Humidifier question...

[dizzy1]

For a couple months now, I've been convinced that my humifier wasn't working properly. Almost every morning I wake up very dry. Some mornings I don't. The plate always heats up, although it seems takes a lot longer than it used to. It goes through water like it always has but every couple of weeks or so I'll wake up with the same amount of water that I went to bed with. I'm dry all the time now and I have it on the second highest setting. I've discussed this with the place I got the machine at. They keep telling me if the plate is heating up then it's working. They said I should get a room humidifier and try nasal spray. I've done all this and it's no help but they look at it and say it's fine. I thought I was going crazy.

But here's the kicker. I had my sleep study last night where I used THEIR machine and not mine. I woke up not dry at all for the first time in weeks. Now I'm sure somethings wrong. I'm going to call tomorrow and tell them this but I don't have a lot of confidence in these people. So I was wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like this, particularly with my equipment or if anybody would have any guess as to what's happening. Thanks in advance...

[jweeks]

Hi,

You can buy a replacement humidifier from 2nd Wind CPAP for $100. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd gladly pay $100 to get a good night of sleep. That will answer the question for sure one way or another.

Do you breathe through your nose or your mouth? I find that I get very dry if I breathe through my mouth. I am good most of the time when I breathe through my nose, but even then, I wake up with the back of my throat being a bit dry. Too bad there isn't such a thing as an auto-adjusting humidifier.

You might try a hose cover if you don't already have one. It might be that the humidity is condensing and running back into the tray before it gets to your mask. A heated hose might also be interesting to try, but unfortunately, there isn't an inexpensive way to do that.

-john-

[jlk]

Check out the h5i from resmed. It works with climateline hose and monitors the custom or auto humidification. Works great for me. jlk