camping with a cpap
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• Page 1 of 1
camping with a cpap
Does anyone try and camp with their cpap? We are planning a two week camping trip and will be without power for a time, we don't have a generator. Any suggestions on how to handle a cpap machine? I don't know if I can go without it that long. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks
Re: camping with a cpap
Do a search (above) for back-up power and you will get pages of answers. I use a deep cycle marine battery and it will last about 4 days by not utilizing the humidifier. You can go with a generator, solar or battery... take your pick. Generator will take gasoline, solar will take the sun and battery will take a charge with electricity or a vehicle to keep the power up for 2 weeks. Good luck and have fun.
_________________
| Machine: ResMed AirSense™ 10 AutoSet™ CPAP Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier |
| Mask: AirFit™ P10 Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear |
Started cpap in 2010.. still at it with great results.
Re: camping with a cpap
What kind of camping? Car camping in a tent?? Backpacking in the wilderness?? Canoeing into the wilderness??
Because what you can do for camping with a cpap depends on what kind of camping you're doing.
Hubby and I took a 12 day car camping trip this May/June to the North Shore of Lake Superior. I had a car battery in a jump-starter housing that we bought last year for a shorter camping trip to run the BiPAP on. The plan was to recharge the battery at the ranger's station/campground host area every couple of days during the trip.
How well did it work?
Well, the first four nights were fine. We recharged the battery on day three, but not for the full day because we were changing campgrounds. And on night 5 things fell apart: When I went to turn Kaa on, Kaa came on just fine. But just as I was about to fall asleep, Kaa cut out---as in turned itself off. I repeated this a couple of times before waking hubby up in a panic. At this point, the battery's "% of charge" LED was bouncing all over the place and Kaa would not turn on at all. So I switched the battery to "DC/AC inverter" and tried to use it that way. No can do said the battery. I wound up giving up and sleeping sans mask for the very first time since starting PAP on 9/23/2010. It was a miserable night and I woke up feeling like death warmed over with a lot of hand and foot pain. Obviously the battery was on the fritz.
We were in a "primitive" tent site at the Grand Marais Municipal Campground when the battery problem developed. Hubby took the battery in to the office to charge that day, but it's LED continued to flit numbers all over the place and I was extremely worried about the battery being bad. They offered to let us move to a site with power and we were in the process of starting to move (to a much less desirable site), when my son noticed that there was a power outlet next to the portapotties across the road and a bit down the hill from our campsite. The Campground management agreed to lend us 4 very long outdoor extension cords so that I could hook up my BiPAP each night. We wound up canceling a reservation at a primitive, cart-in site at a state park and extending our stay in Grand Marais by about 3 nights. And we basically left the battery charging at the Campground's headquarters for several days.
But the last campground we were staying at was another non-power site at the Fell Lake Campground in Superior National Forest nestled right up against the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area and I knew that I'd need the battery. So two nights before departing Grand Marais, we decided to do a dry run with the battery while still having the electrical cords as the backup. No go---the machine simply would not turn on, but the battery was now consistently saying it had a 100% power level. I don't recall who thought of it, but it dawned on either me or hubby that maybe the problem might be a blown fuse in the DC cord for my BiPAP. Grand Marais has a Radio Shack and the next day, hubby took the cord into Radio Shack and bought a bunch of fuses. Replacing the fuse fixed the problem and the last night at Grand Marais was clean sailing.
When we got to Fell Lake, we again explained our situation. The first night there was fine. We took no chances and recharged the battery the next day at the Campground's check-in building and so I had no problems the next night either.
Lessons learned:
1) If using a car battery, then recharge the battery every other day if at all possible. Every day might be a good idea if you have high pressures. (Mine range from 6/4 to 8/6.)
2) Campground management is usually quite willing to help you out by recharging the battery at the check in point.
3) Get a DC cord to run the PAP directly off the battery rather than using an inverter. The power will last a lot longer.
