Got a new battery pack for my CPAP

[sleepymike]

I'm fairly new to CPAP and I have been preparing for a trip to Canada to a remote island where I will spend a week with the only power being a generator during the day. I searched this forum and other places on the internet to figure out the best way to power my CPAP by battery. I thought about buying the Respironics battery pack from CPAP.com and I even had it in my shopping cart a few times, but its so expensive for something I could build for SO much less. But, I really liked the idea of a nice carry bag for the whole thing and accomplishing that on my own would be difficult and probably leave me with something that doesn't fit the battery well to make it awkward to carry and look more like an improvised explosive device than a powerpack for my CPAP at the border crossing into Canada. The idea of using a jump starter seemed simple, but awkward and even large to haul around in a car then on a boat for the last leg of our journey where we need to keep weight and size to a minimum. So, I settled on something that looks professional and is clearly labeled as a powerpack for the border crossing, fits everything into a single case that contains everything so I don't have to tinker with alligator clips etc, is portable enough to carry over my shoulder, and costs about 1/3 the price of the Respironics battery pack.

So, I ordered this with the 20 a/h battery:

http://www.powerstream.com/BP-60.htm

It is a neat package that easily runs my CPAP for a night and for me that is 8 to 10 hours. I think it would run my CPAP for two nights, but I haven't tested it for a second night and since I'll have access to charge it each day that's my plan and its probably better for the battery anyway.

It was less than $110 plus shipping. It comes with the battery, carrying case with integrated charging port and cigarette lighter port, international charger with float capability, USB adapter to charge my iphone and even a cigarette lighter adapter to charge it in the car. Powerstream gave me great customer service and it has worked well for me. The bonus is that the charger it came with is smart enough to allow me to leave the battery on charge at home for a backup in case of a power outage.

It would still have been cheaper to build this myself, but for my circumstances this made a lot of sense to me and all I had to do was wait for it to be delivered.

Mike

[texmels]

Thanks sleepymike! I was just searching for a battery for both mine and my husbands cpap machines for when we travel, but couldn't decide on one. Thanks for sharing.

[archangle]

1) Do you have the ResMed DC-DC converter?
2) The charger is only 2 amps. It might be iffy for it charging up the battery during your limited generator hours. You might want to get a 5 amp battery charger for use on the trip, and use the supplied charger for normal maintenance charging at home.
3) Do NOT plug the charger into the battery while it's connected to your CPAP machine. It has a desulphator, which puts a high frequency voltage on top of the charging current. This might adversely affect your CPAP machine. This even applies if the charger is not plugged into the wall. Many desulphators will run off the battery with no AC power applied.

[sleepymike]

Archangle,

I bought my Resmed DC adapter from cpap.com and already used this setup a few times to test it out. Wish that adapter wasn't so expensive and large, but that's the way it is when you have a Resmed S9.

I will actually get 16 hours of generator time every day, so there will be plenty of charge time with the existing charger. I don't think I'm actually discharging the battery very deeply with one night because it doesn't take very long to recharge it.

I wasn't planning to keep the CPAP plugged in while charging, but thats a good reason to be diligent in making sure I remember to unplug the charger from the wall and the battery.

Thanks!

Mike