Is my humidifier broken?

[Shellwitch]

Hello Everyone,

Since I started CPAPing 4 months ago, I've been using my humidifier on setting 3. I tried a few nights on a lower setting and ended up with dry mouth but 3 has been working well for me. However, this past Sunday I moved to a new house 6 miles away from where I had been living before. I dutifully filled up my humidifier with my distilled water the first night and now I'm about to have my 5th night and the water level in my humidifier has not dropped. Not even a little bit. I live in a naturally humid area of the country (mid-Atlantic) but it seems strange to me that 6 miles and a new house would have so much humidity that it wouldn't use my distilled water.

It would surprise me if it is broken because I've not had problems with dry mouth (I use a full face mask because I always fall asleep mouth breathing but wake up nose breathing) like I did when I experimented with the humidity level. Has anyone had experience with this? Should I take it back the the DME and have them see if something is wrong? Thanks in advance.

Edited: Correct machine and humidifier in my profile now.

[kwikwater]

Mine goes in spurts. Currently I've used it 2 nights and it's still above 3/4 full. For most of the past week I've used 85-90% of the tank per night. I can't attribute it to leaks, one of my theories, or any other variable on SleepyHead data. They've been near perfect. I'm not very sensitive to low humidity so i don't worry about it. Maybe pull the humidifier off the CPAP and latch it back, and replug the power cord. I spin the dial back and forth a couple times. Have ya slapped it up the side of the head? (Gently) Who knows??.... Good Luck!!!

[SleepWellCPAP]

Though most machines now incorporate a humidity sensor in the humidifiers, the level of water consumption in most cases varies due to unintentional leakage from the circuit. If the leaks are the lower side, generally you will use more water. If the leaks are larger, the machine will stop sending as much current to the plate heating the water and less water is used.

I hear this question about water level and suspected failure of the heater quite often and always advise to go by how you feel, rather than how much water is used. To be on the safe side, if you want to test your heater. Tech support instructs us to start the machines on high heat with the airflow from the machine completely blocked. After one minute, carefully feel for heat either on the bottom of the chamber or the plate itself. If that test is good, you're more than likely looking at leakage issues.

Hope that helps!

[violetpro]

SleepWellCPAP--Would this test work for the Resmed S9 autoset humidifier as well? Thank-you.

[SleepWellCPAP]

violetpro,

I'm glad you asked that. The S9 humidifier is tested by starting the "warm up" feature and feeling for heat immediately on the plate. Anytime you are on the humidity adjustment indicated on the LCD screen, the "warm up" feature is started by holding down the push-dial for 3 seconds. Another 3-second push-dial feature is accessed from the home screen. Holding it down then starts the air flow at therapy pressure for you to test your "mask fit".

Hope that helps.

[star444]

When I first got my PR System One REMStar 60 Series SE CPAP Machine with heated humidifier I thought there must be something wrong with the humidifier. I would wake up at night and found no signs of warmth at all. My DME simply said that the machine could sense that no humidity was needed. Anyway, a web search brought me to this forum where I finally found some answers.

I learned that the PR System One Heated Humidifiers Version 1.22 or higher have two modes: 1.) Classic and 2.) System One Humidification. By default it is set to use the System One Humidification where it attempts to sense whether or not humidity is needed. I found I preferred it set to Classic mode where the humidifier comes on and just continues to run.

The description below is from cpap.com. Refer to you owner's manual for more information.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... mments-tab

Classic Mode
The CPAP user who wants to control the heat setting on the humidifier should select "Classic" mode settings C1,C2, C3, C4 or C5. The "C" in front of the humidification setting indicates "Classic". This allows you to set the level of humidification.

System One Humidification Mode
The CPAP User who wants to allow the technology of the System One Humidification to set the level of humidification delivered based on the humidity present in the room air should select "System One Humidification". The humidification setting will show 1 - 5 but WITHOUT a "C" preceding the number.

Heating Off
If set to zero “0”, the humidifier will act as a Passover Humidifier.

Accessing Humidification Settings:

Humidifier must be attached to the machine
Access the Set Up menu
Scroll down the menu offerings to locate: "System One Humidification"
If set to "On", the technology will set the amount of humidification delivered to the system based on the setting of 1 -5 with 1 being the least and 5 being the most
If set to "Off", the user controls the heat setting based on C1-C5 with C1 being the lowest heat and C5 being the highest heat.

[KarenP]

Thanks for your detailed reply--this was exactly what I needed to know!

I just got my new PR System One REMStar 60 Series Auto CPAP machine with humidifier and heated tube. No rainout whatsoever, which I attributed to the heated tube. However, I've been puzzled as to why there has been hardly any change in the water level in the humidification chamber and why my sinuses have been so dry. I'd read the humidifier instructions, but it didn't register that the machine would determine if the humidifier was necessary based on the room's humidity.

I'm looking forward to having the humidifier working the next time I sleep! Perhaps an early nap today....