HUMIDIFICATION WITHOUT HEAT --is it possible?

[ofarchesandants]

Well I've gone from 0- 1 hour of CPAP use my first 6 weeks or so up to a high of about 3 hours but everytime i have one issue under control, another crops up. I have finally realized I just don't like hot or even mildy warm air blowing in my face. If it were only up my nose that might be ok but since i must wear a full face mask due to chronic sinusitis, that air just makes my face itchy and irritated.

Still i do want the humidity. Is there a way to get tht without the heat? I've discovered that setting my integrated humidifier on my REMstar M series auto at 2 or greater is not tolerable due to the above mentioned issues. Last night i tried setting it at "1" but my mouth would get very dry and keep waking me up. I vasilated between 1 and 2 all night. I have used the low settings before and don't remember a dry mouth. My throat and nose did not seem dry last night, just my mouth. I have not tried the zero setting and am not sure if that would shut off all humidification or not.

The only change I made last night was the addition of moldable airplug silicon to the hardened interior edges of the mask. They are not blocking any exhalation ports though and i would not think they would be releasing any gases inside the mask to dry my mouth. As I write this I realize there is one other change i forgot i made. I noticed while sleeping that my mouth was more open and thought i was just getting used to mouth breathing more due to the stuffiness of my nose. Now i remember that I did not put on the breathright strip that i normally use. Maybe that is why my mouth was more open and thus dry. I explore that issue tonight but still the question remains--

CAN YOU GET HUMIDIFIED AIR WITHOUT HAVING TO HEAT IT TO DO SO?? And does having the setting at zero still offer some humidified air. thanks for your thoughts.
cheers,
gregg )

[CorgiGirl]

The air passing over the water will (likely) pick up some moisture, but it depends on the humidity the air started out with. If you live in a dry area or your room air is dry due to heating, it probably will. If you live in a warm, humid area where you don't use heat much, it probably won't.

Other than turning off the heater element and trying the passover mode, I don't have any other ideas. Hopefully someone else will.

Hang in there. It takes a while for most of us to adjust to CPAP therapy and to get everything just right....

[Snoredog]

yep, more surface area for moisture to be picked up is all you need. They use heat because they can shrink down the humidifier size and control the amount of moisture.

You can go with like the Remstar passover humidifier it has lots more surface area to pick up moisture without adding heat, in fact it doesn't have heat:


https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -hose.html

[feeling_better]

ofarchesandants, You can get humidity without heating. But the available humidity may be limited... I was going to suggest to go to setting 1 or 0. Setting 0 is where you have no heating, but pass over humidifying, the air passing over the water picks up some humidity. However, your integrated humidifier cannot really get much humidity this way, since it is really designed for heated method. There are other external (non integrated) pass over humidifiers, you can add in line to your tube. Some of them have a large and long surface area over which the air is forcefully routed, which increases the humidity considerably. Search for them at cpap.com. Surprisingly, they are rather inexpensive; it is just a molded plastic container, not electrical wires and other stuff. I have never used one of those, but when I looked at their designs a while back, they should increase the relative humidity quite high; so it might just work for you.

It is always possible that you might find the humidity is not enough. Once you have high initial humidity using the above type of external pass over humidifier, if you feel you do not have enough, then you may be losing quite a bit of that humidity by condensation at the earlier part of the tube. So you may want to consider insulating the tube, or keeping under the bed covers. You may also want to experiment with the ambient room temperature at night.

[ofarchesandants]

Thanks everyone. ) Snoredog that looks like just what i need, i'll order one today!! ) Feeling better thanks for your thoughts. I do have a hose huggy which helped greatly to prevent rain out when trying to use heated humidity. But again it was the heat that created problems for me. I don't think i need much humidity especially as i live near the ocean but a little would be nice and seems like the passover one should do the trick nicely. thanks again all.
cheers,
gregg )

[feeling_better]

Snoredog that looks like just what i need, i'll order one today!! ) Feeling better thanks for your thoughts.gregg )

Gregg, Do look on line and compare. There are quite a few of those passover types available out there with a big range in price and looks. You may want to look at the cpapauction site too.

[Paul56]

Hmm, perhaps someone will adapt the "cool mist" room humidifier technology for use with xPAP machines.