4) Have plenty of fuses for the DC cord.
Possible lesson learned: The lithium-ion batteries sold specifically for PAP machines (such as those at https://www.cpap.com/cpap-battery-power ... attery.php) are much, much lighter than a car battery in a jump starter housing and they may last longer. If $$ are not a problem, it would be wise to have a pair of batteries and these, of course, are much, much lighter and more compact than the lead-acid car battery/marine batteries are. We're halfway thinking of doing a short (5-7 day at most) canoeing trip into BWCWA next summer, but if we do, we will be upgrading the battery to a pair of lithium-ion batteries with the hope that I can get 3 nights sleep off of each battery.
Best of luck
Because what you can do for camping with a cpap depends on what kind of camping you're doing.
Hubby and I took a 12 day car camping trip this May/June to the North Shore of Lake Superior. I had a car battery in a jump-starter housing that we bought last year for a shorter camping trip to run the BiPAP on. The plan was to recharge the battery at the ranger's station/campground host area every couple of days during the trip.
How well did it work?
Well, the first four nights were fine. We recharged the battery on day three, but not for the full day because we were changing campgrounds. And on night 5 things fell apart: When I went to turn Kaa on, Kaa came on just fine. But just as I was about to fall asleep, Kaa cut out---as in turned itself off. I repeated this a couple of times before waking hubby up in a panic. At this point, the battery's "% of charge" LED was bouncing all over the place and Kaa would not turn on at all. So I switched the battery to "DC/AC inverter" and tried to use it that way. No can do said the battery. I wound up giving up and sleeping sans mask for the very first time since starting PAP on 9/23/2010. It was a miserable night and I woke up feeling like death warmed over with a lot of hand and foot pain. Obviously the battery was on the fritz.
We were in a "primitive" tent site at the Grand Marais Municipal Campground when the battery problem developed. Hubby took the battery in to the office to charge that day, but it's LED continued to flit numbers all over the place and I was extremely worried about the battery being bad. They offered to let us move to a site with power and we were in the process of starting to move (to a much less desirable site), when my son noticed that there was a power outlet next to the portapotties across the road and a bit down the hill from our campsite. The Campground management agreed to lend us 4 very long outdoor extension cords so that I could hook up my BiPAP each night. We wound up canceling a reservation at a primitive, cart-in site at a state park and extending our stay in Grand Marais by about 3 nights. And we basically left the battery charging at the Campground's headquarters for several days.
But the last campground we were staying at was another non-power site at the Fell Lake Campground in Superior National Forest nestled right up against the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area and I knew that I'd need the battery. So two nights before departing Grand Marais, we decided to do a dry run with the battery while still having the electrical cords as the backup. No go---the machine simply would not turn on, but the battery was now consistently saying it had a 100% power level. I don't recall who thought of it, but it dawned on either me or hubby that maybe the problem might be a blown fuse in the DC cord for my BiPAP. Grand Marais has a Radio Shack and the next day, hubby took the cord into Radio Shack and bought a bunch of fuses. Replacing the fuse fixed the problem and the last night at Grand Marais was clean sailing.
When we got to Fell Lake, we again explained our situation. The first night there was fine. We took no chances and recharged the battery the next day at the Campground's check-in building and so I had no problems the next night either.
Lessons learned:
1) If using a car battery, then recharge the battery every other day if at all possible. Every day might be a good idea if you have high pressures. (Mine range from 6/4 to 8/6.)
2) Campground management is usually quite willing to help you out by recharging the battery at the check in point.
3) Get a DC cord to run the PAP directly off the battery rather than using an inverter. The power will last a lot longer.
4) Have plenty of fuses for the DC cord.
