Nasal pillow leaking with apap peak pressure

[dirtydog26]

I just purchased a S9 Autoset APAP machine 30 days ago. My pressure on my old cpap machine was 6, and never had any leak issues with any nasal mask. Now my peak pressure ranges from 10-14. I notice that I am getting leakage with nasal pillows which is what I prefer to wear. Unable to wear full face mask as I have facial hair which causes leaks regardless of mask I have tried. I am currently switching between a resmed swift fx and a F&P pillairo with leaking at high pressure. Unable to use tappap. While I seem to have more energy and better quality sleep with the new APAP, I do wake up making adjustments throughout the night to fix the leaks. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dirtydog

[Babette]

You might want to look into the possibility of a nasal cannula, rather than pillows.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/innome ... e-kit.html

I found pillows to be leaky and need alot of adjusting and fiddling with. The NAII is much less bother to me than pillows.

I wear it over my head, as shown in the first picture, but don't bring the side hoses back down to the front of my neck. I just run them over my head, to the main hose, and on to the machine.

Cheers,
B.

[Janknitz]

Have you tried adjusting the nasal pillows at your highest pressure? That should take care of it. When you first put your mask on, the presssure is at its lowest, and this will cause leaking at higher pressures.

And if you are hanging out at your highest pressure a lot, you may need to have your pressures adjusted.

[RogerSC]

My pressure runs 11-13cm, and I also use Swift FX nasal pillows. I've found that using a "hose hanger" that I have over the center of my pillow (rather than at the side of my bed) gives me much better leak control. I'm an active sleeper, usually on one side or the other, but move around a lot. Since I moved the hose hanger thingie from the side of my bed to the center of my pillow, now I can easily roll from side to side and not have any pulling on the mask, and my leaks have gone down dramatically. Now they're typically less than 6, where before 12 was more typical. I still have to fiddle with the thing sometimes, but I don't wake up as much and less fiddling is necessary *smile*. Took me a few nights to get used to the tubing hanging so close to my head, but now I hardly notice it at night. And I'm sleeping somewhat better as a result of having less leaks.

Just a thought that might help you some with leaks, if you're not currently using a hose hanger to manage your cpap tubing.

[Pachyderm's Nose]

My pillows also leak if I don't get it adjusted right when I put it on. The S9 has a nice feature that will do a leak check for you. If you press a button so the screen is lit then press the upper rectangular button, scroll down 2 notches, and press the round button it will do a leak check with a fairly high pressure. I do this repeatedly until I get a seal I'm comfortable with. After you've started the first check all you have to do is press the round button to cycle the test on and off. Once I'm comfortable with the leaks I start the machine normally. This process take me anywhere from 2 to 10 repetitions, for the pillows to warm up and mold better, and for me to get the straps right, but it works.