The life of a ResMed Mirage Activa Cushion is limited

In my experience is is not much more than 12 months.

After that time it appears the plastic gradually hardens so loses its flexibility and looks very white. As a result it more readily loses its seal making farting and other noises to wake one up. I had not realised the extent of its deterioration until the other day when I decided to remove the cushion to give it another good wash. It seemed to reassemble OK but that night it was leaking air everywhere so despite efforts to detect the problem, something unappealing when in the mood to go to sleep, I ended up ditching it and putting in a replacement which was fortunately at hand.

So, it is important to have that spare cushion available and it could be needed earlier than you realised!

PS: Just thought to add that the sleep study nurse years ago had recommended a pressure of 14 but I found that caused too many leaks but have the autoset machine set close to that at 13. AHI varies but is usually under 2.0.

Tassie Devil wrote:In my experience is is not much more than 12 months.

After that time it appears the plastic gradually hardens so loses its flexibility and looks very white. As a result it more readily loses its seal making farting and other noises to wake one up. I had not realised the extent of its deterioration until the other day when I decided to remove the cushion to give it another good wash. It seemed to reassemble OK but that night it was leaking air everywhere so despite efforts to detect the problem, something unappealing when in the mood to go to sleep, I ended up ditching it and putting in a replacement which was fortunately at hand.

take a look at this: viewtopic/t74686/Boiling-Stuff-Part-2.html#p684870

and, yes, one should always have spare cushions, mask parts, tubes, etc. waiting for that unexpected failure.

Ahah, so maybe not quite as limited as I thought.

Thanks for the link - boiling ahead later today. $79 for a replacement saved

OK, now boiled up and obviously more flexible but still white where the plastic is thick. I'll give it a try to see how it fits now (rather than wait last thing at night).

Did you boil it in tap water or distilled water?

The first time I tried the boiling trick I used tap water and my nasal pillows were still a lot whiter than I wanted.
So the next time I tried using distilled water with the baking soda and when I rinsed them off I also used distilled water.
They came out sparkling clear.

I am on well water...and it has a lot of mineral content especially limestone and iron.

I am reluctant to boil unless the part is ALL SILICONE.
Hard plastics make the parts easier to assemble, but I suspect
the manufacturers wanted to stop all this reusing, instead of paying them more money.

Pugsy wrote:Did you boil it in tap water or distilled water?

The first time I tried the boiling trick I used tap water and my nasal pillows were still a lot whiter than I wanted.
So the next time I tried using distilled water with the baking soda and when I rinsed them off I also used distilled water.
They came out sparkling clear.

I am on well water...and it has a lot of mineral content especially limestone and iron.

No I did not use distilled water but the remaining "whiteness" doesn't bother me. It is only white on the thick section. The tap water here is not too bad at the moment (just entering into Spring).

I trialed the boiled result and it is sealing fine so should be OK tonight. The boiling has softened it up.

Thanks to this site I now know more.

Tassie Devil wrote:Ahah, so maybe not quite as limited as I thought.

Thanks for the link - boiling ahead later today. $79 for a replacement saved

The cushion...which is the only thing that should be boiled...is only $29 at cpap.com..are we talking about the same part?

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... -mask.html

LSAT wrote:The cushion...which is the only thing that should be boiled...is only $29 at cpap.com..are we talking about the same part?

I bet you are talking about the same part.
Tassie Devil is in Australia and the places that sell cpap stuff down there do charge a lot.
Plus insurance coverage for cpap stuff isn't near like what we have here in the US. Most of the time it is out of pocket.

Cpap.com can't ship him the cushion either due to the ResMed restrictions.