New CPAP machines humidifiers are not warm enough

I'm trying to replace my wife's CPAP and Apria sent us a ResMed machine with a heated tube and there are no settings that have the air warm enough for my wife. They sent us a 2nd unit with the same problem. They can send us a Respironics, but said my wife may not be pleased with that one either, because the manufactures are not allowing us to have warm air like she's used to. Is this true for all manufactures?

She been using a CPAP for about 20 years and we've gotten several units over the years. The last one was a RemStar. It's done very well but we've progressively had to turn the humidifier up as it's gotten older from 1 and now to 5. It's been on 5 for a few years and it's now not warm enough for her. So I'd like to get her something that works better.

My wife is now on Medicare and we have very good supplemental insurance and hope that Medicare will pay for a machine that has a humidifier that works. Does anyone have any advice on solving this?

The heated hose does not get noticeably warm, it does not need to.
When the house is very cold, it keeps my nose from getting chilled.
No heated effect--just dryer than otherwise.
Your wife might enjoy a mask liner, like from Pad a cheek.com.
She also sells hose cozies, that could help, too.

Thank you for the suggestions and the info. Do you happen to know if Apria is correct in saying that the manufactures are not giving us the warm air like we're used to getting with the older machines?

Does you CPAP allow you to go to manual mode, if so turn it on and crank up the heat. Older CPAP humidifiers were just heating plates were the setting just adjusted the cycle time the voltage was on. New machines look at the room humidity, temp, and flow then adjust for what it thinks you need.

So what temperature are you setting the hose at that isn't warm enough to suit the wife?

Did you know you can change it to up to 86 degrees F?

Is it one of these machines?
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

It can be a lot of Trial And Error to find the right humidity and hose temperature settings that work best for you. A lot of it is just trying different settings until you find something that's comfortable.

Yes that link is the correct ResMed I'm using. I've tried the manual mode and the highest 86 degrees and the highest humidity of 8. I warmed it up also before use. The manufacturer suggested one last test, to try and reduce the humidity to 5 or 6.

When I did his last test I didn't tell my wife I was using the new machine, she thought it was the old machine and shortly after she put the mask on she said this is really cold, what's wrong. I said this was the new machine and a final test I was doing before sending it back.

Apria said we could try the Respironics machine, but said we may have the same results with that, since they said the 2 machines they use seem to not be as warm. Medicare is currently renting the machine, so we don't have to keep it or pay anything.

I just want to know if there are any machines that will work as well as the old ones in regard to the nice comfortable warm air my wife is used to. If so I'll try to find a company Medicare approves working with to get us that unit.

It's taken more than a month with all the red tape of doctors faxes and such and during this month. I got out an old extremal humidifier that I had from an old CPAP and turned off the RemStar humidifier, since it wasn't quite warm enough. This is working fine for now and if no manufacturer has a better solution, we'll just keep using this old unit until it dies.

I was hoping with this post to find someone who knows of a company that sells a machine with warmer air to try that Medicare will pay for.

There is no machine brand that I know of that will produce warmer air than either Respironics and ResMed with the heated hose at 86 degrees. That 86 degrees feels like a sauna to me.

What is your ambient bedroom temperature?

You say your wife is now on Medicare.
That suggests she may be getting older than she was 20 years ago. that hasn't happened to me but I have heard rumors that it does happen to some people. with age our sense of hot and cold may also change. You also mentioned she wasn't thrilled with her old machine anymore.
You may simply need to crank up the heat in the bedroom to give the humidifier a head start.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Yes she's getting older (67), yet she feels comfortable using the external humidifier with the old machine, instead of the new ResMed. Over the last 20 years we've had, I know, at least 2 CPAP units and more likely 3.

When she first got the RemStar about 5-8 years ago, we had the humidifier set at 1 and gradually had to turn it up to 5 over the years. I assumed it was the unit just getting old and not my wife changing her perception of heat and cold.

Yet if a person does change with age, you'd think the manufacturers would acknowledge that and at least allow these machines to be more adjustable and flexible for different needs.

Cranking up the heat in the bedroom will make her body too hot for sleep, so we can't do that. If anyone is aware of a better CPAP with a built in humidifier that may solve this, please chime in.