ResMed AirSense Mini lifespan

I purchased an AirSense Mini eight years ago. It took me a little while to get used to the higher noise level, but I did. I understand such a small package doesn't have the same room for noise insulation as full-sized machines, and it's a very worthwhile tradeoff for the portability.

Recently, my Mini has been extremely noisy. Constantly, whenever the machine is running. MUCH noisier than normal for the wonderfully portable AirSense Mini. There is definitely something wrong with the unit.

At first, I thought it must have been either the mask, tubing, or the connector between the mask and tubing that holds the humidification disk, so I replaced all of them. But that didn't solve the problem.

It certainly wouldn't be reasonable for me to expect these units have an infinite lifespan. And you might think that 8 years is pretty good, especially for a travel-sized machine.

But here's the thing: I only use the Mini when traveling by airplane, which is 3 times a year for 4-5 days each. So, 15 days per year, times 8 years, is 120 days of total use, give or take a few days. That much usage doesn't seem like enough to justify the cost of the machine.

Do you have any insight or theories as to what might be causing the problem?

If you owned an AirSense Mini and it eventually died, what was your machine's total lifespan? Do you feel like you got enough use from it to make the price you paid worthwhile?

Many thanks,
Ron from Kenosha WI

I can't speak for the Mini, I've never had one. The blower is the same as the S11 so it should last a long time, 20K hours or so.

I can speak about travel machines however. Before I retired I traveled extensively for business. During that time (20 years) I had 6 machines. The 3 I traveled with all failed in one way or another. None were checked as baggage, I traveled carry on. The machines that never left my bedside never failed. Now I always have 2 machines, one that never leaves my beside, the other is a spare and travel machine.

If I still used an auto CPAP and traveled every week like I used to I'd probably buy the Mini. I've had a couple of non-Resmed travel machines and neither was nearly as good as a Resmed. Although I can't speak for the mini, I assume its comparable to the S11 because it's the same blower. The others seem to compromise too much to get down to a really tiny size.

Now I use ASV and have 2 Aircurve 10s. One is never leaves the bedroom, the other is my travel and spare machine. Traveling with a full size machine isn't great, but it's less of a compromise than I thought it would be. The small machines I carried needed mufflers to be useable, plus the power supply, tube etc. But if you have a CPAP in a dedicated bag it is exempt from the carryon count so you can have a suitcase, backpack and still carry a Resmed machine in its original bag. I use P30I pillows which fit in the bag, along with the hose with enough room left over for my cell phone charger and a small noise machine. It's not as convenient as my Breas machine was, but its not bad and it's a vastly better device. Most of the time the Resmed fits in my backpack anyway, but if I bring home more than I bought, or just need more space I can carry it separately.