How many Resmed S9's DON'T have the bird sound ?

[archangle]

I told my DME I wanted the Resmed Autoset or Elite. She was pushing Respironics some to me but said she would order what ever I want. Do I really want a Resmed that "coos"?

I have an S9 AutoSet and a PRS1 Auto. The s9 is probably a little less noisy, but it appears noise levels vary a lot between machines of the exact same model.

The machines are roughly equal overall in my opinion.

[chunkyfrog]

I have finally heard the sound.
It's not always there; and it's very subtle.
Definitely not a deal-breaker for me.
It's slightly pleasant--I wish it was louder than my tinnitus.

[jen4700]

Ever since this thread started I lie in bed listening to the bird. Hence I think of all of you before I go to sleep each night!

[Cindy Lou Who]

Sorry you have this noise. Don't hear the sound you report. What I hear is a soft woosh on inhale... and the machine sits right next to my pillow. My machine is set on a pressure of 10 to 13cm with EPR of 2. If your pressure is way higher that might do it?
You've checked to be sure it's your S9 and not the exhaust port on your head gear? Sometimes the exhaust port gets clogged up when I have a cold. A little hot water forced through it cleans that out. Once it needed a small needle to clean the tiny holes, with hot water afterward.
Is the silicone gasket in the top of your humidifier properly seated? Or does it show any wear? If that's got a small hole or tear in it that may make noise.
Good luck!
Cindy

[RogerSC]

Sorry you have this noise. Don't hear the sound you report. What I hear is a soft woosh on inhale... and the machine sits right next to my pillow. My machine is set on a pressure of 10 to 13cm with EPR of 2. If your pressure is way higher that might do it?
You've checked to be sure it's your S9 and not the exhaust port on your head gear? Sometimes the exhaust port gets clogged up when I have a cold. A little hot water forced through it cleans that out. Once it needed a small needle to clean the tiny holes, with hot water afterward.
Is the silicone gasket in the top of your humidifier properly seated? Or does it show any wear? If that's got a small hole or tear in it that may make noise.
Good luck!
Cindy

Don't hear this, either...rarely I do hear a whistling, but that's always from my one of my nostrils *smile*...yes, the fabled whistling nostril (as my wife calls it) sometimes strikes me. Blowing my nose (or snuffling) makes that go away *smile*. I could understand this coming from the exhaust port, that makes sense, too. My pressure is about 10 cmH2O.

Oh yeah, I also sleep with earplugs, which tends to shut out outside noises, but has that "sleeping in Darth Vader's helmet" effect *smile*.

[markk]

Hi everyone.

I've been reading, with great interest, the many Posts by people who have reported a Bird Like/Whoooo/Coooo sound coming from thier Resmed S9 machines. The sound occurs at the end of the exhale. It has been reported to often times come and go, and sometimes disappear completely.... or disappear and then return after some time has passed.

So what I'd like to know is..... How many users of ther Resmed S9 (Autoset or otherwise) DO NOT have any sounds similar to what has been reported.

Is it a case of the vocal minority ? People tend to complain when there is such an annoyance, but say nothing if they have no problem.

I'd appreciate the feedback.

Thanks, Tim

Mine started out without it, began doing it, and then quit.

How's that for unhelpful?

When I first started, I noticed the rushing noise, but only the faintest "whine" with variable pitch. Then, it came to be quite loud, but eventually faded. Now, I'm only on my first year of use, not even one year yet. I THINK the level of sound is related to room temperature. Cold = sound, warm = quiet. Could be coincidence and coincidence only. Maybe not. Or, related to humidity. Not long after getting it, I got a cold humidifier because of extremely low humidity. I was using a full tank of water and sometimes running out in one night. Now that summer is here, I'm still confortable and I use perhaps a 1/3 in the same number of hours.

Whatever the case, it didn't, did, and then didn't again, and isn't now.

[mrog]

It might be altitude related. My S9 has only made that sound when I took it to Yellowstone. Our hotel was about 6,200 feet above sea level. I normally sleep at about 2,700 feet.

[markk]

I have one other thought. When I started, I used the ramp feature, and I noticed that at lower pressures, using the EPR (or whatever it's called) the motor did large swings in rpm with my breathing. Perhaps it's related to lower pressures? I changed mine to the largest relief, and noticed quite a bit more change in the sound, though nothing objectionable.

