Camping and Travel with CPAP

The biggest negative side effect of living with a CPAP is your dependence on electricity to power the CPAP, requiring power everywhere you plan to sleep. For someone that loves camping, this adds a new wrinkle to my plans. Making things more complicated was that my HDM Z1 travel CPAP requires 15 volts DC power at 1.5 AMPs, which is not very common. Their optional battery only lasts one night and is very expensive.

After trying a few different power banks, I ran into MAXOAK K5 - a power bank specifically designed for CPAP users. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to try out one of the early production units

Watch Review Video

Pros:
+ Numerous output voltages
+ Includes adapters designed for CPAP machines (including the odd-ball ResMed 24v plug)
+ Plenty of capacity for multiple nights of sleep (depending on the draw of your CPAP)
+ Well designed package and good ergonomics

Cons:
- Heavy - you are not taking this on a backpacking trek
- Not waterproof - keep the unit safe from rain or getting wet

Summary: Overall, this is a huge improvement over any other alternative and should work really well on my motorcycle camping trips, allowing me to camp "off the grid".

I see that this unit is on sale for 299.99, normally $600.00. Think I might have to give myself a Christmas gift.

At under $300 for almost 300 Watt-hours (about 24 amp-hours at 12V) this is pretty good "bang for the buck" in Lithium power packs. Its not legal on a plane, and at 4 pounds its a bit heavy for mountain climbing. Personally, I can't justify the price compared to an AGM battery for $65, but I understand that for some the weight difference is huge, and the spiffy packaging is nice.

There are other packs over the airline limit such as the 412 Watt-hour Eco-flow River, so this isn't unique, but the price does look pretty good.

Beware: This won't work!

From the product page:

LONGEST LASTING CPAP POWER BANK (Model:K5)-Highest Capacity 297Wh, Power your 12V or 24V CPAP or BiPAP machine, Compatible with CPAP/BiPAP Machine Such as Phlip Respironics,Resmed,HDM Z1 and other 12V or 24V Compatible CPAP/BiPAP Machine,Provide Convenient Backup during Power Outages. For Example,Our K5 Power Bank Can Extend Power For HDM Z1(12V 2A) about 11Hours+, Respironics REMstar Auto A-Flex(557P) about 5Hours, ResMed Airsense 10(24V 3.75A) about 3Hours+.

The Z1 has it's own battery pack that works for 8 hours, and getting 5 hours or 3 hours won't really help for other cpaps. This doesn't have enough juice to work. Also, the poster is the only reviewer on Amazon. Buyer beware.

remstarcpap wrote:Beware: This won't work!

From the product page:

LONGEST LASTING CPAP POWER BANK (Model:K5)-Highest Capacity 297Wh, Power your 12V or 24V CPAP or BiPAP machine, Compatible with CPAP/BiPAP Machine Such as Phlip Respironics,Resmed,HDM Z1 and other 12V or 24V Compatible CPAP/BiPAP Machine,Provide Convenient Backup during Power Outages. For Example,Our K5 Power Bank Can Extend Power For HDM Z1(12V 2A) about 11Hours+, Respironics REMstar Auto A-Flex(557P) about 5Hours, ResMed Airsense 10(24V 3.75A) about 3Hours+.

The Z1 has it's own battery pack that works for 8 hours, and getting 5 hours or 3 hours won't really help for other cpaps. This doesn't have enough juice to work. Also, the poster is the only reviewer on Amazon. Buyer beware.

Yes, I noticed those comments and the duplicate text in the reviews. I'll be a bit happier with a few more reviews, and it would be nice if they were specific on which devices it could power directly. In particular, do they really have the special connection for ResMed? However, 297 Watt-hours is consistent with the weight of the pack, and that is plenty of power to run most cpaps, assuming direct DC power and no humidifier. My hunch is that some marketing person looked at the 60 Watt rating of the Respironics (without heated hose), divided 300 by 60 and came up with 5 hours.

The most disturbing aspect is the apparent lack of a 12V cigarette socket, which tells me this was never intended to do anything other than charge cell phones and tablets. We'll have to wait for someone to explain if it really works.

What this really says is that although they market this a "cpap power bank" they really have no experience with this.