lightest O2 concentrator for 3L bleed in? and buy vs rental

[ejackson1200]

We travel at least every month with the concentrator, the cpap, and a lymphapress pump that is about 27 lbs. Every pound counts.

Secondly, we'd love to have the insurance pay for the Machine now instead of lifetime rental as I know we will be changing insurance in about a year.

[Sharppointy1]

I checked into buying versus renting for life as I use oxygen bleed in too.
My insurance - BCBS will NOT buy an oxygen concentrator, so the choice was for us to buy out of pocket versus lifetime rental.
We chose rental because then the machine still belongs to someone else, who has to do its regular maintenance and change its filter, and replace it when necessary. if we bought, yes it would be a onetime out of pocket expense, but then we'd be liable for all the maintenance and replacements.
HTH.

[bombadil]

I rent an O2 concentrator from Apria, my DME. One advantage is that if I'm traveling to a place where they have service, they will provide me a concentrator there, at no additional charge. I'm trying it out for the first time next weekend, staying in a motel in Estes Park, CO. I called Apria and they said they'll have a concentrator waiting for me at the motel when I arrive. We'll see how reliable they are for this.

[Sharppointy1]

My DME, Pacific Pulmonary Services, has been excellent about my travel concentrators.
They even supplied 4 E cylinders for us to take on a back country camping trip at 8700 ft last week (we have a trailer) so we didn't have to run the generator all night to run Big Blue.
My doc told me if I was going for short trips, especially going down to sea level (I live at 4800 ft), I don't need the oxygen, so when we went to Baltimore I skipped the oxygen.

[Slinky]

I don't know of any insurance that will buy an 02 concentrator outright. I've been under the impression that all insist on rental.

You might want to consider using your insurance for the at-home rental and for travel buying out of pocket a portable concentrator such as a SeQual Eclipse 3. It charges whilst you use it for sleep, even w/a CPAP, in continuous mode, can be charged w/an adapter for your car's cigarette lighter and used as a portable in continuous or pulse mode (obviously battery needs charging sooner if used as a portable in continuous mode). There is also the Respironics EverGo which I don't know as much about. Both are approved for airline travel. Shop carefully online. There can be quite a price variance. None of which are particularly cheap.

Be careful when buying a "portable" concentrator that it can and will do what you need/want it to do. CPAP can NOT be used w/pulse mode, it MUST be CONTINUOUS mode. Unless it can charge whilst in use it won't last long enough in continuous mode to be used w/PAP.