Possible lesson learned: The lithium-ion batteries sold specifically for PAP machines (such as those at https://www.cpap.com/cpap-battery-power ... attery.php) are much, much lighter than a car battery in a jump starter housing and they may last longer. If $$ are not a problem, it would be wise to have a pair of batteries and these, of course, are much, much lighter and more compact than the lead-acid car battery/marine batteries are. We're halfway thinking of doing a short (5-7 day at most) canoeing trip into BWCWA next summer, but if we do, we will be upgrading the battery to a pair of lithium-ion batteries with the hope that I can get 3 nights sleep off of each battery.
Best of luck
_________________
| Machine: DreamStation BiPAP® Auto Machine |
| Mask: Swift™ FX Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear |
| Additional Comments: PR System DreamStation and Humidifier. Max IPAP = 9, Min EPAP=4, Rise time setting = 3, minPS = 3, maxPS=5 |
Re: camping with a cpap
Adding to what nan said:
If you can tolerate not using the humidifier, then the battery will last a lot longer between recharges. But some of us just can't handle PAP without the humidifier. I tried last summer and found out the hard way that sleeping without the humidifier just about as bad (for me) as sleeping without the PAP itself. I tossed and turned and just could not get and stay asleep that night. Using the humidifier on passover may also help save some of the battery charge, but alas, that was still not enough for my very dry nose.
If you can tolerate not using the humidifier, then the battery will last a lot longer between recharges. But some of us just can't handle PAP without the humidifier. I tried last summer and found out the hard way that sleeping without the humidifier just about as bad (for me) as sleeping without the PAP itself. I tossed and turned and just could not get and stay asleep that night. Using the humidifier on passover may also help save some of the battery charge, but alas, that was still not enough for my very dry nose.
_________________
| Machine: DreamStation BiPAP® Auto Machine |
| Mask: Swift™ FX Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear |
| Additional Comments: PR System DreamStation and Humidifier. Max IPAP = 9, Min EPAP=4, Rise time setting = 3, minPS = 3, maxPS=5 |
Re: camping with a cpap
I don't camp but I spend time on my boat where I run off of battery power. First, using a humidifier will be difficult with anything but a large battery. The second issue is does your xPAP run off of 12V? Most ResMed and PR units will run efficiently using a 12V cable that costs about $25. If you need AC power, that means adding a small inverter, not expensive ($100 or so) but it adds to the power requirement. Third is how long are you going to be off grid? One night is easy, a week needs some planning. The big question is when you say "camping" do you mean driving into a camp site, or do you mean hiking fifty miles to a remote mountain top?
Solutions fall into two categories. The first is a dedicated small battery, sized to run a xPAP for 1-3 nights. These are usually Lithium based, weigh around 5 pounds and are rather expensive - $300 and up. Sometimes they are AGM, which is a version of a lead-acid battery that is totally sealed (they were developed for fighter planes). The other solution is to use a larger AGM battery, perhaps 30-50 pounds, that can be lugged around and will power a xPAP for long periods (or run a humidifier for a shorter period), and will also serve as a backup for home use. AGMs have the advantage of holding their charge for extended periods so you can leave them unattended for a month or more and still have a good charge. They are not very forgiving of deep discharge, so you want to be conservation on your power estimates.
Deep Cycle users rate batteries in terms of AmpHours. My PRS1 APAP uses under 1 Amp per hour, so a 8 hour night uses at most 8 AmpHours. The portable batteries sold on CPAP sites run about 20 AH, so they might be good for 2-3 nights. (Sometime they are rated in "Watt-Hours" - a 266 WattHour Battery is about 20 Amp Hours.) A small AGM battery, originally designed for a power wheelchair, might be about 30 AH, larger units could be 50 AH or more. As I mentioned, be conservative because discharging AGMs below 50% will begin to limit the number of total cycles you get. (You might get 300 cycles to 50%, but only 50 to 25%, less if you run flat repeatedly - depends a lot on the manufacturer.) On my boat I have a "house bank" of 450 AmpHours, but I run a small refrigerator, a TV, computers, microwave, etc. The PAP is the least of my worries!
