I need to whine...

My new Airsense machine is lovely and I love all the bells and whistles and it's everything I ever wanted from a cpap machine. Almost. The humidifier chamber is so small that sometimes I have to refill it in the middle of the night. If I turn down the humidity, my nose and throat end up burning. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I long for the days of my old PRS1, whose reservoir lasted for up to 3 days sometimes.

Are you using a heated hose that could possibly be turned down a bit? I'd think from where you live (vs e.g. Colorado) that you wouldn't have a problem, but you could also try a room humidifier if it helps.

That's a tough one...if turning the humidifier down isn't an option then about all that is left is adding humidity to the room air so that the humidifier doesn't have to work so hard.

How is the ambient humidity in your house compared with outside the house...is there a chance that as the weather warms up that the ambient humidity outside could increase so that you could have the in house ambient humidity also increase? Like opening up the windows? Of course with summertime and air conditioning it will dry back up inside the house.

KatyDidAgain,

I see in your signature that you're trying out the FitLife total face mask right now instead of using the P10 nasal pillows mask you were using. Maybe the problem with the humidifier running out of water is due to the change in mask?

According to the user guide for the FitLife (available at http://www.healthcare.philips.com/pwc_h ... ifeOIS.pdf), the intentional leak rate for the FitLife with the Whisper Swivel 2 is really large, particularly compared to the intentional leak rate of a nasal pillows mask like the P10. So it makes sense that a lot more water would be needed to provide the same level of humidified air, and that may be why your humidifier tank is running out of water in the middle of the night.

I did do the added humidity until we started construction on the lower level of our house and moved the humidifier down there to help control dust. I will try turning the hose temp down. I had it up at 81F to prevent rainout in my mask. Fixing one thing messes up another.

robysue wrote:KatyDidAgain,

I see in your signature that you're trying out the FitLife total face mask right now instead of using the P10 nasal pillows mask you were using.

Crap. I should have taken that out. The FitLife didn't work for me. Felt like an alien was eating my face so I gave it to a forum member in need.

Right now I am still using the P10 pillows.

Just throwing an idea out there -- what about adding a stand-alone humidifier to your cpap? Can that be done?

I run through a full tank every night with my air sense 10. When the heat was still running I was running out about 5AM since it was so dry in the house.

Madalot wrote:Just throwing an idea out there -- what about adding a stand-alone humidifier to your cpap? Can that be done?

I don't think that would be possible using my heated hose.

If room air is better humidified however, you shouldn't need as much humidity through Cpap unless you're heating the humidifier too much.

At the moment, I cannot bring the humidifier upstairs due to construction dust downstairs. So, I have increased the humidity to 6 and slightly decreased the hose temp to 78. We'll see. I just needed to vent.

KatyDidAgain wrote:

robysue wrote:KatyDidAgain,

I see in your signature that you're trying out the FitLife total face mask right now instead of using the P10 nasal pillows mask you were using.

Crap. I should have taken that out. The FitLife didn't work for me. Felt like an alien was eating my face so I gave it to a forum member in need.

Right now I am still using the P10 pillows.

Good. That's one less variable to worry about.