Which of these might be a better machine?

I can't wait any longer for studies, Medicare rules, red tape etc. If I don't get some sleep extremely soon I'm going to have a heart attack. So I will take some of my disability check today and buy a machine. I can't spend much, maybe $350 at most.

Brief sypnopsis of situation: every breath is interrupted when breathing out only, when I'm on my back only. After trying other sleeping positions and different beds for years, due to body pain and other issues I won't bother to get into, I'm exhausted to a dangerous extreme - and out of options. I have got to be able to sleep on my back at least most of the night, but can't since every breath out is stopped and this wakes me up.

Bipap/apap was suggested to me by others here, or something that could self-titrate for only when I need it. Would any of these seem like a doable option, at least for starters?:

Thank you, all.

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/hab/4997041666.html

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/for/5004568385.html

http://providence.craigslist.org/hab/4936270749.html

Two big questions to ask of any craigslist seller - how many BLOWER hours are there on the machine? This number can not be reset whereas hours of use can be reset by the user. You may have to search for this information online and tell the seller how to access it with the controls.

And are there any smokers in the house? The smell of cigarettes can be very difficult to get out of a machine and may require replacing some parts.

If the seller is local, the usual recommendation is to meet in a public place like starbucks and plug the machine in and operate it to make sure that it blows air and doesn't make any strange noises or have bad smelling air coming out of it.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks. Are blower hours really important? If so, why?
And did any of these machines stand out to you as being good or maybe not so good?
'Preciate it.

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/hab/4997041666.html This is a PR System One Series 50 BiPAP Pro according to the description and the picture is consistent with the description. This machine is one generation older than the machines that are currently sold by PR. It may be as old as 5 or 6 years old. It's a full efficacy data machine that uses an ordinary SD card (NOT and SDHD card) to record the data and it is fully compatible with SleepyHead. The biggest drawback is that this is a fixed pressure machine and because of that it will take more time to get the pressure settings dialed in correctly. At $100 it is also very reasonably priced.


http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/for/5004568385.html This is a very old Legacy machine from at least 15 years ago. It may be in great shape, but it's still 15+ years old and 10+ years out of data. To the best of my knowledge, there's no easy way to get the data that is recorded off this old machine. I think it is very over priced at $250.


http://providence.craigslist.org/hab/4936270749.html This is an old M-Series BiPAP Auto. It is probably between 5 and 10 years old. The Auto feature is nice because you can set a pressure range, use that for a week and then use the data to fine tune the pressure settings. This machine does record full efficacy data, but it uses a proprietary card and you need both the card and the card reader to get the data off the machine. The card and the card reader are both available at cpap.com. Th card reader costs $79 and card itself and the necessary module that needs to be added to the machine costs $69.99 This machine's data can be read by Encore (which we can help you find), but it is NOT compatible with SleepyHead. At $200, this machine is somewhat over priced.

If it were me, I think I would opt for the System One machine (the first one) even if it had more blower hours. The reason why is this: You are talking about self-treating and that means you will be doing your own titration until you get the pressures dialed in. That means you absolutely NEED more data than is shown on the LCD of the machine. The machine with full data that is easiest to access is the System One machine. Yes, it will require a bit more work to figure out the pressure setting that works best for you, but you will have the data that indicates what direction to move towards when you are still self titrating. The fact that it is the cheapest of the three is just an added bonus.

Note that all the usual guidelines for buying things on Craigslist apply: You should ask the buyer to meet you in public. You should tell the buyer that you want to physically inspect the equipment before buying it to make sure that it is indeed a PR System One BiPAP Pro. Get the clinical manual for the machine (available from apneaboard.com) before you meet the buyer. Plug the machine in while you are inspecting it and get into the clinical menu to check the blower hours. The "blower hours" is kind of like a CPAP odometer: They cannot be reset and they give you an idea of how much the machine has actually been used. To put this in perspective:

• If a person uses a CPAP for 5.5 hours every night for a year, that's equal to about 2000 blower hours per year.
• If a person uses a CPAP for 8.2 hours every night for a year, that's equal to about 3000 blower hours per year.

Best of luck

I can sell you this one for $350 including shipping

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/hab/5004328397.html

grayghost4 wrote:I can sell you this one for $350 including shipping

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/hab/5004328397.html

To Hopefullady,

The machine grayghost4 is offering is a Resmed S9 Autoset. It's the same generation of machine as the PR System One machine is, but from a different manufacturer. The S9 Autoset is an autoadjusting CPAP, which is not quite the same as a bilevel machine. The S9 Autoset is a great full efficacy data machine that a lot of people do use around here. It writes the data to a plain SD card and it is compatible with SleepyHead. Because it is auto adjusting, self-titration with this machine will probably take less time than self-titrating with the PR System One that you listed. Grayghost4's offer to sell the machine to you for $350+shipping is a reasonable price.

