O2 Concentrator: Rent or Own?? (Apria & Kaiser)

Good day,

I am a newbie to the site, however I have been using BiPAP and O2 therapy for some time (5+ years). Kaiser NorCal is my HMO and Apria is supplying my DME.

I have had it with Crapria! I can no longer take their billing errors and poor service quality. I am paying $100/ mo for a horrible invacare perfecto 2 concentrator.

On a whim I googled concentrator for sale and I was further enraged to find out that I could buy one for less.

1) Does anyone have any recommendations on which concentrator is a good buy?

2) Any experience with warranties or service plans?

Thank you for any advice or recommendations!

Rent is always the most costly option, if you had been saving that $ 100 dollars a month, in five years you could have bought about seven new units. Jim

Buying makes much more sense than paying the exorbitant rental costs DME’s charge. I recommend the Respironics EverFlo, it is much quieter and lighter than the Perfecto 2. My son uses APAP + O2, when our insurance deductible reset last January we decided purchased an O2 concentrator which was much cheaper over the long run. We picked a new Everflo up on sale for $600, I’m guessing COVID may have created greater demand for O2 concentrators so you may have to pay a bit more right now, but no doubt it will still be cheaper than renting.

if you're going to have it for a long time buy new with a service contract. the insides have definite life expectancies so be very careful/ stay away from used.

Be careful buying service contracts, most are total rip offs. the service times of O2 pumps , is very long, meaning they don't require service. You can buy a costly tester to make sure the O2 is working as to spec. If it's not, the media beds may need changed out or hoses repaired. As with XPAP, the main thing is clean the filters and keep the area clean. A Service Contract, doesn't mean the job will be done correctly, it only means you spent money, wisely or not.

Weight the cost of the contract with the cost of replacement. My son just had a Service Contractor, service his home A/C, they sent out a Moron HVAC serviceman out to his house. the repairman broke his valve core tool off in the charging line, they now want $ 4000 to replace the outside unit, (Because of a 50 cent valve core, that they weren't able to remove).

By the way all that would be needed to fix the is seal the leaking core with a new core cap, install a inline valve or a tap valve, evacuate and recharge the unita one or two hour job at most. What they want is to install a new furnace and A/C for only $ 8000.00. Plus the charge for a new service contract. Do Not Let People that You Can't Trust to Do Work, Work on Your STUFF! Too Many People in this World Have No Idea the Proper Way to Do Their Jobs... SAD, but True!

Most of us Old People that you could trust are too worn out to work, the ones that could work are to lazy to learn their jobs, and don't CARE... Jim

The World We Live In!!!

greatunclebill wrote: ↑

Mon May 25, 2020 10:39 pm

if you're going to have it for a long time buy new with a service contract. the insides have definite life expectancies so be very careful/ stay away from used.

They're also *designed* to go 30,000-35,000 hours between services, and they all have hour meters on them.