Leaking HH

[Sleepless on LI]

I discovered last night right after going to bed that the heated humidifier was leaking air at the connection point on my Remstar Auto. My leak rate recently had risen from 18-19 to 32-33 and thought it was my tube from the Swift that had broken in two places since the line on my leak report is usually flat, showing no peaks or dips. I figured that meant a constant leak and thought I hadn't fixed the leaks on the tube very well.
Well, last night I was using a brand new Swift and I started to feel dry in my throat. I reached down to put on the hh and felt a stream of air. Sure enough, it was leaking. I tried everything I could to stop it, but it still had a gentle little air stream coming from the seal, or so it seemed. I put a little tape around the opening and on the piece that goes into it. I am showing that it was affecting my leaks by posting the report below. You will see in the very beginnning, until after the stops in usage due to my trying to fix it, the leak rate was a bit higher. But since it's still 32, I am wondering what is going on underneath, where I can't feel around the seal.

Has anyone had this happen to them? This machine is one month old. I guess I am going to have to call the DME today and bring it in if I can't fix what's wrong.
Also, I thought I'd remove the hh and just connect the hose to the machine, but that can't be done? It doesn't fit since there is this other ring like piece behind the opening that won't allow you to attach a hose to it. Maybe this is what is causing a leak? I'm lost...

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): humidifier, hose, swift, DME, seal, auto

[yawn]

Lori,
My HH came with an extra ring....I was wondering why because I thought the ring was part of the machine (not detachable). But there must be a way to detach it because, like you said, you have to get it out of there if you want to bypass the HH and just hook up to the machine. Look in your instruction manual...see if it's helpful at all. If not, call the DME. I would be tempted to try and dislodge the ring with brute force but I have a replacement so it wouldn't matter if something happened to my ring...different story for you.
OSA....never a dull moment.
Amy

[Sleepless on LI]

OSA....never a dull moment.

A big "UGH" - How true!!!

Thanks for the suggestion, Amy. Great idea. Let me go now and look for an extra ring. Will let you know.

[Sleepless on LI]

Amy,
Yes, I did have an extra ring. But I ended up calling the DME who said most times, it is the ring. So he told me how to remove it. Put the new one in and it did the same thing. He said it could be a crack in the humidifier, so I soaked it with vinegar and water and am waiting for it to dry so I can look carefully at it and see if there is a hairline crack in the neck.

Meanwhile, he explained that in order to bypass the hh with the hose, you have to remove the seal/ring and connect the hose directly to the opening without the ring in place. And since I rarely use the hh, I did that for now. But it is still under warrantee so I will make sure this is taken care of. Curious to see my leak rate tonight without the air escaping from the ring. Now my luck will be, even though I've been waiting for the Dr. Sue mouthpiece to come, it will arrive today and I won't be able to test the true leak rate of my usual equipment because I will HAVE to use the mouth device tonight if it arrives.

Thanks again for your suggestion. It definitely took me in the right direction. I wish I could help you now with your leak situation. Did you try emailing Resmed?

[john5757]

Sleepless on LI

I have the same problem with my first CPAP machine a Remstar Plus. First I wanted to say that simple rubber coupler connection is not as simple as believed. This happen to me a couple of times when I slid the water tank back on the machine. When this happens I have to remove the machine from the humidifier pad and since the machine does not lock on to the base and I had the machine to shift a little and I have to reset it on the indents of the base. The water tank connects the coupler is just about 1/8 of inch into it and I have to reseat the water tank as well in the other cases. You have to careful in carrying the whole thing as well since there is no real lock on the base to the flow generator. Usually I had to just left the water tank on the machine and fill it using a funnel. One final comment not even the bottom metal plate locks to the water tank. If you were washing or rising the tank full with hot water the metal plate could just drop off then you least expect it. I even find that the bottom metal plate is not even diskwasher safe since I found it covered with aluminum oidxe powder after the wash and I did not want the risk of that oxide powder getting into my lungs since I do not always put water in the tank. At lease I know not to put the metal plate on the bottom shelf of the dishwasher near the heating element since it could melt the gasket around the metal plate. While this is not as positive sounding I hoping that being aware of pitfalls could save someone some grief in the future.

