Battery help for complete moron

[Desperate_in_DM]

First off, I am a young woman and I am a technical idiot. My husband is activated/stationed to another state and is unable to assist me. I have found a few old threads about converting a CPAP to run off a battery source, but they were Greek to me. Here's my situation in a nutshell. I am 16 weeks pregnant and my pulmonologist has warned me that letting my oxygen level drop can be very harmful to the baby. During my initial sleep study my levels were dropping to 86%. Dr. has stressed that while I am pregnant I cannot go without the CPAP.

Before finding out I was pregnant I had purchased tickets to an event where camping is necessary for 5 days. As with most health insurance companies a battery for my CPAP is not covered as it's not medically necessary. I priced a few batteries online and 1) they were around $400 2) my DME doesn't carry them at all 3) I only have 4 days until I am supposed to leave for my trip. If I don't go on the trip I lose $300 in tickets.

Does someone have dumbed-down simple instructions I could follow on how to get my CPAP to work off a battery source? Seriously, the more dumbed-down you can make this the better. Thanks in advance!

[GumbyCT]

See if this will help.
viewtopic/t64943/Another-Battery-Option.html

Start with the cable. Take your machine into a Radio Shack store and tell them what you are trying to do. Let him know the center pin is positive. I think mine was an 'N' Adapta Plug.
Part numbers and prices are here - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53672&p=498461&hili ... or#p498461

Hopefully there is a Sears near you and the 1150 Jump Starter is in stock. If not a Walmart or Home Depot will carry a Black and Decker Jump Starter which should work just as well.

Be sure to charge the new jump starter before leaving and daily during your camp trip. Both can be charge by AC or a supplied DC cord in any car.

Be sure to pack all of your cpap supplies.
o and empty your water chamber BEFORE moving it.

HTH

ps. If money is tight maybe someone on the camp trip will buy it after they see how handy this gizmo is. Just keep the cable for later use.

[Desperate_in_DM]

I actually pulled that thread up but I got lost pretty quickly. I'm going to try and read through it again and hopefully the 3rd or 4th reading makes some sense. So far, nope. Like I said I am an idiot apparently.

[GumbyCT]

I edited it several times, let me know. Where you are getting stuck.

[AndyCelt]

Hi Desperate,

Is this car camping where you will have access to electrical outlets to charge the battery during the day?

GumbyCT's idea is one option. Another is to rent a battery. The Battery Geeks rent their CPAP batteries for $5 per day. I have the N-C18500 CPAP battery and it has powered my CPAP for four days thus far without a recharge and still has a partial charge left. Renting a battery may be a way for you to avoid having to make an expensive purchase for a temporary situation. When I purchased my battery Sean was very helpful, I'd recommend calling and having him size the battery you rent for you.

So there you are; two possible solutions. A Jump Starter which is fairly affordable and a rental which does not require a purchase. Good luck and I hope you have a great trip!

[HoseCrusher]

One solution that is very simple is to purchase a Honda EU1000i generator and bring along 3 gallons of gas.

Using an extension cord you can position the generator away from your sleep area, and if you are near a stream or waterfall or if there is wind in the trees, you won't hear it at all. These units are very quiet.

To use, start the generator, plug in your xPAP just like you would at home. In the morning shut everything off.

At the end of the trip you can sell the generator for almost as much as you paid for it. These units hold their price very well.

If you want to use battery power there are some problems. I don't think you can carry a battery large enough to last 5 days. This means that you would either have to have the ability to charge the battery during the day, or have multiple batteries and change them out as needed.

The easiest way to use battery power is to purchase a Pure Sine Wave inverter with around 300 watts of capacity. Connect the inverter to the battery and plug in your xPAP machine to the inverter just like you plug in at home.

Another option is to pick up a pulse oximeter that has an alarm function that triggers on low oxygen levels. You can set the level at 90%, wear it while you sleep, and if your oxygen levels drop the alarm will wake you up and you can catch your breath. This won't do much for quality restful sleep, but it will keep your oxygen levels up.

[archangle]

I'm sorry to say this, but skip the trip. Just imagine how you'll feel if you get there and your CPAP breaks down and you have to go without. If something happens to the kid later, will you blame yourself? (Even if it's not the CPAP that really did it.) If he does badly in school in the 3rd grade, will you wonder about it?

You really need to try your solution out at home first, run it through a discharge cycle, recharge it, test it to see if it works for 5 nights, etc. 4 days is not much time to prepare.

However, some thoughts in case you do it anyway.

If you get there, and the CPAP power fails, do you have an escape plan? Can you leave the camp site and find a hotel in the middle of the night? Can you do some of the daytime activities and go to a hotel at night for sleeping?

Can you take the battery and charger somewhere during the day and charge it then?

How isolated are you? 5 days hiking away from roads, 5 days in a campground with car access, 5 days in one spot, but no car transportation?

Remember that something that lasts for 5 nights will weigh 5 times as much as something that lasts for one night.

Are you going by car or plane? Can you carry something the size of a car battery in addition to your CPAP? Can you plug your CPAP into the car if needed? If you're going by plane, even the special purpose "light" CPAP batteries are bulky. The lighter ones may not do 5 nights.

Be really careful about the power connector. ResMed makes a similar connector, but the polarity is backwards and it will fry your Respironics CPAP. It would also be really easy to reverse the polarity and blow up your machine with a RadioShack adapter.

Are you in a big city?

Whatever you set up, try it out at home before taking the trip. Actually, it would be a good idea to set up an emergency CPAP power setup at home even if you don't take a trip. It wouldn't hurt to watch craigslist to find a cheap backup CPAP machine to keep at home in case your own machine fails.

Be sure to have spare fuses for your DC plugs.

If you can't do the camping thing, is there something else you can do with the tickets? Go there and do some car/hotel touristing?
If you do end up at any time without CPAP, your apnea may be better if you sleep on your side or stomach.

[chunkyfrog]

Archangle, I have to concur.
Desperate does not really have time to make sure any solution is reliable enough to trust her child's future on it.
I would forget about camping for now.
Too much is at stake.

[archangle]

By the way, you're NOT an idiot by any stretch of the imagination. Big companies pull their hair out trying to figure out emergency power with the aid of big bucks and experts very often find out their fancy backup power system doesn't actually work when it's needed.

[GumbyCT]

I remember even before I was dx'd w/OSA I realized that I slept better when I went camping. Having said that, this trip may not be a total bust. I prefer to think positive than to think everything possible will go wrong, just because.

I don't know who you are going with but I am willing to bet that someone there will be on cpap and more than willing to help. Take a breath. Make a list of things you need to do and another of things you need to pack. Realize that something is always forgotten, that's life. Adapt. They say everything happens for a reason.

With your lists in hand you can re-evaluate. Please know I am rootin for ya girl.