Let's try not to abuse each other okay? There is nothing to be gained by putting others down.
I called 4 stores trying to get a repair in Canada, including one in the Toronto area. The one I dealt with is owned by Shoppers Drug Mart, which is a very large company. They all said all repairs are sent to Georgia, there is no way to get parts. That is also what the Resmed Georgia facility told me when I called them, they refused to send me the parts I needed at any price- the information provided by palerider above is totally incorrect. Shipping my device to a foreign country in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis has some issues. For me, this was a backup machine but I have always gone by the phrase "two is one and one is none." For someone who can't afford two machines and has to go weeks without treatment, there can be heart damage and car accidents.
In Canada right now, life-critical equipment like ventilators have to be sent off to the manufacturers for repair although the hospitals employ qualified technicians supervised by engineers. People may die because of the delays involved. If you were going to die, would you accept the risk of a ventilator that was repaired in-house by a hospital engineer?
Manufacturers are saying that there's a risk that "untrained" personnel might do a bad job, and result in equipment that is dangerous for patients. The US government thinks that's a shaky assertion: a 2018 US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) report found that many third-party repairs "provide high quality, safe, and effective servicing of medical devices." You can read it here:
https://www.fda.gov/media/113431/download
The repair I wanted to make (to replace the silicone boot) made no changes to the device and did not significantly change its performance, safety specifications, or intended use. Given the propensity for silicone to absorb odour, it was really a kind of routine maintenance.
The right to repair is a serious problem, and it's the same one that people with John Deere tractors or Apple products face. Basically, if you can't repair it, you don't really own it.
I understand the risks associated with disassembling my machine and cleaning or replacing the boot, and I accepted them. I considered the risks to be low in my case because of my technical training and the nasal mask I use.
