Camping CPAP, again.

[Rattleman]

Went to my DME Friday to see about buying a CPAP/humidifier that will run on 12V power. ; He didn't believe that my ResMed S8's humidifier wouldn't work on 12V, so we took his new unit to my truck and he saw for himself. I was stunned by his lack of understanding of 12v DC vs. 115v AC; but it's a long story, and I'll leave it alone . Suffice to say most here have better understanding than he does.
He's offered me a cash price of $950.00 on the ResMed S9/humidifier and a price of $700.00 for a Respironicsw/humidifier that I can buy online for just under $500.00. He will take care of all my warantee and customer needs for that price.
Here are my question(s);
If I buy one online, can I get it fixed somewhere? I'll have a spare, so sending it in is no problem
My DME says that the ResMed is a better product. Aside from their software,is this true?
I'm tempted to buy the Respironics and leave it in the camper, using it only for camping, since it's "cheap" enough.
What say ye?

[hotrod27]

Get a power inverter and use whichever you want. A small inverter will run a machine and you can use passover for the short while camping.

[GumbyCT]

Here are my question(s);
If I buy one online, can I get it fixed somewhere? I'll have a spare, so sending it in is no problem
My DME says that the ResMed is a better product. Aside from their software,is this true?
I'm tempted to buy the Respironics and leave it in the camper, using it only for camping, since it's "cheap" enough.
What say ye?

Just like drugs, you have to go thru a dealer to get a fix. A warranty issue could be handled by the internet dealer.

I have not yet used a Resmed but have seen Resmed users say that Encore is easier to use. It is certainly more readily available.
Just leaving a machine in the camper is prob the best way so you don't forget things.

[Tired Linda]

If I buy one online, can I get it fixed somewhere? I'll have a spare, so sending it in is no problem
My DME says that the ResMed is a better product. Aside from their software,is this true?
I'm tempted to buy the Respironics and leave it in the camper, using it only for camping, since it's "cheap" enough.
What say ye?

Rattleman,
This ye says ditch the DME and buy it outright if you can. These machines appear to need very little "fixing" aside from changing filters and cleaning the humidifer chamber. You can buy a busload of disposable filters for $200 from our host.

ResMed v. Respironics is mostly a personal choice. My suspicion is the DME gets a bigger "piece of the pie" by pushing ResMed (my opinion). Respironics also has very good software. The biggest difference, I believe, is that the ResMed software can be found free somewhere , while Respironics' software needs to be purchased (I got it from our host)

Lots of people have back-up machines. You may even want to shop around a little. There are other machines from different vendors that also are data capable, and cost less.

[Rattleman]

Get a power inverter and use whichever you want. A small inverter will run a machine and you can use passover for the short while camping.

For short trips, yes. ButI've spent thirty nights (so far) in a sleeping bag this year, with plenty of longish trips in the recent past and in years to come, God willing. I've been using passover for a couple years now while camping, and while it's okay for a weekend trip, it's not sufficient for more than three or four days. That's the reason for the new machine. I sure wish I'd asked more questions of my DME when I was first diagnosed.

[Emilia]

Take a look at the Power indicators for the IntelliPAP Auto Adjust Travel CPAP and see if it meets your needs. I have no idea about using these machines with batteries, but for camping, this might be a good choice.

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machine/devil ... tflex.html

[Slartybartfast]

I've wondered about running a CPAP with heated humidifier off 12V. My S9 auto manual says power requirement is 90 watts with the humidifier. So if you run through a small inverter, figure maybe 120 watts overall. 120 watts times 8 hours is 960 watt-hours, or figure it's 10 amps times 8 hours or 80 amp-hours. A size F battery is rated at 105 AH. That's pretty close to the capacity of a pretty large, heavy battery. And from what I hear from my Solar friends, 12V wet cell batteries are only happy when they are routinely discharged no more than 20% of their capacity. I wonder what size battery folks use when they go walkabout.

Any thoughts?

[jdm2857]

There are deep cycle batteries that can be discharged much further than standard lead-acid batteries. There are also marine batteries, which I believe fall between the other two.

And I had no problem getting warranty service on my S8. I sent the unit to cpap.com and they forwarded it to ResMed.

[hotrod27]

I used to travel and sleep in the back seat of my pickup two nights a week. I could run an inverter and sleep for 6-7 hours without any problem.

[stevealive]

I've got an Everest3 machine that has an integrated battery pack which can charge off 110v, and I bought an additional 12v converter that plugs into a cars cigarette lighter. It runs at least one night on a charge, most times 2 nights at 9cm. It's nice and compact, but the main drawback is it only does compliance data recording. I've used it on houseboat trips where I can charge it during the day when we run the generator, then use it at night when there is no power available. It's a nice little unit. You can get it from our host.

[DeVilbiss Marketing]

The heater for the IntelliPAP’s humidification system will not operate directly from a 12V DC power source. If you need humidification, passover humidification is still available. Alternately, instead of connecting 12V DC power directly to the IntelliPAP, you can pass the DC power through an inverter that will deliver AC power to the system. This will allow the heater to function. The power rating of the inverter must be at least 200 watts @ 110V~ / 400 watts @ 220V~.