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Hi,
Picked up a new Resmed AirCurve 10 VAUTO a week ago. This is my 5th Bipap machine (18/14) since 1997. Back then, the humidifier was separate, and you could heat it with a heating pad. All previous machines were Resperonics. The main reason was that the powerpack had a 12VDC output. I degress. On the first night, the heated hose, set at 80 was to high lowered it to 65, then up to 71, for nice comfort. Since then I have run out of water every night (refilled that night). To get enough humidity I had to raise the humidifier setting to 5 from the default value of 4. I was without a humidifier for 6 weeks on my dreamstation and my sinus's are really raw(Occasionally ran out of water on it, but you could easily overfill it.) The most I have been able to get is 6 hours, and then I wake up with the nose burns. I sometimes wake up after about 4-5 hours and then I check it. A new room humidifier should be here tomorrow. Has anyone found a substitute tank that is larger. If RESMED is listening, I am an engineer and believe you could modify the tooling to make the tank longer, and add an insert for the shorter version. Is anyone with a similar problem find humidified room air to help? Thanks in advance.

Randy C BiPap wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:41 pm

utput. I degress. On the first night, the heated hose, set at 80 was to high lowered it to 65, then up to 71, for nice comfort. Since then I have run out of water every night (refilled that night). To get enough humidity I had to raise the humidifier setting to 5 from the default value of 4. I was without a humidifier for 6 weeks on my dreamstation and my sinus's are really raw(Occasionally ran out of water on it, but you could easily overfill it.) The most I have been able to get is 6 hours, and then I wake up with the nose burns. I sometimes wake up after about 4-5 hours and then I check it. A new room humidifier should be here tomorrow. Has anyone found a substitute tank that is larger. If RESMED is listening, I am an engineer and believe you could modify the tooling to make the tank longer, and add an insert for the shorter version. Is anyone with a similar problem find humidified room air to help? Thanks in advance.

Resmed's tank is larger than Respironics.

Your room humidifier will help because the bilevel won't need to add as much humidity.

Using the room humidifier will solve the problem. You will use less water in the Bipap.. I'm not an engineer and I figured that out years ago. My wife has rhinitis and needs the extra humidity. My CPAP tub lasts 2-3 nights at 3.

Randy C BiPap wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:41 pm

Bipap machine (18/14)

Those settings are higher than the average user, so you get a higher flow through the mask exhaust vent that consumes more water. How's your leak level? A high leak consumes more water.

You didn't say what your normal bedroom humidity level is. If it is above 50% RH, adding a room humidifier could cause problems. If not, a room humidifier should solve your problem.

If you have run out of water every night, then you are not in a position to know that your humidification setting is too high.

When you run out of water, your experience is based on running on an empty tank and of course you'll be experience considerable dryness.

Given the ResMed has a bigger tank than the Philips, and you have been running out water every night while on the ResMed. While the ResMed was providing humidity it was likely providing more humidity than the Respironics. You can therefor get away with a lower humidity setting on the ResMed.

Sounds like you haven't tried a setting of 3 or 2. Even if 3 or 2 doesn't quite provide the comfort you require, a night of slightly less humidity than desired is much better for you than a night of enough humidity and then ending with 0 humidity.

Might also be worth noting, that even if your VAuto settings are the same as your previous Respironics, given ResMed's are more responsive, it might be running at more pressure and that *might* explain more water use.

Here's a topic on creating an external humidifier tank:

https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 0#p1276236

I did one for the Airsense 11 last week to counter leakage from a new beard.

CPAP2017 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:36 pm

I did one for the Airsense 11 last week to counter leakage from a new beard.

I have an aircurve 10 vauto. Both pictures appear to have the humidifier above the max level. If I overfill my tank like that I will get water blown in the hose.

Not as creative but I use this HC 300 in passover mode with no heat on the Aircurve.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/fisher ... er-chamber

IF you want/need more moisture there is always this heater plate ...
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/fisher ... humidifier

Both of these can work with any cpap make or model.

klm49 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:17 pm

CPAP2017 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:36 pm

I did one for the Airsense 11 last week to counter leakage from a new beard.

I have an aircurve 10 vauto. Both pictures appear to have the humidifier above the max level. If I overfill my tank like that I will get water blown in the hose.

True. After adding a little bit at a time I found the max level in the extra tank and I put a mark on the tupperware to indicate no water above this line. If I add water to that line, it equalizes up to the Max line on the CPAP tank. It's an iterative process as the levels in each tank have to equalize first before adding more, but it's getting more obvious as time goes on about how much to add to bring the machine's tank to MAX without exceeding that.