Leak Rate - mask removal counted?

billbolton wrote:

DreamOn wrote:I thought that perhaps the machine is sophisticated enough to realize that when the air is escaping full-blast that the mask was probably taken off, and it wouldn't count that as a "leak".

With the SmartStart setting enabled, your Elite II is sophisticated enough to stop if it detects you have taken the mask off, and start again when it detects you are breathing through the mask again.... you should do search here on "SmartStart".

Cheers,

Bill

I am so glad you mentioned that, Bill. Thanks. I did have SmartStart enabled last night. The Elite II did turn on when I started breathing into the mask, but I was surprised that it did not stop when I took the mask off when I got up during the night. I thought it would. I had to turn the machine off myself to stop it from blowing. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough for it to sense mask removal. I will try that again and see what happens!

~ DreamOn

hello dreamon, is it possible that the machine is blowing air after the smart start stops at a lower rate I know my autoset does this as a cooling down feature.

DreamOn wrote:I did have SmartStart enabled last night. The Elite II did turn on when I started breathing into the mask, but I was surprised that it did not stop when I took the mask off when I got up during the night. I thought it would. I had to turn the machine off myself to stop it from blowing. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough for it to sense mask removal.

I don't have your machine but mine also has an auto on/off feature. It does take a little while for the machine to realize that something is off. Not sure exactly how long but once I got up to go to the bathroom and didn't turn it off and came back and it was still on. Mine will register that as a large leak though. I have seen that confirmed on the software reports. So it can impact the leak rate. Just how much depends on how long and how often during the night, I would suppose.

How difficult is it to press ONE button before de-hose/masking?? And what possible advantage is there to leaving it on during a "break"?

(Unless you're TRYING to annoy* your bed-partner!)

*"annoy" wasn't my first choice...but will have to do.

potholerepairman wrote:hello dreamon, is it possible that the machine is blowing air after the smart start stops at a lower rate I know my autoset does this as a cooling down feature.

No, it was going full-on the other night after the mask was removed with SmartStart enabled. I suspect that I just didn't wait long enough for SmartStart to realize I had taken the mask off. I know the feature you're talking about, where it blows gently to cool down. My S8 Elite II has that feature also.

Pugsy wrote:I don't have your machine but mine also has an auto on/off feature. It does take a little while for the machine to realize that something is off. Not sure exactly how long but once I got up to go to the bathroom and didn't turn it off and came back and it was still on. Mine will register that as a large leak though. I have seen that confirmed on the software reports. So it can impact the leak rate. Just how much depends on how long and how often during the night, I would suppose.

Thanks, Pugsy. Being new to all this, I'm trying to figure out how everything works, so I appreciate you telling me that. I'm looking for confirmation from the machine that my mask is indeed fitting as well as I think, so for now I didn't want "mask off" entering into the leak rate average at all. Later on I'm sure I won't care so much.

LinkC wrote:How difficult is it to press ONE button before de-hose/masking??

Not difficult at all!

LinkC wrote:And what possible advantage is there to leaving it on during a "break"

No advantage that I can think of. My RT, who has been on CPAP/BiPAP for 17 years, told me that he just leaves his machine going when he gets up during the night. So I was interested in how others here do it.

I originally asked the question because I was curious if the machine was sophisticated enough to know not to count an obvious "mask off" situation as a leak. But I have found out that it does count it in the "leak rate".

I did a bit of experimenting last night.... With SmartStart enabled, when I got up during the night I hit the Start/Stop button before removing the mask. I thought I hit the button solidly, but it restarted right away. I was confused at first, but then I realized that I didn't get the mask off fast enough, so SmartStart had sensed my breathing and re-started! So I may just turn SmartStart off for now and simply press Start/Stop to turn the machine off when I get up. Or learn to take my mask off quicker if I decide to use SmartStart. No biggie either way. I'm having fun playing with all the features.

Thanks for your help, everyone!

~ DreamOn

I don't have your machine but, when I get up for a bathroom break in the night, I first reach over and turn off my machine and then pull the "quick connect" (see cpap.com) that I have on my hose between the hose and the mask. It disconnects easily and quickly.

I do not remove the mask. When I go back to bed, I push the hose (with quick connect) back onto the mask and my machine starts automatically.

Hawthorne wrote:I don't have your machine but, when I get up for a bathroom break in the night, I first reach over and turn off my machine and then pull the "quick connect" (see cpap.com) that I have on my hose between the hose and the mask. It disconnects easily and quickly.

I do not remove the mask. When I go back to bed, I push the hose (with quick connect) back onto the mask and my machine starts automatically.

That's perfect! I'm going to try that tonight, assuming I can remember in my sleepy state! I just put a note on the machine to remind me. Thanks very much.

I am feeling a WHOLE lot better than I was a week ago, before starting CPAP, but obviously Gumby was right that I'm not "at the top of [my] game right now". But I have hope that I'll get there eventually. I'm sure that I've had OSA for at least 15 years, and all the related problems (which include difficulty with focus and clarity of thought) aren't going to go away overnight! Thanks for your patience everyone....

~ DreamOn

DreamOn wrote:If I remove the mask to get up briefly during the night, leaving the machine running until I return, does that count as part of the reported "leak rate"? Is it better to remove the mask, turn the machine off, and restart when I return?

I believe that the leak rate reported in the LCD window on an S8 isn't an average. It's the 95th percentile: the rate that you exceed only 5 percent of the night. Say you have the blower on for 7 hours. That's 420 minutes, so you can be leaking at more than the reported rate for 21 minutes. That's a lot of bathroom breaks. If the mask isn't leaking much most of the night, five minutes of wide open leaking probably won't change the reported rate much, and might not change it at all.

So it really doesn't make much difference whether you turn the machine off or not. I turn mine off. That face-sucking feeling quickly ceases to annoy. The best reason I can think of to leave the machine on is if you use a long ramp period at bedtime and don't want to repeat it after every bathroom break.