[Lizistired]

I noticed the bird sound awhile back. I rebooted, cleaned everything, pulled the hose off and ran it at 20 cmh2o for about a minute, set EPR to OFF instead of "0". Don't don't what fixed it but I haven't noticed it since.

[Helmut]

Seemingly not everyone using an S9 is experiencing this phenomenon. S9 features reduced pressure during exhalation. This produces a rise and fall of the flow inside the air tube. The corrugations of the air tube create eddy currants inside the tube generating the whooohooo sound. Reviews from those experiencig this problem don't indicate pressure settings in use. However, S9's on higher air volume settings would be suspect. There is nothing wrong with the S9, air tube or head gear. So what's the fix? Since the sound isnt prevalent at all times, a simple re-positioning the air tube may work. Or, just to see, try using a spare air tube for several nights. Corrugations of non wired spare air travel tubes are different from those of the wired air tube of the S9.

[Pachyderm's Nose]

IT'S AN OWL! That's the 'cooo' sound made by a tiny, little, baby owl that ResMed includes, at NO extra charge, in 99.44% of their S9 machines. It's a sophisticated SECRET electronic-biological-sublingual-erotic-exotic design enhancement that provides unconscious, satisfying, warm, ever-SO-cozy, reassuring feedback to us xpapers. I like it. More, more, M O R E ! Faster, faster!

Love IT!
My autoset has it but only when I first start it and then only until I settle into pre-sleep/sleep breathing patterns. When my breathing slows down and smooths out it isn't there. my pressure is set at 12 and I use a 5 minute ramp from 6-12 with epr on 2.

[ems]

I don't hear a thing... except maybe the sound of my own breathing, or the occasional leak.

[Pugsy]

Since all this discussion about the bird calls was started I have tried to pay particular attention to any possible machine sounds (excluding normal breathing inhale and exhale sounds) and I do hear "something" on exhale at the machine level but it is very faint and seems to be related to the force of my exhale. In other words when I breathe "harder" I hear a faint something and if I reduce the effort I put into exhale the sound totally disappears. I don't know that I would term what I hear a bird call but I hear something. It is very faint though and not disruptive to my night or my sleep. My husband says he just hears the faint "hum" of the machine. It doesn't appear to be present in the mornings at all. I would assume that either my breathing has stabilized (less force than when initially masking up) or the brain just tunes it out.

If it is related to exhale force perhaps it is a combination of the force of exhale along with an individual's own perception of sounds that is creating a potential issue. Some people are just more sensitive to certain sounds or tones than others. I have had my hearing tested and no loss of hearing found so it isn't like I am deaf or something.

Using S9 VPAP Auto with EPAP 9 with PS of 4 so IPAP 13 while awake (max to 20 allowed and have seen almost 20) and have not tested the sounds at other pressure combinations but I might do that at some time if I can remember to experiment at bedtime. I often think of it now but totally forget by bedtime.

[Pachyderm's Nose]

Exactly that Pugsy!

[ReadyforRest]

I have the "cooing" sound too. I did a one month trial on the ResMed autoset, but in cpap mode for most of that month, and on that machine, I never heard the sound. For the last 3 or 4 days of the trial, they reset it to auto, and I still didn't hear the sound. I thought, great, a nice quiet machine. Then I returned the borrowed machine and bought one. Now I have the sound.

It's only on exhale, as everyone else has described, and only when I take normal awake breaths, which are a bit deeper than those relaxed shallow breaths that we take when we're settling into sleep. As soon as my breath becomes shallower, the sound disappears, so it's definitely related to how much exhale pressure I'm sending out.

When I got home with my brand new spanking machine, hooked it up and used it the first night, I was somewhat irritated that it had this noise. I heard it right away (it sits about 18" away from my head on my nightstand). I did not like it one bit, especially knowing that the trial machine, which was exactly the same, did not "coo". I put up with it for a week or so, then brought it in to the DME for them to figure out what was wrong with it. I expected that there was something wrong and that they would replace it. However, that did not happen. The office was so busy, and noisy, that they couldn't hear the very subtle sound it was making. I could hear it in there, even with my mask and hose on with the thing running. But I'm used to the sound, and know what to listen for. With all the peripheral noise of other conversations and computers running, phones ringing, etc, they just couldn't hear what I was describing. (Or they didn't say they could hear it.) So I brought it home again and have been putting up with it. It only bothers me right at the beginning, as I'm settling into bed and before my breathing has lightened up as it normally will do as you relax. Then I don't hear it anymore, because my exhales are lighter.