Too much humidity

[cyclist56]

Took me awhile, but I finally realized that I didn't need extra humidification on summer nights with the windows open. There's plenty of humidity in the air already. Humidifying the air makes it too wet and makes breathing more difficult. The mask is wet and uncomfortable. Once I turned off the humidification, I could breath much easier. Just passing this along. I also turned down the heat on the tubing to 70. It had been set at 84. Again, I don't think that the air needs to be heated above room temperature this time of year.

[gasp]

Maybe I'm just being dense here, but why doesn't the machine sense the humidity and turn itself down?

[Julie]

Because it's designed to suit you, even if your choice is higher than others might like it.

[Pugsy]

Maybe I'm just being dense here, but why doesn't the machine sense the humidity and turn itself down?

It can't turn itself down but it can simply not add much moisture to the air depending on the settings.
If I use my PR S1 with heated hose set to 3 which is 90%...it doesn't add 90% on top of whatever the ambient humidity is...it adds enough to make it 90%. That's why when it rains and my windows are open I don't use much water and the nights where the ambient humidity is relatively low I might use almost all the water at the same settings...same setting, different nights, different ambient humidity results in different amounts of water usage.

So it depends on what the settings are...using heated hose and those sensors or some other mode...like the PR S1 has the new humidification mode without heated hose and it has a mode with heated hose and it has classic mode which doesn't use any heated hose or any humidity sensors.

So in a way it can or does "turn itself down" but not like we might think...instead it just adjusts the humidity output to maintain whatever the choice might be. It doesn't add X amount of more moisture on top of the ambient humidity when the machine uses the humidity sensors that are in place. Older machines don't have those sensors but the System One machines do and the S9 and newer ResMeds do.

[cyclist56]

Maybe I'm just being dense here, but why doesn't the machine sense the humidity and turn itself down?

It can't turn itself down but it can simply not add much moisture to the air depending on the settings.
If I use my PR S1 with heated hose set to 3 which is 90%...it doesn't add 90% on top of whatever the ambient humidity is...it adds enough to make it 90%. That's why when it rains and my windows are open I don't use much water and the nights where the ambient humidity is relatively low I might use almost all the water at the same settings...same setting, different nights, different ambient humidity results in different amounts of water usage.

So it depends on what the settings are...using heated hose and those sensors or some other mode...like the PR S1 has the new humidification mode without heated hose and it has a mode with heated hose and it has classic mode which doesn't use any heated hose or any humidity sensors.

So in a way it can or does "turn itself down" but not like we might think...instead it just adjusts the humidity output to maintain whatever the choice might be. It doesn't add X amount of more moisture on top of the ambient humidity when the machine uses the humidity sensors that are in place. Older machines don't have those sensors but the System One machines do and the S9 and newer ResMeds do.

I'm not sure if my machine adjusts to a certain level of humidity depending on the setting. I just know that turning it off helped. It was set at 4, which is in the middle of the range.

[palerider]

Maybe I'm just being dense here, but why doesn't the machine sense the humidity and turn itself down?

the machine DOES have a humidistat in it, so it can deliver the desired amount of humidity even when the room humidity changes... but if you set it to a lot, then it'll give you a lot... the fact that the humidifiers are smarter these days trips up some people who worry that their machine was using a lot more water in the winter (when the room air is usually drier) than in the summer (when the room air is more humid)... so the machine adds different amounts to get it to whatever the setting is.

I think the OP is just saying that he had it cranked up a lot more than was needed, in the summer.

unfortunately, humidity settings are something that frequently need to be twiddled with, thanks to varying weather conditions

OH, that'd be a nice thing to use those built in modems for.... getting weather reports and more intelligently setting the humidity settings! RESMED, ARE YOU LISTENING???

[Wulfman...]

I found out that cool, "passover" humidification was what worked for me. Only took a couple of nights when I started therapy with heated humidity to decide to turn it completely off.
Glad to hear you found what worked for you.


Den

.

[Pugsy]

I'm not sure if my machine adjusts to a certain level of humidity depending on the setting. I just know that turning it off helped. It was set at 4, which is in the middle of the range.

It does because you were using the heated hose at a temperature setting and the humidifier set to 4 which is one setting higher than middle of the road humidity to be delivered (settings 1 through 6 available when in manual mode) . When you turned the humidifier to 0 that turned off the heat completely to the humidifier plate and without heat there is no added moisture so the sensors are taken out of the equation.
When you were using it at the setting of 4 (I don't know what % that is supposed to deliver) the sensors were in play though...whatever that % of humidity the setting of 4 would deliver that's what the machine tried to keep it at. If it rained outside and you had your windows open then likely it wouldn't use much water...it doesn't add x amount of moisture on top of what the ambient humidity already is.

Let's suppose that a setting of 4 is supposed to deliver 70% humidity...and it's raining outside and your windows are open and the ambient humidity in your bedroom is 65%...the machine doesn't keep pumping out 70% on top of the 65%...instead it adds just 5% to get to the 70% mark. That's why sometimes we use a lot of water and sometimes we don't.

At any rate your nasal mucosa seem to be happier without any added moisture and they are good with whatever your ambient humidity might be (and if you have water in the chamber but no heat you get a little bit of added passover humidity) and that's fine. Humidity needs are highly individualized and depend on the person's nasal mucosa and what it needs. Where I live isn't very dry at all...low humidity here is 40% and more often its quite a bit higher even if it isn't raining. My nose likes maximum humidity so maybe that's what it is used to. I just know that I get horrible nasal issues when I forget to top off the water and I use it all up during the night.

My point is that when the humidity sensors are being used then the humidifier isn't putting out X amount of humidity on top of whatever the ambient humidity is. Science won't let it. My PR S1 machine says the setting of 3 (with the heated hose so that we get full sensing) delivers 90% humidity. If it is raining outside and I have the windows open and my ambient humidity in my bedroom is 85%..the machine can't add 90% more or else I would have big time rain out since 100% is as far as we go then we get rain.

I don't worry about the ambient humidity...I let the machine sort it out. Some nights I use up all the water and some nights I barely use any but my nasal mucosa get a constant amount of humidity and that is what keeps them happy.

When someone turns off their humidifier...they are turning essentially turning off the humidity sensors because the machine won't/can't add heat when it is turned off no matter what the ambient humidity might be.

Hey...it works for a lot of people and there's certainly nothing wrong with it....it all comes down to whatever makes the nasal mucosa happy and it's like so much other stuff when it comes to cpap therapy...big YMMV sticker.

I am glad you figured out which way you needed to go to make your nose happy...I know when my nose isn't happy I am pretty darn miserable and wouldn't wish that misery on my worst enemy.

I just wanted to point out that whatever humidity gets selected..when the sensors are involved...the machine won't keep adding moisture past the selected level...it can't. Otherwise we would drown in the water.