The main reason I bring up the AGM solution is that it is quite cost effective. You could get a 50 AH AGM plus a small maintenance charger for $200 if you look. As a home backup, this could run a xPAP for 4 days, maybe more, and also charge cell phones etc. It would even be possible to run continuously off the battery/charger so that you would not be interrupted by outages in the middle of the night. UPS power supplies are just AGM batteries with a nice charger and inverter built in. Make sure you uses a small, high quality charger, especially indoors.
Avoid using a regular car battery. They are designed to put out about 100 Amps for 10 seconds. (Internally they have thin plates with large surface areas.) A PAP shouldn't kill it in one night, but make sure you full recharge they next morning. If its an old battery, running a xPAP could do it in! You want a "Deep Cycle" battery that is made for repeated discharge, even then recharge as often as possible to extend the useful life. Often Deep Cycle are referred to as Marine, because that is a major use. Be careful though, because there are marine starter batteries, and there are also deep cycle that are traditional "wet cell" batteries (used in golf carts, etc) neither of which are suitable for home use, or lugging around. Look for Deep Cycle AGM.
Solutions fall into two categories. The first is a dedicated small battery, sized to run a xPAP for 1-3 nights. These are usually Lithium based, weigh around 5 pounds and are rather expensive - $300 and up. Sometimes they are AGM, which is a version of a lead-acid battery that is totally sealed (they were developed for fighter planes). The other solution is to use a larger AGM battery, perhaps 30-50 pounds, that can be lugged around and will power a xPAP for long periods (or run a humidifier for a shorter period), and will also serve as a backup for home use. AGMs have the advantage of holding their charge for extended periods so you can leave them unattended for a month or more and still have a good charge. They are not very forgiving of deep discharge, so you want to be conservation on your power estimates.
Deep Cycle users rate batteries in terms of AmpHours. My PRS1 APAP uses under 1 Amp per hour, so a 8 hour night uses at most 8 AmpHours. The portable batteries sold on CPAP sites run about 20 AH, so they might be good for 2-3 nights. (Sometime they are rated in "Watt-Hours" - a 266 WattHour Battery is about 20 Amp Hours.) A small AGM battery, originally designed for a power wheelchair, might be about 30 AH, larger units could be 50 AH or more. As I mentioned, be conservative because discharging AGMs below 50% will begin to limit the number of total cycles you get. (You might get 300 cycles to 50%, but only 50 to 25%, less if you run flat repeatedly - depends a lot on the manufacturer.) On my boat I have a "house bank" of 450 AmpHours, but I run a small refrigerator, a TV, computers, microwave, etc. The PAP is the least of my worries!
The main reason I bring up the AGM solution is that it is quite cost effective. You could get a 50 AH AGM plus a small maintenance charger for $200 if you look. As a home backup, this could run a xPAP for 4 days, maybe more, and also charge cell phones etc. It would even be possible to run continuously off the battery/charger so that you would not be interrupted by outages in the middle of the night. UPS power supplies are just AGM batteries with a nice charger and inverter built in. Make sure you uses a small, high quality charger, especially indoors.
Avoid using a regular car battery. They are designed to put out about 100 Amps for 10 seconds. (Internally they have thin plates with large surface areas.) A PAP shouldn't kill it in one night, but make sure you full recharge they next morning. If its an old battery, running a xPAP could do it in! You want a "Deep Cycle" battery that is made for repeated discharge, even then recharge as often as possible to extend the useful life. Often Deep Cycle are referred to as Marine, because that is a major use. Be careful though, because there are marine starter batteries, and there are also deep cycle that are traditional "wet cell" batteries (used in golf carts, etc) neither of which are suitable for home use, or lugging around. Look for Deep Cycle AGM.
