Humidifier is flakey

I am a bit confused (ok, that is normal for me)-- but this time confused because sometimes lately my humidifier reservoir is empty in the morning and sometimes the water level is barely below where it was the night before. In fact the last two nights are examples of the extremes (and house temperature is pretty constant- as is humidity).

The nigh before last I filled my Resmed (M series) CPAP reservoir to the full line-- and awakened the following morning to discover that I had about a thimble of water in the tank. Last night I repeated my routing, but this morning the tank was almost full. If just one pair of nights, I might be tempted to think that I had forgotten to fill it-- but this has actually happened a few times in recent days; enough that I was watching for it.

I know there was a recall on these DC powered units awhile back-- mine was not blinking, so pretty much dismissed the recall--- but wondering if this might indicate a problem others have experienced? (Obviously I don't stay awake to check the blue light-- but haven't noticed any blinking at all for the almost 19 months I have used the machine).

More details of machine, humidifier and mask follow at bottom of this posting- I should mention that I live in western New York State (near Buffalo), so we are experiencing winter around here--- except for daily normal fluctuations, the weather has been somewhat consistent-- don't see that as major factor (bedroom is kept around 60 degrees).

Your insights would be greatly appreciated
letchworth

You didn't say what setting your humidifier was set to.......
But, since you wear a nasal mask, if your mouth is falling open during the night, there will be more air going out (as it tries to maintain your therapy pressure) and picking up more water, which will reduce your water level more then if you keep your mouth shut.

If that's the case, you need to seal your mouth shut. Besides losing water from your humidifier, you're losing therapy air out your mouth.


Den

That could be it- but I haven't noticed a corresponding dry mouth (nor have I noticed my wife poking me in the ribs to close my mouth).

Rarely I have awakened with a dry mouth, but not often and not recently. By-the-way. my humidifier is set between 1 and 2.

However, that would certainly explain the loss of water-- I'll keep my eye on it (& have my wife keep her ear on it)
Thank you
letchworth

Perhaps a mask leak or like wolfman said your mouth was open. Did you have the mask on all night? Could it have possibly been off and you put it back on. Check your machine hours if you can.
Hopefully you have a fully data capable machine with software.

Gerry

Mine was doing the same thing, So finally I took it back to the DME, and said I would wake up at night,and see the light flashing. They exchanged it under the recall with no questions asked.

The lights flash for other problems too. I had one replaced because of flashing lights too. That machine was also replaced with a factory refurbished unit, which I have had now since late last winter.

Gerry

Gerryk wrote:Perhaps a mask leak or like wolfman said your mouth was open. Did you have the mask on all night? Could it have possibly been off and you put it back on. Check your machine hours if you can.
Hopefully you have a fully data capable machine with software.

Gerry

Pretty consistent 7-8 hours every night. Unfortunately I do not have the software (had hope to buy myself a Christmas present of it)-- so not able to graph comparisons of nights with low water and nights with normal usage. Last night I awoke to discover my dry mouth-- but even with that, water usage was normal (my assumption is that opening my mouth to insert foot helps at times--- but seriously, perhaps once I have software I can track this better)

Thanks for your responses
letchworth