Should I get a humidifier?

[Pamela444]

I have the Remstar Pro with Cflex that I've been using for several months now. I haven't had a humidifier for it, but now that winter is coming and the heater will be on, I'm wondering if I need one.

Please share your thoughts. Do I need a humidifier and, if so, should I get the passover kind or a heated one?

[rested gal]

If you're going to get a humidifier, I'd get heated. You can always not turn the heat on...you'd be using it like a passive humidifier then. But if you needed a bit of warmed humidified air during the dry, cold winter months, it would be available.

[dsm]

<snip>

Please share your thoughts. Do I need a humidifier and, if so, should I get the passover kind or a heated one?

Without doubt go for a heated humidifier. The heat in a h/h doesn't steam your nostrils, it just uses the principle of warm water agitation (vs cold) to get the water to you using a much smaller humidifier unit. Passover humidifiers are merely a large clumsy way of doing the same thing.

But, if I were on a tight budget, I would settle for a passover humidifier.

Cheers

DSM

[MartiniLover]

I have used a passover humidifier for over a year, and found it very effective. My problem was I broke the catch on it, and although it still latched I know one day it will break off and I will be out of luck. When it runs out of water I can tell. For me it usually lasts about 5-6 days before refilling.
I just purchased a "heated" one off EBay, and although I have not hooked it up yet, I am looking forward to trying it. I figured if I don't like it heated, I'll just not turn on the heat. Should still operate like a passover.
By the way, with s&h it was 73.51.
I would think if you are interested in trying a passover, there might be a lot of them sitting around that other posters have, collecting dust, and they would box up and mail to you if you paid for the postage. Just a thought. If you don't get any offers, PM me and even though mine might not last very long (broken catch), you could give it a try.

[merlin]

Definitely get a heated humidifier. I can't imagine not using one!

[Guest]

Greetings,

Properly delivered heated humidification is extremely important to CPAP Therapy. Fisher and Paykel leads the market in humidification technology and deserves more attention and consideration than it has received.

If you can breath out against your pressure, but you wake up with a dry throat or congestion, then you are no further down the road to compliance. Initial results of ongoing research also suggests there may be a link between mask removal and improperly delivered, or completely absent, heated humidification.

Here is some work cpap.com has done recently on this subject:

Introduction to Humidification:

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-faq/Humidifiers.html#FGID-61

cpap.com's Guide to Humidification (Thermosmart and Ambient Tracking Plus):

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-humidification.php


Enjoy.

Johnny

[Guest]

I have a Remstar Plus with the dedicated heated humidifier and also 420e. I have two humidifiers that I use with the 420e.... no not at the same time. One is a Fisher Paykel HC150 (heated), and the other is Respironics LX Oasis (Passover).

While both styles add moisture into the air, they do it in slightly different ways. Air moving over water will pickup water molecules. The passover works on two principles. One it has a large surface area of water and two there are baffles that create turbulence. Both increase the amount of moisture the air picks up.

The heated humidifier has very little surface area and relies almost entirely on heat to make the water molecules release into the air. Turning the heat off of a heated humidifier will not give the same amount of moisture as a passover.

Rainout is much mover prevalent with heated humidifiers because the moisture laden air is warm. As it travels down the cooler hose it condenses creating water droplets ie. rainout. You will virtually never experience rainout with a passover because the temperature of the moisture laden air is the same temperature as the hose, room temperature.

I say virtually because as an experiment I put the passover on a small heating pad (the kind for bad backs, sore muscles etc). With the pad on the lowest setting there was a big increase of humidification. Set on 2 out of 5, I felt like I was breathing in a hot shower and there was rainout.

Personally I prefer the passover. 90% of the time it gives me enough humidification and when it is cold I stick it on the heating pad for that little extra. A small heating pad is cheap, maybe 12-15 bucks. My second choice would be the HC150. It adjust its temperature in relationship to ambient room temp and not just a fixed thermostat.

My Remstar Plus with its dedicated humidifier was my first system and with hindsight I would never buy another dedicated humidifier again. If the cpap machine dies you have to replace it with the same machine or at least one in the same family, otherwise the humidifier is useless.

Considering you have on cpap for several months and not needed a humidifier, It might be a good idea to try the passover first. They're also a lot cheaper.

Watch eBay. I got my LX Oasis for $25 new, and the HC150 for $50 new.

[gracie97]

Please share your thoughts. Do I need a humidifier and, if so, should I get the passover kind or a heated one?

Seems like a lot of people here like heated humidifiers. However I've only tried my RemStar heated humidifier on a heat setting for a few nights since getting it on July 1 of this year.

Personally I don't like breathing steamy air. It feels suffocating to me. And one night that I tried it on the lowest heat setting, I had rain-out (moisture condensing and running into the interface).

The final night I tried it on the lowest heat setting was last night, because I was slightly congested and read here that using a heat setting would help. However the using the heat actually seemed to make the problem worse: I woke up in the night and turned it off and then my congestion cleared enough to sleep again.

I do use the humidifier, just as a passover, though, without heat. For me, that seems like it provides enough moisture: I've not had problems with dry nose, dry throat YET. (Have only been on CPAP since 7/1/2005.)

Like you, I'm curious as to whether I might feel differently about heating the water after I start using my very air-drying gas furnace this winter. But on the other hand, I could add moisture to my bedroom air in various ways and thus not need to heat the humidifier.

Am also thinking that if I need more moisture, I might try adding something like an unbleached conical coffee filter to the water chamber to increase the evaporation level rather than turn on the heat and get steamed. So I don't anticipate ever NEEDING a heated humidifier.

If I had to make the choice of bying a humidifier again, I might just get the simple and inexpensive manometer (namometer?) that cpap.com sells that the description says can also be used as a passover humidifier. That way, I'd have a dual-use piece of equipment for very little expense.

(But another consideration: My bedroom is a bit chaotic at times. Cats chasing each other, me stumbling around trying to get pantyhose on in the morning or shoving books out of bed before I go to sleep. So the integrated-type RemStar humidifier has the advantage of being more or less fixed to the APAP -- and given that I keep the APAP on a very secure shelf, it isn't likely to get tipped over or broken or spill.)

Grace

[ozij]

I think that when humidifiers are discussed people should also mention if they live in a humid or a dry enviroment. It makes a big differnce.

I live in a very dry environment (no rain at all in summer, and near the desert) , and use an integrated heated humidifier, and the Australian heated hose ( http://www.sleepzone.com.au ). The heated hose is necessary to let me have more humidity in the incoming air, without getting rainout.

Can't say anything about a passover, since I've never used one.
O.