My next experiment....the AirSense 11 AutoSet

[Pugsy]

So.....I got my hands on the AirSense 11 AutoSet and gave it a try last night..
So a quick report.

Mode....AutoSet for Her mode....I have been wanting to give it a try. Settings 7 to 20 and ramp was turned off. EPR at full time and set to 3. Standard response......plan to try "soft" repose at some time.
Humidity manual....set at 7
Hose air temp (heated hose but no cozies)...set at max 86 degrees....mask was the F & P Nova Micro.
I got some rain out...yuck but not unexpected.... that woke me twice. My bedroom is always at least 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house which has a thermostat set at 65 degrees. Ambient humidity about 47%.

I don't know what all the people are doing to use up all the water but I had at least 1/2 the water remaining after 7 3/4 hours of use. I fully expected minimal remaining water but was pleasantly surprised to see so much left.
Maybe those who use up all the water have a low ambient humidity or maybe much higher pressures than I use.

Machine is totally silent. I didn't have Darth Vadar in bed with me last night.
Minimal venting noise which I already documented on the Nova Micro review thread.

Not a big fan of the interactive screen and the time zone limitation is annoying but I can live with it.
I use OSCAR to adjust for daylight savings time change anyway.
Not a fan of the hose to machine placement (no swivel) but not a deal breaker. Remember I started therapy 15 years ago and we didn't have swivel hoses back then either. Heck, we didn't even have heated hoses.

[Pugsy]

Here's last night's report. Ignore the Flow Limitation graph because I am in the "for Her" mode and it always makes mountains out of mole hills. Plus I had the noisy rain out to deal with as well. I think it was mainly at the mask level but I put cozies on both hoses just now. I don't want to risk any rain out tonight to mess up my results. I was awake dealing with rain out when most of that ugly FL graph was showing its stuff....so not asleep thus it doesn't count. Those pressure increases you see....I wasn't asleep during them either. Only 2 hyponeas flagged for the entire night. The first one was definitely arousal related as I saw awake breathing right before the flag but the second one appears to be for real asleep flagged event.

[Pugsy]

BTW I used my SD card out of my AirCurve 10 WITHOUT erasing that old data, and the AirSense 11 didn't complain at all.
Now I don't know if the AirCurve 10 will complain or not when I put that SD card back in it with the AirSense 11 data on it.

[Pugsy]

Well.....I am still battling rain out which is totally weird.
I put hose cozies on both the heated hose and the mask short hose (these were the super nice cozies from Padacheek) and I still woke up too early with rain out.
I didn't have this problem with the AirCurve 10 set at the exact same settings.

Don't tell me to reduce the humidity setting either. My nasal muocosa don't like being dried out and at the setting of 6 for humidity I get some real nasty nasal mucosa symptoms.

Sigh....I guess I can try increasing the ambient bedroom temp.

[Dog Slobber]

Well.....I am still battling rain out which is totally weird.
I put hose cozies on both the heated hose and the mask short hose (these were the super nice cozies from Padacheek) and I still woke up too early with rain out.
I didn't have this problem with the AirCurve 10 set at the exact same settings.

Don't tell me to reduce the humidity setting either. My nasal muocosa don't like being dried out and at the setting of 6 for humidity I get some real nasty nasal mucosa symptoms.

Sigh....I guess I can try increasing the ambient bedroom temp.

The most reasonable explanation, for:

• the Air 11 going through more water than the Air 10 (as reported my an overwhelming number of people)
• you experiencing rain out with the Air 11, but not the Air 10 (on the same settings)

is:

There Air 11 transfers heat and/or evaporates water more efficiently than the Air 10.

If you are experiencing rainout on the 11, but not the 10 on the same settings, than the explanation must be there is more humidity in the provided air. There really is no other explanation.

This is what we know:

• There has been a tank design change from the earlier Air10s to the Air11s. The original Air10's had a heat transfer plate that covered the full tank, was thicker and looked like a different material. The heat transfer of the new design will not be the same as the old design and it's likely the new one transfer heat better. All though the the Air10 tank is now more similar many of us are still on the original design.
• The Air 11 tank is lower and flatter than the Air 10 tank. there is more surface area for the air to blow over, therefore there *will* be more evaporation.

Add to that, although both the units have settings that more from 0-8, the machine is a complete redesign. It's very plausible (likely) that the humidity generated between the two is *not* the same when set on the same numbers. A 4 on an Air 11, might be equivalent to a 5 on the Air 10.

Basically, for the same reasons that nobody believes that a humidity setting of 2 on an AirSense 10, would be the same as a DreamStation. But it's intuitive that we believe the Humidity Settings on the 11 should be the same as the 10.

So, to create the moisture for your mucosa, your well established 7 on the Air10 might be achievable with a 6 or 5 on the Air 11. Add to that if you are experiencing rainout, that extra moisture collecting in the tube is not reaching you mucosa anyway.

