Tap Pap to AirFit to Bleep

[Raftar]

Has anyone switched from Tap Pap to Bleep with success, or solved the Bleep problems I'm about to describe? I'm really spoiled by the excellent years with Tap Pap. My first night with Bleep didn't go well. I may have to switch back to Tap Pap, even though at age 66 I'm concerned that my teeth won't hold the Tap Pap mouthpiece forever. Headgear on nasal pillows consistently give me day-long headaches, probably from elastic shifting and pulling hair. (A fleece cap did not solve it.) Otherwise AirFit P10 is the BEST.

1. Takes forever to seat the clips into the ports. No doubt I'd get better at it. But I don't hear the "audible click."
2. Red pimple on nose, from alcohol and/or adhesive. This alone makes me fear the second night.
3. Cold air blowing all over the place.
Spammer link to nasty website removed
4. Every time I moved at all, it pulled on my nose. Seems like that would irritate the skin further, and wake some people up.
5. Rigid Tap Pap tube goes upward and out of the way, Bleep going downward means tubing is all over the bed and sheets. I did get up and change my main tubing back to overhead, but the Bleep short tube doesn't really want to go that direction.
6. Bleep instructions say to make your room cool enough that you will not sweat. So, we have to install air conditioning this summer even though we hate it? Anyone successfully sweat with Bleep?

Need a Plan B for when my teeth start to go! Thanks in advance for any thoughts on any of these three masks. I did read the existing threads on Bleep, but don't mind repeat advice as I have forgotten everything haha!

[booksfan]

1. Takes forever to seat the clips into the ports. No doubt I'd get better at it. But I don't hear the "audible click."
2. Red pimple on nose, from alcohol and/or adhesive. This alone makes me fear the second night.
3. Cold air blowing all over the place. (Not from leaks.)
4. Every time I moved at all, it pulled on my nose. Seems like that would irritate the skin further, and wake some people up.
5. Rigid Tap Pap tube goes upward and out of the way, Bleep going downward means tubing is all over the bed and sheets. I did get up and change my main tubing back to overhead, but the Bleep short tube doesn't really want to go that direction.
6. Bleep instructions say to make your room cool enough that you will not sweat. So, we have to install air conditioning this summer even though we hate it? Anyone successfully sweat with Bleep?

First of all, Stuart at Bleep is an absolutely WONDERFUL resource to help get started/used to the Bleep! I highly recommend contacting him for help.

That said, in order:
1. Yes, absolutely, practice will help! Also, I do find that sometimes I do not hear all 4 clicks. What I do to check to be sure that I have correctly it correctly seated is to cover the end of the short hose with the palm of my hand. If it is difficult to inhale/exhale, they are correctly seated.
2. Sadly, I get the occasional pimple. Even worse, they sometimes pop up around the base of my nose right where I have to attach my Bleep! I take a deep breath and stick it on. Generally, it is pretty much gone the next morning...I don't know why. I will say, I do NOT use alcohol! I use the Bleep wipes. I started out using witch hazel, but it did not work all night. I had to use an alcohol prep pad one night when I was hospitalized and that was awful!
3. Did you get the interface with the diffuser? It's the little black or navy velcro piece that wraps around the interface and holds on 2 small pieces of filter to diffuse air and dampen sound? I find that the 2 small pieces are not QUITE enough for me (I know they are fine for most people), so I take a regular filter, cut a hole in the center just large enough to force onto the end of the Dreamway interface, trim it to fit around the base, the attach the diffuser. Works much better for me!
4. Stuart has a video where he recommends a hose management system. It works really well. I use it and I know at least several other people here on this board use it as well. It takes the pressure off the nose.
5. The hose management system helps with this as well as it slips under the mattress, swivels over the pillow from side to side, over your head.
6. Mmm...that's a toughie! I find that moisture under the adhesive causes "tunnels" where air can leak out. Wakes me up every time. Easily solved by placing one of the tape ends I cut off over the tunnel, but who wants to be awakened? Would a fan provide enough cooling to prevent sweating? If it becomes a problem, perhaps the Bleep could be an option for cooler weather you could find something for "sweating" season?

Good luck!

