How to prevent rain out with external humdifier?

I have a Dreamstation and the built in humidifier is to small and always runs out of water

I bought an external humidifier tank, one of these https://www.thecpapshop.com/fisher-payk ... reusable-1, and I stuck it on a coffee mug warmer to heat it up. Works great as a humidifier. But, since there is no heated hose connection, I get insane condensation and rain out in the hose and mask. I tried 2 different hose snuggies to help, neither did much of anything. Is there any way to prevent this?

Instead of the Rube Goldberg coffee warmer, probably should do this eh?

https://www.thecpapshop.com/fisher-payk ... n-system-1

Not cheap, I know... 260$ And using a DreamStation as well?

My heartfelt recommendation is to ditch that rig and get yourself a proper machine like an Airsense 10. The C2C version (no modem) can be had brand new for 449$... I've seen it with Climateline heated hose, have to dig for that deal. Here's our Supplier #1 Sponsor deal, no heated hose included:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... t-humidair

Why drive a Skoda when you can drive a Cadillac?

Now, if you were an uber-hacker you'd rig up a control system for your mug warmer with a sensor in the face end of the hose... that's the only way you're going to prevent rainout with that rig. Seems Resmed has already done it for you! Better buy an AS10 before they're all gone-gone.

SluggerBaloney wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:34 pm

I have a Dreamstation and the built in humidifier is to small and always runs out of water

Excess water usage can be an indication of mouth leaks, mask leaks, high-pressure needs, and high humidifier settings. What are your pressure settings?

Here are a few tips to prevent rainout - wiki/index.php/Rainout


How do you set the humidity level on your funny rig?

I don't recommend spending US$250 for a stand-alone humidifier. Besides, I don't think that one supports a heated hose.

When I took my first overnight sleep test in 1999, they did use a stand-alone humidifier (it was an F&P and looked just like that one). They used a very long hose that send though a special hole in the wall (they didn't have remote-control CPAP machines at the time).

However, that was literally an earlier century; stand-alone humidifiers make no sense any more.

vandownbytheriver wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 29, 2024 10:09 pm

Instead of the Rube Goldberg coffee warmer, probably should do this eh?
https://www.thecpapshop.com/fisher-payk ... n-system-1

That's the tank I bought. You can buy the tank part for $15, and an $8 coffee mug warmer heats the water to 130 degrees, which is right where the built in heater plate would operate at anyway (actually a little lower the built in plate goes to 145 degrees). I'm not made of money and am happy to save $240-ish

My heartfelt recommendation is to ditch that rig and get yourself a proper machine like an Airsense 10. The C2C version (no modem) can be had brand new for 449$... I've seen it with Climateline heated hose, have to dig for that deal. Here's our Supplier #1 Sponsor deal, no heated hose included:

I'm happy with my Dreamstation and am not interested in changing. My numbers are great on the Dreamstation

Now, if you were an uber-hacker you'd rig up a control system for your mug warmer with a sensor in the face end of the hose... that's the only way you're going to prevent rainout with that rig. Seems Resmed has already done it for you! Better buy an AS10 before they're all gone-gone.

I could easy wire that up but I don't think it would do anything since it is already running 15 degrees cooler than the built in Dreamstation heater plate. I don't think excess heat is the issue. If it was I'd just stick a few steel washers under the tank to introduce air cooling for the bottom plate.

Excess water usage can be an indication of mouth leaks, mask leaks, high-pressure needs, and high humidifier settings. What are your pressure settings?

10 to start, ramps to 13 if needed. No huge leaks or anything, my numbers are all good

How do you set the humidity level on your funny rig?

Put water tank on coffee mug warmer. Fill tank with water. Set coffee warmer to 130 (it has a built in digital temp setting). Go to sleep.
The warmer also has settings for 150 and 175 but those created to much humidity when I tried them, 130 feels good.

I don't recommend spending US$250 for a stand-alone humidifier. Besides, I don't think that one supports a heated hose.

I think that is the issue, the lack of heated hose. I like to sleep in a very cold room, so to test I popped on a non heated hose to my Dreamstation and got some rain out in that (not as much). But the standalone water tank has no electrical connection to power a heated hose and you can't get a snug fit on the hose port with the hard plastic connector anyway, but I did find a heated hose with universal rubber connector ends and a standalone power supply (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U19EAP6) Pricey at $60 but still a lot cheaper than $260 and without a heated hose I think the $260 setup would rain out too. It's on the way, I will let you know if it stops the rainout

If it all works I will build out a little universal power supply to power everything off a single plug to simplify the cord mess.

SluggerBaloney wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:15 pm

(snip)
...I did find a heated hose with universal rubber connector ends and a standalone power supply (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U19EAP6) Pricey at $60 but still a lot cheaper than $260 and without a heated hose I think the $260 setup would rain out too. It's on the way, I will let you know if it stops the rainout
(snip)

Did you read the reviews? It has a 30-day warranty.

Be interesting to see how this rig travels! Good luck.

vandownbytheriver wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:57 pm

Did you read the reviews? It has a 30-day warranty.

The reviews of the standalone heated tube all claim to stop rain out so I will try that out. If it works I may try and save even more money wrapping some electrical heating tape around a regular old tube, you can get 6-8 foot lengths of those for $10-$12. Zip tie it to the hose, stick it in a snuggie, and save a little $$. Every dollar counts these days

Be interesting to see how this rig travels! Good luck.

Due to non apnea related disabilities I cannot travel so that is not a worry for me

SluggerBaloney wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:15 pm

an $8 coffee mug warmer

I know a guy who knows a guy who could send you directions on getting that rig to have coffee ready when you wake up.

I think what you have done is a bit ingenious, and that heated hose should last a long time.

Back in the dark ages when I started cpap therapy there wasn't any sort of thing like a heated hose integrated into the cpap machine....all we had available for heating the hose air was the stand alone heated hose.
Back in 2009 all we really had available was a stand alone heated hose manufactured in Australia and for those of you who think 60 bucks is high....try 150 bucks PLUS shipping from Australia.
That's why people developed hose cozies and stuff like that.

A stand alone heated hose will work to prevent condensation. The main draw back (for some people) was the fact that there was no way to really control the hose air temp and a lot of people simply didn't like the warmth. No ability to fine tune the hose air temp.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 01, 2024 11:41 am

The main draw back (for some people) was the fact that there was no way to really control the hose air temp and a lot of people simply didn't like the warmth. No ability to fine tune the hose air temp.

I was thinking about that, if it is an issue I will wire in a rheostat to give me temp control over the hose heating element. I was going to put one on the coffee mug warmer but didn't bother since it has a preset temp setting right where I wanted it to be anyway.

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 01, 2024 10:23 am

I know a guy who knows a guy who could send you directions on getting that rig to have coffee ready when you wake up.

Well the coffee mug warmer already has a timer control on it so I could wire that to the GPIO pins on a Rasberry PI and when it detects a voltage drop from the timer ending it can connect over wifi to a smart coffee maker and tell it to start brewing a pot. But I don't drink coffee.

If this works I'm actually going to try and bypass that timer chip on the coffee mug warmer and just have it turn on and off when it gets voltage from the CPAP being turned on and off. I should be able to jumper around whatever is telling the warmer to turn off. For power I'm going to wire it to the pins that the Dreamstation humidifier plugs into. That should theoretically also enable the humidifier level control on the CPAP to control the heat output of the coffee warmer, I am guessing it is just a variable DC circuit controlling the amount of AC power going to the heating plate.