Guess I'm Really Hosed

[john.michael]

Flew today to Costa Rica for a 9 day trip.
At 4:45am packed my machine with some water stil in the humidifier. D'oh!!
I dried everything as best I could. At first, seemed ok. Then I got an alarm and "system error 18, call service"
I'll be shocked if there is any place here I can get help with this.

Hopefully some more drying time and it will be ok again.

Meanwhile, I'm off for my first untreated night in over a year. What, me worry?

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

Wow, what a bummer! I hope everything dries out and continues to work for you. I don't travel much, but when I do I always separate the Blower unit from the humidifier and put them into two different large zip-lock type bags. This step alone has made me much more aware of the water in the humidifier chamber and removing the chamber due to the bagging process, so for me I am less likely to have that issue than leaving everything intact (Blower and humidifier) as a unit. Plus it isolates everything inside of the travel bag and keeps the dirty gloves of the TSA off of my PAP machine should they get the desire to inspect it (only has happened a couple of times, probably due to boredom or just because they could ).

John

[Todzo]

Flew today to Costa Rica for a 9 day trip.
At 4:45am packed my machine with some water stil in the humidifier. D'oh!!
I dried everything as best I could. At first, seemed ok. Then I got an alarm and "system error 18, call service"
I'll be shocked if there is any place here I can get help with this.

Hopefully some more drying time and it will be ok again.

Meanwhile, I'm off for my first untreated night in over a year. What, me worry?

Hi John!

Take out the filters, humidifier, and dry outside stuff. Place in as warm and dry a place as you can find preferably with moving air (a little fan would help a lot) and dry for a day or so.

Overnight, raise the head of your bed if you can, probably sleep on your sides or perhaps stomach if you can. For me it helps a lot to place my head in the "looking up" position letting my jaw drop down and out a bit and letting my tongue move forward between my teeth. It seems to open things up in there.

Some people have better luck in recliners.

I hope you find good sleep!

Todzo

[Lizistired]

I hope mind over matter works and you ENJOY YOUR TRIP! I've been 3 nights without mine and haven't noticed a difference so I am wishing you well!

[archangle]

Some people swear by the "rice cure."

Put the machine in something like a pillowcase and seal tightly to keep the rice out. Stick that into a large plastic bag and put dry, uncooked rice inside the outer bag.

I'm somewhat skeptical the rice really absorbs that much water, but lots of people say it will.

I might try to carefully use a vacuum cleaner on the output of the blower unit to see if I could suck any water out of the unit. I'd be careful to do it on the output, not the input, so I didn't suck water more deeply into the unit. I'd probably not put the vacuum cleaner directly onto the machine, maybe slightly overlap the hose with the blower output.

[qmx]

I hope you get through the night ok john. You probably tried a hair-dryer, huh? DEAN

[Madalot]

I know an ipod isn't the same as a cpap machine, but my daughter left her ipod in her pants and the darn thing went through the washer & dryer. That thing was deader than a doornail.

We did the rice thing. And it worked. The light never worked again, but other than that, the ipod worked perfectly.

[john.michael]

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. I discovered this right before bed, so I had not yet tried anything, not even a hair dryer. Will definitely do that today (if I can lay hands on one) as well as some time in the Costa Rican sun. Rice after that - thanks!

I did sleep with my head elevated, mostly on my side. Woke up at least every two hours. Very foggy headed this morning. My wife isn't here, so no one to tell me how much I stopped breathing. I went years and years untreated; I have to hope a week won't kill me.

Thanks again,
John

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

... I did sleep with my head elevated, mostly on my side. Woke up at least every two hours. Very foggy headed this morning. My wife isn't here, so no one to tell me how much I stopped breathing. I went years and years untreated; I have to hope a week won't kill me.

Good to hear that you were at least able to sleep some, even if it was fragmented. Chances are that you will be lucky and your machine/blower will dry out and be able to get good sleep again. Though, there are two good things (at least in my mind) that can come out of your experience. First, you will probably never forget again to empty your humidifier before packing , and secondly, you now have a great excuse to sample liberally all of the local coffee you can to help you stay awake until the machine dries .

P.S. If you can, take a scenic picture of one of the many beautiful views that you are surely experiencing in Costa Rica and post it here for us to see and be envious of .

John

[Sir NoddinOff]

I've never been to Costa Rica, but my son has traveled a lot and sez it's his favorite country of all he's been to. I've also heard it's gotten a lot more expensive to stay there in the last few years. It's been discovered I suppose.

[john.michael]

Well, no luck yet.
It turns right on, even does 'learn circuit' successfully, but after 30-45 seconds, beeps with the error 18. I have also seen error 7 and error 22. Could not find any resource online with these error codes.

No hair dryer, vacuum, or rice yet.
At least it has stopped gurgling when the fan is running.

In my search online about the error codes, I saw a lot of mentions about power stability. The power here is NOT stable. Lots of browning of the lights. I a using a surge protector, but have no idea if that takes care of a situation like here. So, I'm wondering if by any long shot the errors are due to power instead of moisture.

I'm going to call the resmed 800 number on Monday. I don't think my DME will have a clue.

Sure, I will post some Costa Rica photos. I actually don't know how, but when I figure it out, I will.



Oh, almost forgot: about sleeping with my head elevated. I felt most comfortable that way, mostly to avoid heartburn. I have central apnea, so supposedly position won't help or hinder....


Thanks again!!
John

[ddk]

Oh man, I'd be ropable (at myself) if I did something like that. Which is a worry 'cause I always seem to do things like that

When it comes to electronics, you might be SOL because you already turned it on before drying it completely. It's actually possible to wash circuit-boards and dry them without any repercussions and is one way of maintaining longevity for computers (dust can accumulate and heat the board as well as short-circuit it). The problem is that if there was any moisture left over, it's probably caused a short-circuit and fried some of the components, which is what is possibly what is now causing the errors.

You should NOT use vacuums, hair dryers or rice on electronics. Air drying ONLY on a clean, dry surface out of direct sunlight and away from radiant heat sources. Both hair dryers and vacuums can create static electricity from the air flow over their plastic components which can short the circuitry and rice is coated with a anti-oxident powder which I just don't think is a good idea to be covering electronic components with.

[johnthomasmacdonald]

Here's a sleep center in costa rica that does cpap titrations - hopefully they can direct you to a rental or repair center

http://www.costaricabeauty.com/viewprof ... ion-Center

and their phone number: 1: (506) 2248 0222

[john.shepherd]

Wow, looks like I got really lucky!!

Saturday night, I thought it going to work alright, but it gave the error 18 after about 45 minutes.

Last night, not a single error. All the menus and output (results) look perfect. 7 hrs 48 mins, AHI 1.6 / AI 0.1

Now I just need to figure out how to post a photo for you all!

THanks again,
John

[Todzo]

Wow, looks like I got really lucky!!

Saturday night, I thought it going to work alright, but it gave the error 18 after about 45 minutes.

Last night, not a single error. All the menus and output (results) look perfect. 7 hrs 48 mins, AHI 1.6 / AI 0.1

Now I just need to figure out how to post a photo for you all!

THanks again,
John

Hi John!

Great!!!

What I did was to take a post with a picture and hit reply. You see the little HTML code things (usually enclosed in "[the code]") and that the links are to photo bucket or some other on line source that you can put your picture and then could see the picture by putting the internet URL address in the address bar in the browser. So, the code tells the browser to "place the picture found at this URL address here" and so does display the picture.

Ok, I would love to see the pictures.

Do have a great time!

Todzo