[Sleepless on LI]

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's just the way the hh is inserted into that rubber gasket ring? I tried this over and over. I even took the gasket off the machine, put it onto the neck of the hh and then inserted the gasket back into the machine. It still leaks.
I just checked the whole clean and dried hh for cracks and I don't see any. So since I don't use the hh very much anyway, I will just take it off for now and watch my leak rate. If it's no big change, I won't worry about the tiny stream of air I feel coming from the gasket, or so I think that's where it's coming from. But for a machine that is almost one month old, I would hope it wouldn't be doing this. What happened to quality in manufacturing, especially in health-related items? I have had two breaks in my Swift's tubing assembly and now this with the machine, both not even a month old.

[ufo13]

Lori:

On the humidifier - machine connection check to see if the rubber/metel bushing is on right. I beleive the bushing slides on the outlet tube of the machine (where you would put your hose if no HH was used) with the long rubber part of the bushing going on the machine outlet port (push it in all the way until secure) the other end of the bushing facing out where the HH tube connects is about a 1/4in then you see the metal piece where the humidifier port connects. worth a check because if the bushing is installed backword it will sometimes cause it to leak there. i hope this saves you a trip 30 miles to the DME!

best to you,

steve,
ufo13

[Sleepless on LI]

Steve,

As far as I could tell, there was only one way to insert the bushing/gasket. This is the long end that goes into the hole where you would connect the hose if it wasn't thereand then it kind of caps the hole with the outter edge of the ring that shows the metal behind it.

Did I miss something?

[ufo13]

Lori:
It sounds like you have it RIGHT! If you don't use the HH just use the machine with the humidifier completly disconnected with only the machine on your table connected to the cpap hose from machine to your mask. If you take the water resivior off but leave the machine on the humidifier platform it also might cause some problems as there is a switch that is activated for the humidifier to work when the machine is connected to it. don't know if that would cause any additional problems but i would just run the machine alone as above if the humidifier is not needed at present! that's what i do!

Hope it helps!

steve

[Sleepless on LI]

Steve,

The advice about taking the machine off the tray definitely helps. Thank you so much. I am going to run the machine without the hh. I find it makes me feel like I'm choking from the heated moisture, anyway. Maybe I'll like it in the cold weather, but for not I'm fine without it. Just don't like the idea of something new not working correctly.

Thanks again, as ususal, for your advice.

[john5757]

Steve,

The advice about taking the machine off the tray definitely helps. Thank you so much. I am going to run the machine without the hh. I find it makes me feel like I'm choking from the heated moisture, anyway. Maybe I'll like it in the cold weather, but for not I'm fine without it. Just don't like the idea of something new not working correctly.

Thanks again, as ususal, for your advice.

In my case I just run the humdifier with out any water but removing the tray is also good. Let us know what the numbers are when you run without the humidifier in my case my maximum pressure reading went down. I was brainwashed at the time in believing that everone needs a humidifier I'm choking from the heated moisture as well. I run my humidifier with no water a good part of the time. I currently using the ResMed Spirit. Take care

[Sleepless on LI]

John,

I could run the hh without water, but it's the leaving it hooked up part that is causing the leakage of air. So I wouldn't want to do that. I have already removed the rubber seal so that I could connect the machine hose directly and there is absolutely no leakage of air at all that way.
I am curious, too, to see how much the leak report goes down, if at all. Will keep you posted. Thanks for your thoughts on the subject.

[Sleepless on LI]

Without the leaky hh attached to my Remstar Auto last night, my leak rate went from 33 to 28. Not huge, but definitely better. And I had ONE episode last night of one apnea in 8 hours, giving me a great AHI of 0.1 this morning. I'm happy...

[Grabraham]

I found it funny lastnight that after I moved my remstar from one roon to the other that I heard an extra hiss and found it to be leaking air at the HH junction luckily in my case all I had to do was reseat the CPAP and the HH and things where back to normal.

[Sleepless on LI]

I found it funny lastnight that after I moved my remstar from one roon to the other that I heard an extra hiss and found it to be leaking air at the HH junction luckily in my case all I had to do was reseat the CPAP and the HH and things where back to normal.

At least yours made noise. Mine was sneaky and leaked without a sound (or maybe my Swift was too noisy so I didn't hear it ).