Humidifier auto shut-off when empty?

[locust78]

I know my PR System One doesn't have one, but does any unit have a feature that shuts the humidifier heater off when the water runs out? It seems like it should be a relatively easy feature to add to a CPAP machine. It would put an end to those late-night wake-ups to the soothing stench of hot plastic.

[Lukie]

My goodness! How high do you set your humidifier? I have mine at 80, sleep nine hours a night and still have a little water left in the morning. Maybe there is something wrong with your unit.

[robysue]

My goodness! How high do you set your humidifier? I have mine at 80, sleep nine hours a night and still have a little water left in the morning. Maybe there is something wrong with your unit.

Lukie,

There's a lot of variation in how much water a heated humidifier uses each night. I only sleep about 6 1/2 hours most nights. My System One humidifier is set to "5", the maximum (smart) setting because anything less and my nose can scream at me. (I don't have the Series 60, so there's no heated hose.) Some nights I use hardly any water at all. Other nights I go through almost an entire tank of water. It all depends on the ambient room conditions. The dryer and colder the room air is, the more water I use. I'm quite sure that if we did not have a whole house humidifier attached to our forced air heat, I'd regularly run out of water in the winter time.

[Julie]

I completely agree that such a feature would be a great addition to machines and wonder how long it will take before mfgr's catch on that we'd like it.

[pbriggs]

The smell of hot plastic...

Most interesting - does the water chamber show damage to the plastic around the metal plate? I would be really concerned if that happens to me. Most plastics give off chemicals when they burn/melt. I would expect that manufactures would set the maximum temperature of the plate such that the plastic used in the reservoir would not melt. If it was my unit doing this I would call the manufacture and ask why for sure.

I typically have a small amount of water left after every night - don't ever recall it being dry.

[locust78]

Don't get me wrong...it's not like this happens all the time, just those times when I'm running low & forget to fill up at night. I go through about a half a tank a night. Sometimes a little more. On those times when it does run dry, I don't think it runs hot enough to do any real damage, but it does cause some sort of off-gassing that smells nasty. I bet a $2 thermocouple could trigger a humidifier shut down in the event that it exceeds a certain temperature.

[Pugsy]

I don't think it runs hot enough to do any real damage, but it does cause some sort of off-gassing that smells nasty.

It does stink doesn't it? I had it happen the other night but right about the time I was going to get up anyway. Thought "you dummy, you let the machine go dry again" but when I went to look..there was a tiny bit of water in the tank but it was very warm to touch.
I caught it before it got too stinky and dry thank goodness.
I use almost a full tank of water with 7 to 8 hours of use so I fill the tank daily. Sometimes I forget.

I don't know that I would want the humidifier to turn off though...my nasal mucosa give me horrible fits if they get too dry.
I would almost rather the whole machine turned off so that the "dummy who forgot to fill the tank" would wake up and add more water. Sleeping for 3 or 4 hours with no added moisture is likely going to set me up for 3 or 4 days of unpleasant nasal mucosa being mad at me symptoms. I have had that happen a few times when I slept through the stinky smell...pretty miserable for about 3 days or so.

[pbriggs]

WOW this still concerns me - if they are heating the water they should be controlling the temperature with some sort of measurement to prevent overheating. Then in the design of the tank they should consider this shutoff temperature in the selection of the plastic - when most plastics melt - they give off toxic chemicals - most concerning to me. I would call the manufacture if it happened to me and demand answers or a replacement unit - as an engineer I would consider the temperature in my plastic selection - or based on my plastic selection limit the temperature - after all I don't think they are trying to boil the water, just warm it (my assumption anyway)