[ofarchesandants]

Thanks feeling better, actually i am doing research and am now more confused than ever. I need to know which passover units my machine will integrate with as all sellers say used with remstar auto but then one seller will say, not useful with M series while another will make no mention of that. Part of my confusion is in not understanding why it would not work with m series and a larger Part of my confusion is that i still really do not know what machine i have. When i posted a query about that last week, one of the replies said to just look at the machine but that is not helpful. I got many other replies and thought i had figured it out but now i'm not sure again as the machine says one thing, the instructions say several other things and neither the exact wording on the machine nor the exact wording on the manuals are listed on any retail websights nor on this forum when i tried to input what machine i have. Ohh some of the words are the same but there is nothing exact.

Here is what I do know
I have a "Respironics REMstar Auto M series with C-flex" and the attached M series heated humidifier and some kind of smart card.

Here is what i do not know
I see some things list what i wrote above in italics with either the "REMstar" part omitted or with the M series" part omitted but i have seen nothing anywhere on the web that lists the full name i wrote above.
So which is it?
I'm guessing the "REMstar" part is superflous and not the "M series" part but i don't know why that would be or even if i'm correct in that assemption?
What does M series mean?
What does the REMstar part mean?
Why is it that even on the CPAP forum control panel, nothing has the full name with every word i wrote instead of just most of them?
Then i also see all kinds of things about "Pro" or "Plus" but i have no clue what those terms mean either. My manual says "Encore Pro Smartcard". Does this mean the "Pro" applies to my whole machine or only to the smartcard or ???

once all that is answered then i of course need the original question that started this thread answered of what passover unit will interface with whichever machine it turns out i have??

As you can see i'm very confused. I used to be sleepy everday but though not liking it, didn't realize how abnormal it was. Now in addition to being sleepy every day, I'm exhausted by the process, I'm depressed at feeling worse instead of better, while this forum is great, the several hours per day i am spending on it is taking away from getting other things done in my life which would be ok if i were getting better but at this point i'm only getting worse and more frustrated and depressed that no matter how much i do or how many little things i fix, i'm still going downhill compared to when i started. I'm a highly intelligent person and am even a full time registered nurse. So after several months on this thing, if I can't even figure out the dam name of my machine, how the hell can i figure anything else out. I'm sorry to rant but i've been trying to stay positive, I really have, but I feel I'm nearing the end of my rope. I can't continue to live this way with no improvement. I want to make this work I really do but i'm very frustrated and more tired than ever. Please help.
Thanks,
Gregg )

[feeling_better]

Thanks feeling better, actually i am doing research and am now more confused than ever. I need to know which passover units my machine will integrate with as all sellers say used with remstar auto but then one seller will say, not useful with M series while another will make no mention of that.
Gregg )

There is not 'integration' with the current machine. Even your current integration is only for the physical convenience; it does not do much at all, other than saying what level of heat you set in the report. Since the passover is no heat, you already know the setting

The pass over humidifiers will work with any cpap machine out there. You simply connect a small tube (get a 2 ft tube, it may come with that already) from the output of the current machine to the new humidifier and then connect your normal cpap tube to the output of the new humidifier. You can keep your current integrated humidifier as is, and use both (to get a little more humidity), or remove the current humidifier and use only the new one. Only thing you need to make sure is the tube diameters match. I think there may be two different diameter tubes used by cpap machines; but your M-series uses the more common diameter. So find out the diameter of humidifier before you buy and check with your current tube diameter.

[GumbyCT]

There is nothing to be confused about - look at your machine - the model is written right across the top of it. Just do NOT insert words that aren't written there.

[ofarchesandants]

Thanks again all. My apologies "feeling better" i used the wrong phrase. i did not mean integrate, but merely interface. Thanks snore dog, i ended up buying the machine you suggested. What i learned from all my research was if i only had the m series unit without the intgrated humidifier, then i would need a small, inexpensive connector piece to make it work. i bought this as a back up anyway but i do plan to use the integrated humidifier along with the passive humidifier to give greater option to fiddle. used in this manner it all connects without the need for any addition connector pieces. thanks again, my new toys are on the way. well they will be by tomorrow anyway. ;o)
cheers,
gregg )