But whether the S9 Autoset affordable to you at $350+shipping or whether you would prefer to save a couple hundred bucks and buy the local PR System One BiPAP Pro is a decision that only you can make.

Thank you so much

I did read that the Respironics is a gentler titrating machine than the Resmed.

Are blower hours really important? Is this just because of basic age of machine and they perhaps do not last too many years?

I read that collecting and watching data is not all that important. Is this true - esp if I will not be dealing with a doc or Medicare? Or is it perhaps bad not to collect it and keep doc updated? I read I should just determine how I feel in the morning and not get too worded about looking at data.

PR: is this much preferred?
Sleepy head: is this the name for the only data collection system, and must a machine I buy be compatible with it?

PR just stands for Phillips Respironics. They used to be called just Respironics but added the Phillips to the manufacture name.

The data available from the BiPap Pro for $100 is sufficient to figure out if therapy itself is optimal. Might take just a little longer to find optimal settings and it might not. We can help you with it and it's easy.

Machine hours can be important because the higher the hours the greater the risk of failure but it doesn't always mean something bad will happen. New machines can fail after 200 hours and some of these older machines are still working strong with 15,000 hours on them. One of my Bilevel machines has close to 7,000 hours on it and still working great.

Thanks for the explanation.
I am trying to collect so much data myself that I'm a little confused...which of these is the auto-adjusting one?
Thank you!

The one grayghost is offering is auto titrating.

The M series bipap auto is also auto titrating but you need the card reader to utilize the software and it runs around $80 from cpap.com and it's an older machine...predates the PR System One machines. The $200 price tag is a bit steep for what it is.

If you can swing the $350 for what grayghost has...that's a very fair price but if you can't...I would still go with the PR System One BiPap Pro for $100 even if it isn't auto titrating. The data it collects is better in my opinion than what the M series machine gathers plus cheaper to get to it since it only involves a SD card.

Auto titrating is nice but not the end of the world if it isn't available. I am betting we can find a suitable pressure for you in less than a week.

Hopefullady wrote:I did read that the Respironics is a gentler titrating machine than the Resmed.

the respironics machine you're looking at for 100$ doesn't titrate at all, you set it, and it does not vary from those settings.

the resmed auto machines are more aggressive at increasing pressures than the respironics, and as a result, they will respond faster, and reach effective pressures faster, thus possibly giving you more restful sleep.

here's a video with a nice overview of the differences in response between the two different auto systems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzCCgNLya_g

This is such a great help. Thanks.
Just spoke with seller of the $100 machine (my 1st Craigslist ad above). The machine belonged to his now-deceased father. He couldn't quote # of hours used and doesn't know how to show me. Said I could check it out. Doesn't know where his dad bought it.

I'm considering grayghost's offer too (thanks grayghost).

Unless I missed something, do you actually know you need a Bi-Pap? There are a lot better deals on auto-titrating fully data capable machines that come up in the boston area if you can use a CPAP/APAP. I know because I have auto alerts set up in case someone tries to sell the model I am looking for but I have a bunch of crazy search terms I use because the best deals are sold by people who do not even know what the machine is for.

If you really need a Bi-Pap right away and Concord NH is in your strike zone I can lend/give you one like the second link legacy Remstar Bipap auto (http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/for/5004568385.html ) which would probably help get you through for now but I did not realize you could not access or read the data even with the card reader.

The BiPap above is nothing more than cpap with extra exhale relief in the form of bilevel pressures...plus it also has cpap mode available.

No it isn't auto adjusting but there's no reason at all for it to not do the job it needs to do. The first bilevel machine that I ever tried was a 650 PR S1 BiPap Pro and was instrumental in my progression through bilevel. Do I just HAVE to have bilevel...no, but it sure is nice to have that comfort.

Pugsy wrote:The BiPap above is nothing more than cpap with extra exhale relief in the form of bilevel pressures...plus it also has cpap mode available.

No it isn't auto adjusting but there's no reason at all for it to not do the job it needs to do. The first bilevel machine that I ever tried was a 650 PR S1 BiPap Pro and was instrumental in my progression through bilevel. Do I just HAVE to have bilevel...no, but it sure is nice to have that comfort.

And I want to add, $100 for the PR System One Series 50 BiPAP Pro is a really good price and $250 less than Hopefullady's maximum budget. That savings can then be used for experimenting with masks if necessary.

To Hopefullady: Getting a mask from a DME or even on-line at a place like CPAP.com requires a prescription. Finding masks and mask parts on the used market is more "iffy" than buying the machine itself since masks wear out in a few months to a year or so for a lot of people. Ebay prohibits people from selling the whole mask because they're a prescription item. But you can often buy mask pieces on Ebay and assemble the mask yourself. Sometimes that may be cheaper than buying the mask outright from a DME, sometimes its not. But the big thing is you don't have to have the script to do it.