NEWBIE HELP - Switching to a Resmed S8 from a iSLEEP 20i

[cesarekim]

Hello,
Sorry for the newbie questions but I am in the middle of nowhere (Kazakhstan in an Oil&Gas operational base) with a broken CPAP (iSLEEP 20i). I had this prescribed two years ago by my doctor and have enjoyed some good rest with it. It dropped from my bedstand a couple of nights ago and has stopped working. My wife says she found a bunch of used machines including a Resmed S8 VPAP Auto 25 Bilevel in Korea where we now live. There are a few other machines available but this one sounds like a lot of the machines I see associated with people on the forum. The question is whether I have a snowball's chance in hell to configure this machine on my own. I read somewhere that this machine was abysmally difficult to program from scratch. Can anyone tell me if the machine is any good, if it sturdy and how difficult it will be to program? I was on 11.5 setting with humidifier and it was a pretty good solution but I wonder if I will have to fiddle with things with a new machine. Furthermore, I will have no chance to do a fitting so I also have to wonder if my current nose mask will work with this new machine.

I apologize for the lack of information but I have used the isleep for 2 years with no setting corrections and just got a new mask a couple of months ago. I had no major issues before I pulled the machine off the bedstand a couple of nights ago. I also moved from Italy to Korea so I need to redo the sleep study as I have no doctor following me there but I only go home two weeks every six and we have been busy getting the kids and the house settled over the last two offshifts I was home. I work in Kazakhstan and, once I figure out what machine I will need, I will also have to figure out a way to get this shipped to my base via DHL or something...

Thank you in advance for any help on this.

Cheers

cesare Kim

[big_dave]

That machine is a little outdated, and it's a more advanced machine than you need, but it can be a good choice if the price is right. I am pleased with my S8 Autoset II. I have used it for two years, and it seems well-built and reliable. The setup is simple if you used fixed pressure, but it will be more involved if you use auto-CPAP. If you have any questions about it, there are plenty of people on the board who can help you.

There's one gotcha with this machine: if you are interested in downloading the data from the machine to your computer, it uses an oddball data card and data card reader, while the newest ResMed and Phillips Respironics machines use an ordinary SD card.

To access the clinical menu, hold down the right-arrow and down-arrow buttons for 5 seconds. If you use fixed pressure, on the Settings menu, set the Mode to CPAP, and dial in your pressure. That's it! None of the other settings are critical in fixed CPAP mode. You'll want to request a clinician's manual from http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

As for the mask, any mask works with any machine. Good luck!

[cesarekim]

Thanks Big_Dave!
The key points for me are to get a good, reliable machine. The iSleep was basically a commodity type machine for me and the only times I did anything to it were to wipe it down and reboot. I have had a much quality of life with it and liked waking up refreshed as opposed to having a massive headache every day.

I may want to play with the data bit at some point in the future but considering that I work every day when I am on base, I don't have time to play with the machine. This would be my on base machine which means that I would prefer to leave it here when I go home and get a second machine or get my iSleep fixed.

Thank you for your kind response.

Regards,

Cesare