Going camping w/CPAP: Please help!

Hey all,

I've been using CPAP for over 3 months now, and I love it, but, of course, the inevitable has occured: I need to sleep somewhere that isn't my house. Specifically, my friends would like to go camping in a little under 2 weeks

Unfortunately, when it comes to things such as portable batteries, Volt/Watt/Amp usage, etc., I am pretty clueless, and so I've been scouring the internet trying to find the easiest solution. The one I want to try is as follows, but I honestly don't know if it will work - from what I've read, it seems about 50/50. Although I do have DC power as an option, attempting to find a DC cord for my RemStar sounds like quite the pain - at least if I want the "specific" one for my RemStar. I'd prefer something like a portable battery jump starter with a built-in AC/DC power inverter, but I just don't know if it would last for 2 nights of camping.

I have a RemStar Plus (http://remstarplus.respironics.com/) with the following power specs:

AC Power Consumption: 100 - 240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 1.0 A max.
DC Power Consumption: 12 VDC, 3.0 A max.

I was thinking of picking up a DieHard Portable Power 1150 on the way home from Sears, and giving it a trial run at home to see how long it could run the CPAP when fully charged (not using the humidifier):

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product. ... &ihtoken=1

Or ordering this online instead:

http://www.brandsonsale.com/ht-001331.html

But I honestly don't know if either can power a CPAP for 2 "nights" (10-12 hours).

The other option is to get a chargeable 12 Volt battery of some sort, then either get the DC Cord or a power inveter, but it's more expensive and requires more hardware.

Does anyone have any experience with trying this sort of thing? What would you all recommend? If the above options won't work, exactly what kind of hardware would I need to get, and where would be the best place locally to get it? (I live in a decent-sized city so any 'standard' stores should be fine).

Thanks for any help you can provide!

I have been using CPAP for about 7 years and have went camping a few times. I have managed to pick camping locations where a long extension cord would work.

Recently I purchased a Remstar M Pro and one of the purchasing points for me was the ability to use DC. I believe a power inverter is not an option because it uses a different sine wave and can cause problems. I would suggest getting the DC hookups for your machine. I am a fisherman and have a couple of marine deep cycle batteries. I am looking for a solar charger with more than a trickle charge to get me through a week. I most likely will not use the humidifier to try and conserve power.

Good luck.

Just do some searches on this site for battery, xantrex, ups, etc. and you will find many threads on this. Several people are using a battery for this purpose. I use a Xantrex 400 just in case the power goes out. It will run my Remstar Auto for at least 1 night but most likely 2.

-BP

If money were no object, buy the BreatheX and a spare battery @ cpap.com (about $750) if your pressure is 12 cm-h20 or less.

To use your Remstar with 12v dc input, buy a 25 amp-hour or so sealed battery and charger (maybe $35-$50). Charge it before you leave. Go to Radio Shack with your Remstar and ask them to match-up your 12 v dc connection with an appropriate connector (maybe $2.00). Get a few feet of wire (maybe $0.50) to connect the Radio Shack connector to the battery....pay attention to the polarity.....the battery will be marked plus & minus, and the center pin of the connector is "plus."
Give this arrangement a "dry run" before you leave home to verify you've got everything correct.

Happy hosing!

By all means, use 12-volt DC power. Either leave the humidifier at home or use it as a passover (without power.)

Don’t choose an inverter, as they are very inefficient. Notice the inverter has those cooling fins? Inverters use a lot of your battery’s power to make heat (wasted power!) Save them for running things where 12-volts is not an option.

Just the CPAP (without heated humidifier) uses very little power. For battery capacity you need, figure 15 to 20 amp-hours per night times number of nights you’ll be camping. Then increase that by half, because you don’t want to drain the battery completely before you recharge, as this drastically shortens its life.

If you’re camping in an RV, it probably has a 12-volt outlet that the Respironics cord will plug into directly.

If you’re camping in a tent, you could even run a 12-volt extension cord from the car (assuming you can park close to your tent) and recharge the car battery by running the engine for 30 minutes a day.

Happy camping!

Wayne