billbolton wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 9:59 pm
That's just speculation, and definitely not common-sense.
The bulk of the AirMini is the blower, and in fact it is not much smaller than the blowers in the later generations of Resmed normal size devices. The real miniaturisation has been in the electronics package. The elimination of a built-in control-surface (display and buttons), the connection for a humidifier tank and the need for an SD slot also reduce the need for
space in the overall package very considerably.
The only real downsides of the AirMini are the consumable HumidX capsules are a more expensive to run than a Humidifier, its a bit noisier than an A10 and you can't easily look at detailed data.
I can live with those downsides while I'm travelling as its upsides
FAR exceed the downsides in that situation, but I continue to use my A10 at home.
If you take a hard look at everything on the 'mini, it's all slightly smaller than a normal-sized machine--intake port, hose, all the plumbing, you name it. It is a great package though. It definitely works harder hour on hour to maintain the same pressure.
Depending on how much distilled water you use, the humid-x cost is only about 2x that of distilled water. When I first got the 'mini, I thought about lobbying Resmed to make a humid-x setup for home use, as it is damn convenient, enough that I'd be willing to fork over the ~$10/month for cartridges. The big downside I've found is that the humid-x (even the plus) struggles to maintain good humidity in very dry air, especially dry winter air. I'll 'kickstart' the cartridge with a blast of plain saline solution, but if it's really dry, I still wake up sometime in the early hours of the morning with dry sinuses.
I agree on the data piece--it's so frustrating that the machine communicates with the phone/app via bluetooth, but you can't get at the detailed data. It's also annoying that the Airmini stats can't be pumped into Resmed's MyAir ecosystem to present a consolidated view, if you also have a ResMed full-size machine.
For those that ask why two machines when I travel a lot, several reasons:
* A real humidifier is still a better experience, for me, but one I'm willing to trade off for convenience when traveling
* It's a heck of a lot easier to have the machine already packed an in the car when you get up at 3:30 for a 6am flight than have to tear a machine down, pack it, etc (and my wife appreciates that a lot too!)
* Same when I get home (usually late at night)--I don't have to unpack, set up the machine, etc
* I 'automatically' have a spare machine
One other thing to note, for those that cover machines with insurance--many providers won't cover the Arimini, or any travel-specific machine, because it's positioned as an additional machine, for travel.