[Pugsy]

So....no rain out last night and I made zero changes to any settings except I noticed last night that the furnace thermostat was set to 69 degrees (had been 65) and I blame hubby for that. He got home Friday and doesn't like it when I turn the thermostat down.
So....there was one very important change last night but not in terms of machine settings.
Remember my bedroom is colder so routinely see a 5 degree reduction in bedroom temps compared to furnace setting.
I got one of those devices in my bedroom to measure ambient humidity and temp and it also shows "lowest" and "highest" temp or humidity.

9.5 hours of use. Still had a little water left in the water chamber this morning as I just now topped it off to see how much water was used. I had some of my normal wake ups during the night....shrugs. I hurt like hell yesterday and last night.
My usual back/pelvic stuff and to top it all off some shoulder pain as well since I have to sleep on my side.
We are facing rain for the next few days and rain/cold/change always causes me more discomfort.
I have no idea how much "real" sleep I got but I will look closer at the data in a bit. Most likely around 8 hours which for me is pretty darn good. Night before I only got a little over 6 hours of use. It was shortened because of the rain out.

About the rain out...even with hose cozies and heated hose...the only thing uncovered is right at the mask/nose itself so I am fairly confident that the moisture was limited to right at the mask level. Now it wasn't a huge amount of rain out when I had it but it was enough to wake me up.
If I had a barrel cozy small enough to fit the Nova Micro that would be my next step but I don't think I have anything small enough that won't cover the vent holes so I haven't decided what to do.
Hubby will be home for a couple of weeks so I probably won't be turning down the thermostat again.

Haven't decided yet what my further plans with this machine might be.
Originally bought because someone where my husband works was wanting a spare machine but then he changed his mind.
I suppose I need to sell it because I don't need another spare......

[Pugsy]

The AutoSet for Her mode algorithm will automatically increase the base/minimum pressure if there are 2 OAs flagged withing a relatively short period of time....couple of minutes comes to my mind.
You can see this in action starting at about 00:00 time frame. See report below. Now I will admit that the bulk of the OAs flagged between 23:00 and 00:00 were awake/arousal related and I wasn't asleep but that doesn't stop the machine from doing what the algorithm says it needs to do because remember....the machine can't tell if we are asleep or not.

[Pugsy]

Sigh....the increase in the house thermostat temp wasn't the magic fix after all.
Woke up to water in the mask again. Just enough to be annoying.

I gotta think on this a bit more.......I still don't want to reduce the humidity setting.
My nasal mucosa are quick to get angry and very slow to get unangry. Been there and done that and it wasn't pretty.

[LSAT]

One of my potential customers complained that there was no way to add O2 to the AS11 heated hose. The AS10 had the optional Oxy hose with an O2 port.

[Pugsy]

More sighs....the condensation is NOT limited to at the mask level only....the condensation is along the entire heated hose.
It was just dripping water. I tested the heated air in the heated hose to see if the heated hose is working properly and the temperature probe I used showed 86 degrees like it should but it didn't prevent condensation in the heated hose (even with a hose cozy on it) and essentially both the heated hose and the mask short hose (also has a cozy on it) had a lot of water in it.
I am running the machine right now just to dry things out and then I need to decide what I want to do. The bedroom isn't even that cold. I also made sure not to over fill the water chamber on the off chance that water was getting blown into the heated hose because I know that can happen.

My choices are limited and not particularly attractive to me
1...reduce the humidity setting
2...warm up the air more in my bedroom
3...go back to the AirCurve 10

Guess I will try a little reduction in humidity and if that doesn't fix the problem or the reduction causes a problem with my nasal mucosa then I will just plug the AirCurve 10 back in and use it.
Maybe do more experimenting with the For Her algorithm later when things warm up a bit.....or just sell the machine because I can't deal with the condensation.
It's a lot more than just at the mask level and I don't think that even the barrel cozy would help.

[Pugsy]

One of my potential customers complained that there was no way to add O2 to the AS11 heated hose. The AS10 had the optional Oxy hose with an O2 port.

The Oxy hose will eventually be available for the AirSense/AirCurve 11 model line.
It's always the last thing they roll out for new models.

[Pugsy]

Remember folks.....I route my hose(s) under the bed covers clear up to my nose.
So I am getting rain out despite the heated hose, despite having hose cozies on both hoses and despite running them under the bed covers.

It doesn't compute....shouldn't be happening.

[zonker]

have you tried a different mask?

[Pugsy]

have you tried a different mask?

Not yet.
I don't like changing too many things at one time. I only make one change at a time unless I have no choice.
And I got a boo boo on the nostril area where the Eclipse adhesive has to go and I don't want to cover the boo boo just yet.

One change last night was a reduction in humidity setting from the 7 down to a 6.
No rain out but need more nights.

[super7pilot]

I agree with Dog Slobber. Humidity is science. The machines humidity settings aren't science, they are an arbitrary setting.

What is the medium setting mean between two differing models of electric stoves from GE? Who knows. One may burn your eggs and the other cooks them perfectly.

You are just going to have to lower the settings and see if your nose acts up.