_________________
| Machine: DreamStation Auto CPAP Machine |
| Mask: Quattro™ Air Full Face Mask with Headgear |
| Humidifier: DreamStation Heated Humidifier |
| Additional Comments: Pressure 9-20, average ~9.5; often use battery power while off-grid |
Hark, how hard he fetches breath . . . Act II, Scene IV, King Henry IV Part I, William Shakespeare
Choosing a Battery thread: http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t1140 ... ttery.html
Choosing a Battery thread: http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t1140 ... ttery.html
Re: camping with a cpap
What brand and model machine do you use?
_________________
| Machine: AirCurve™ 10 VAuto BiLevel Machine with HumidAir™ Heated Humidifier |
| Additional Comments: Mask Bleep Eclipse https://bleepsleep.com/the-eclipse/ |
I may have to RISE but I refuse to SHINE.
Re: camping with a cpap
As we've gotten older, the wife and I don't backpack much anymore, or tent camp. For backpacking, I don't take my Bipap as it really isn't practical. We still camp in a trailer a couple dozen times a year though, most of the time in areas without hookups. I run my Bipap off a group 24 deep cycle lead acid battery that is separate from the trailer batteries. Unfortunately, itweighs something over 70lbs or so, and being a standard wet cell lead acid battery you have to be careful not to tip it over and spill the acid. We have a generator so I can recharge it when I'm charging the main trailer batteries, but if we're going for 2 to 3 days I generally don't put up with the noise of running the generator. I don't use the humidifier on my respironics 660 while camping and find that 3 nights doesn't quite take the battery down to the 50 percent level which is as low as I tend to discharge my batteries. My pressure settings are 11/16.
The information provided by CapnLoki is excellent regarding the different types of batteries, and well worth studying especially if you intend to purchase a battery for this purpose. Unfortunately, you're going to have to figure out how to recharge whatever battery you use every few days during your trip.
The information provided by CapnLoki is excellent regarding the different types of batteries, and well worth studying especially if you intend to purchase a battery for this purpose. Unfortunately, you're going to have to figure out how to recharge whatever battery you use every few days during your trip.
_________________
| Machine | Mask | |||
 |  | |||
| Additional Comments: ASV | ||||
Re: camping with a cpap
Being as how I'm going to be switching from a respironics machine that I run straight off of a battery while camping to a Resmed Machine which requires a higher DC voltage I thought I'd test things a little further. First I checked my actual battery consumption with a meter instead of the little cheapo battery meter I've been using on the battery I run my bipap on. Turns out after three nights of 8 to 9 hours of sleep without using the humidifier I still have approximately 80 percent battery capacity left on a 3 year old group 24 battery. 12.46 vdc under a .8 amp load.
Next I tried using the Respironics 660 bipap with the humidifier set to 3, running off a 400 watt true sine wave inverter. Two nights later having used the machine a total of 16.3 hours the voltage on my battery was down to 12.12 vdc with a load of approximately .6amps applied to the battery. This is what the inverter draws with no load on it. Pretty much the 50 percent level for state of charge, although using voltage as an indicator of state of charge isn't necessarily highly accurate. EPAP was 11 ipap 16
Most of my camping trips are only off grid for three to four nights in a row, so I'm guessing I'll probably be able to get by with my soon to arrive Resmed machine running off my inverter during our camping trips providing I don't use the humidifier. This of course depends on the power consumption of it being similar to my current bipap machine.
Next I tried using the Respironics 660 bipap with the humidifier set to 3, running off a 400 watt true sine wave inverter. Two nights later having used the machine a total of 16.3 hours the voltage on my battery was down to 12.12 vdc with a load of approximately .6amps applied to the battery. This is what the inverter draws with no load on it. Pretty much the 50 percent level for state of charge, although using voltage as an indicator of state of charge isn't necessarily highly accurate. EPAP was 11 ipap 16
Most of my camping trips are only off grid for three to four nights in a row, so I'm guessing I'll probably be able to get by with my soon to arrive Resmed machine running off my inverter during our camping trips providing I don't use the humidifier. This of course depends on the power consumption of it being similar to my current bipap machine.
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| Machine | Mask | |||
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| Additional Comments: ASV | ||||
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