I combined 2 old masks I wasn't using to make

[sleepydawn]

one new mask I can use. I never really used my old school Swift because the hose was located on the side of the mask. I never used my Nasal Aire because it was so loud but I loved the general concept. I cut the sides off of my XL Nasal Aire prong and used it to connect the two sides of my Swift to the hoses of the Nasal Aire. I secured the tubing with little bands I cut of silicone baby bottle nipples (but you could use silicone rubber bands made for fine hair). It worked very well! I am really pleased with my remodel, as I like to change up my masks once in a while and this is very quiet.

If you had 2 pivoting Swift elbows, you could incorporate them but it made the mask too wide for my face to do so comfortably. The small pic shows the cut end of the XL nasal prong over the NA tubing. The barrel of the Swift goes between the 2 tubes. The ribbing you see over the top tube is the silicone "band" I cut to hold the whole thing with a tight seal. I am also experimenting with cut silicone baby bottle nipples and silicone tubing to rebuild the inside of the Swift FX pillows. I'll let you know how it goes!

[rested gal]

Creative thinking and a great job, sleepydawn!

Your cool merger of two masks into one has earned you a Lab Rat Award.



A link to this topic is now in the Misc section near the bottom of the Lab Rat Awards page:

LINKS to Lab Rat Trophy awards
viewtopic.php?t=15104

[sleepydawn]

Aw, thanks! I have a small arsenal of things I am keeping on hand to work with these masks. I'm sure most of the people who read here do. I'm just glad I have the energy to finally follow through and move on tinkering with things.

[LoQ]

sleepydawn, you have some very interesting ideas for making therapy work, and for that, I commend you.

For the mask you show in the picture, where is the vent? I'm not familiar enough with either of the two masks you started with to understand how you are venting that mask.

[rested gal]

LoQ, good question.

As best I recall, the Swift vented out through many tiny holes across the front of the barrel.

[LoQ]

LoQ, good question.

As best I recall, the Swift vents out through many tiny holes across the front of the barrel.

That was a very effective illustration!

[sleepydawn]

Thank you for the addition to the photo, rested gal.

Yes, the vents are quiet and the Mirage was a pretty good mask for those that were available when it was first marketed. I wish someone would come out with a line of masks comprised of mix and match components, with a variety of pieces the user could choose to create the headgear and interface they wanted. That would be wonderful.

[Junebug999]

well dang....i'm impressed : )

[BigNortherner]

I wish someone would come out with a line of masks comprised of mix and match components, with a variety of pieces the user could choose to create the headgear and interface they wanted.

It's a strange business. That would save them money, but most don't look at the big picture. Instead they do something different and botch it in different ways than what it replaced.

Some makers do have some interchangeable parts, such as:
- small parts between some F&P masks
- Respironics/ResMed nasal masks, in part due cheap versus good versions
- some headgear, Respironics/ResMed come to mind
- Puritan-Bennet's excellent pillows between their two poor manifold-headgear designs
- are some of the Swift designs using the same pillows-manifold? That's a piece that would really benefit from being used across a product range because it needs to come in many sizes and is often replaced
- Respironics is using the excellent ComfortCurve seal concept in a different configuration, but probably not the exact same p/n.

.....Keith Sketchley

[jdm2857]

The design of the pillows-manifold has changed with each version of the Swift (except for the "For Her" versions).

[BigNortherner]

One challenge for Swift designers is they did not design the original manifold as well as needed, so some of their iterations were to narrow it, including getting away from the side hose connection. (That’s a cost of not doing the design well enough the first time.)
I found it too wide for sleeping on my side (probably was the II version, the later LT is lower profile and the later FX much lower profile, necessitating different pillows assembly – so they’ve had four iterations, some not surprising for a new concept.

Different desires for hose routing (over head versus on chest) complicate life though some designs like the Swift II and LT handle both. (Maybe with a kludge – I put a fabric loop on some headgear such as what I use for my F&P 431, to hold the hose upward, its connection swivels fully so I can do that – some designs do not.)

(I abandoned the Swift as my nose passages were not clear enough often enough – poor choice by the sleep doctor’s people, I needed a mask not nostril interface. After achieving clear passages through a sinus/nose operation I stumbled through several other nostril interfaces before CPAPMan pointed me to his CONJO headgear for the ADAMS pillows-manifold system – with some additional modifications to all parts that combination works quite well because headgear is stable and pillows are of proper size and geometry. The FF is only backup.)

And for interchangeability of parts, many four-strap headgear variants for conventional nose and face masks will fit other models and brands. I use the Respironics Mesh SoftCap as stable headgear for other brands (doesn’t work as well with nose mask as with FF of course because of strap angle to higher attach points).

[Slartybartfast]

I admire your creativity/resourcefulness. But it needs a name.

How 'bout FrankenMask?

[chunkyfrog]

I can think of features from different manufacturers, which, put together would make a doggone nice mask.
I would use the fantastic devilbiss swivel elbow, the Resmed quattro clips, fisher-paykel multi-size cushions with one size frame,
and no forehead brace. I would like a full-face mask, please; but make nasal masks for those who like them.
--and who wouldn't like to see a gentler nasal pillow? Ah, I can dream.

[Twentysix]

I admire your creativity/resourcefulness. But it needs a name.

How 'bout FrankenMask?