. I can get 4 (8 hour) nights.. I do not use the humidifier while camping.