[ILoveFlowers]

The diffuser is a must (you can make your own with a filter as booksfan described) to block that air blowing. It makes such a huge difference. The clicking of the ports is difficult. I have a hard time getting my fingers around those tiny parts.It's easier to do it looking in a magnifying mirror. If you have a small magnifying mirror, you can keep one on the nightstand to doublecheck if they seem to be blowing air out and you're not sure they're clicked in. That said, I went back to mainly using the P10 because I can just pull it on with no preparation and I'm lazy. I do hate the straps but it's a lot of trouble to get everything stuck on and for me, the Bleep is not that comfortable because the ports on the mask don't line up with my nostrils, so there is always pressure pushing them together to align with the mask. So I can't wear it every night or my nose gets sore.

When I used to use the Swift FX for her, sometimes I'd be so sick of the headgear I'd just use a piece of the wide 3m tape and tape each side wing on the nasal pillow to my face! heh! It worked- for the most part, lol- but again it does pull on your skin.

I still think someone should invent a tube of some kind of safe removable caulk-like product that you could run a bead around the nasal pillows and then stick them onto your nostrils, then peel them off in the morning! There would be no leaks!

[Dreaming1]

...the Bleep is not that comfortable because the ports on the mask don't line up with my nostrils, so there is always pressure pushing them together to align with the mask. So I can't wear it every night or my nose gets sore.

If that's the case, you aren't putting them on right. There should be no reason to apply "pressure pushing them together to align with the mask." They are supposed to come straight down off the nostrils and be parallel. If you haven't contacted the company over why it isn't working, you should. Stuart's always available to help. While I'm not as fast as he is at putting them on, I can clean my nose, apply the ports in front of the mirror and connect on my nose, in the bed, in under a minute. That's not much time to be concerned over.

[Dreaming1]

My first night with Bleep didn't go well.
1. Takes forever to seat the clips into the ports. No doubt I'd get better at it. But I don't hear the "audible click."
2. Red pimple on nose, from alcohol and/or adhesive. This alone makes me fear the second night.
3. Cold air blowing all over the place. (Not from leaks.)
4. Every time I moved at all, it pulled on my nose. Seems like that would irritate the skin further, and wake some people up.
5. Rigid Tap Pap tube goes upward and out of the way, Bleep going downward means tubing is all over the bed and sheets. I did get up and change my main tubing back to overhead, but the Bleep short tube doesn't really want to go that direction.
6. Bleep instructions say to make your room cool enough that you will not sweat. So, we have to install air conditioning this summer even though we hate it? Anyone successfully sweat with Bleep?

Some quick thoughts:
Did you contact Stuart at bleep and do a webinar with him, since you are having trouble? That's wear you should start. If you've read any of the review threads, you know a lot of people have.

Have you watched this training video they have on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yUJSkqDVQE It shows some tricks the instructions don't address for whatever reason.

You shouldn't be feeling a massive amount of air coming off the vents, if you got one with the black diffuser on it. Where did you get yours from?

The new tube they are using is as flexible as the p10. And if you're leaving the tube to drape in the bed, you need to get a cpap tube hanger setup to fix that, then it does go over the head pretty easy.

I've had a fever twice for a couple days where I was sweating pretty bad and it didn't stay on the entire night like it normally does. Those are the only two times I had stick problems.

[Deborah K.]

Sometimes my bedroom gets pretty warm, like 78 degrees, but the Bleep stays on my face just fine. I think it differs from person to person.

[booksfan]

One thing I did forget to say (in my novel ). When the interface is new, it can be hard to click the ports in, almost like it's stiff or something? Someone here suggested taking the used ports and clicking them on and off a few times (or more than a few) to kind of loosen things up and make it easier. I did notice, when I got a new interface after a couple of years that all of a sudden it was more difficult. So you might try that as well.

[ILoveFlowers]

If that's the case, you aren't putting them on right. There should be no reason to apply "pressure pushing them together to align with the mask." They are supposed to come straight down off the nostrils and be parallel. If you haven't contacted the company over why it isn't working, you should. Stuart's always available to help. While I'm not as fast as he is at putting them on, I can clean my nose, apply the ports in front of the mirror and connect on my nose, in the bed, in under a minute. That's not much time to be concerned over.

I noticed in all the videos I watched that they seem to fit peoples' nose that way but, try as I might, there's no way I can get them totally straight. But you inspired me to try again.

PS I don't use the wipes or alcohol or anything and they stick tight to my skin with no problem just after washing and drying my face as normal. I tend to have dry skin so that's probably why but they do have good adhesive on them.

[Pugsy]

I noticed in all the videos I watched that they seem to fit peoples' nose that way but, try as I might, there's no way I can get them totally straight.

FWIW....the Bleep doesn't have to be totally straight down when we apply those ports. You have some room for it to be less than totally vertically straight. You just don't want one pointing horizontally directly to your ear and the other pointing to the other ear.
You just need them sort of straight so that when the hose gets attached the weight doesn't cause too much torque or pulling on your nose which can cause the adhesive to not stick so great.

I always seem to get one port pretty much sort of vertical and the other one has always been a bit "off" but once I attach the ports to the frame/hose things straighten out and it works. So you don't have to have the ports 100% totally perfectly vertical or straight down...you have a little wiggle room for slightly imperfect. The weight of the frame/hose will help fix a little imperfect pointing and doesn't hurt anything. As long as the ports stay in place and it's comfortable...that's the important thing.

[surf_rower]

Hello Raftar, why did you take my entire post from earlier in the year, copy it, and put your name on it?
I don't mind seeing more replies to it, but it seems like an odd thing to do.

[GrumpyHere]

Raftar aka Firoj is a possible link farmer or malware distributer. If you search "routerlogin.uno" or "19216801.onl" or "192168ll.link" you see this junk all over.

His script copies old posts, then edits the post 2 days later to insert the website links.
One of the their sites that I checked is flagged as suspicious by an online scanner.

Pugsy normally takes a hammer to them.
In fact she deleted a post earlier today.
But this one slipped through the net.

I quoted Pugsy to set a notification flag for her.

[surf_rower]

Folks, there are links embedded in the OP, do not click on them! This post was copied verbatim from my legit May 5 post and the links added. Not legit! (I reported to the admins.)

[surf_rower]

Raftar aka Firoj is a possible link farmer or malware distributer. If you search "routerlogin.uno" or "19216801.onl" or "192168ll.link" you see this junk all over.

His script copies old posts, then edits the post 2 days later to insert the website links.
One of the their sites that I checked is flagged as suspicious by an online scanner.

Pugsy normally takes a hammer to them.
In fact she deleted a post earlier today.
But this one slipped through the net.

I quoted Pugsy to set a notification flag for her.

Thank you! I also sent a flag to admins.
I would suggest copying the legitimate Replies from this thread and putting them on my May 5 post of the same subject line, because the Replies are useful.

[Pugsy]

Okay folks...rafter was a sneaky spammer....first post just to get foot in the door and then a few questions to get posts to show up and THEN he comes in and edits his posts to add the links to spam...in this case nasty website that was blocked by my IP.

So...all his other posts and threads have been removed...and he can no longer post anything here.
I let this topic stand but just removed the offending link because if I removed his post then it really messes things up all the way around since others have actually quoted him.

This sort of spammer is getting more frequent and the first post doesn't always raise the usual flags so they get approved.
Then the creep comes back in and adds links or edits something or adds something in the signature line.
I have no way of knowing about edits or signature additions or changes. I don't get an alert for that sort of action that any member does.
I only get alerts for new account posts and when someone flags something like was done here by surf rower.

Normally I would just remove the entire thread but this situation is a bit messy plus I wanted to alert you guys to help me out when you see stuff like this happen.
These spammers do a first post to get approved that is not going to raise alarms and then they come back and edit stuff...I call them sneaky spammers.

As soon as I realize what they are doing...they get nuked.
Had a different one this morning do the same thing....but the dumb ass quoted me and put the link in my comments and I do get a notice when someone quotes me....so I saw what was done and he is now banned and his other half dozen posts he had also edited are now gone as well. I go through and clean out all these sneaky spammer posts once I see what has been done.

Apparently going to be more common since this is 2 in one day now....so your helpful eyes watching for this crap is much appreciated.
When in doubt...send me a PM.

Thanks

[zonker]

Hello Raftar, why did you take my entire post from earlier in the year, copy it, and put your name on it?
I don't mind seeing more replies to it, but it seems like an odd thing to do.

good work!

i hate these spammers with the heat of a thousand suns.