(Rant)Rain Out- again...

Lately I had humidity set at 2 but noticed that my nostrils was so dry that it had dried blood in the morning, but I couldnt increase humidity further before rain out happens... Then I read somewhere that suggests placing the cpap near floor level then have the hose go straght up via the hanger. Tried two nights with this set up with humidity set to 4， no rain outs whoa. Then comes yesterday, 2 hours in suddenly I felt very difficult to breathe almost like theres not enough air, took and off and notices lots of micro water droplets inside my P10 hose tube, but when i tried to disconnect the heated tube i dont see any water dripping out. Anyways very frustrating since I have kept the tube temp constantly at 23C already. I guess tonight I will try humidity at 3 and hope for the best....


Picture of my hose set up and the micro condensations at my P10 hose
https://ibb.co/xq7L20y
https://ibb.co/yWPBJW6
https://ibb.co/TYKMPbL

You could try putting a hose cosy on the short tube. I use a terry-cloth cosy cut down to size. You could also improvise with a sock.

Probably some condensation in the nasal pillow from the moisture in your exhaled breaths tipping the scales.

You have to warm up the air that is in the nasal pillows some how.
Either more hose air temp or some sort of cozy on the short hose to the mask from long hose or maybe even a barrel cozy.

https://www.padacheek.com/barrel-cozies-1

Condensation anywhere is Physics in action....to prevent you have to warm up the air some how.

The lowering of the machine to below the bed is to give gravity a chance to help out but there has to be a total direct line downward for that to happen and even then it doesn't always work out so good. A maybe help when there is condensation in the hose

It does nothing to help when the condensation is in the nasal pillows.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 04, 2022 12:17 pm

You could try putting a hose cosy on the short tube. I use a terry-cloth cosy cut down to size. You could also improvise with a sock.

came to see this, left satisfied.

The benefits of lowering the CPAP to prevent Rainout are way overstated.

The theory is the water will run back into the machine.

Practically, there is a lot of problems. The only water that can run back is water that hasn't passed the angle, and that angle has to be steep to overcome the surface tension on the sides of the hose.

Realistically, rarely is there a single, steep angle from mask to face. In your case, any significant rainout that builds up before the peak of your hose hanger can run back to the machine, but anything after is actually *more* likely to run into your mask.

Why are you limiting yout tube temperature to 23C?

Put a cozy on the exposed hose of your P10, and increase your heated hose temperature. If you find the temperature uncomfortable increase it be a degree or two, leave it for a week, then gently ease it up again.

There is no magic solution.

The more humidity in the air, the more potential for the moisture to condense back to liquid. The cooler the ambient/hose temperature the more moisture within the air will condense back to liquid.

You need to reduce humidity or raise ambient / hose temperature.

as others have stated, wrap that short hose in something to keep it warmer.

ran into this problem when i acquired a new-to-me vauto. it had very low hours on it. one of the first things that happened was i experienced rainout.

this problem had abated quite a bit on my older "for her" resmed. the old thing wasn't as powerful as my new machine. while i had that problem with it in it's beginning, it started to wan very much over the years, to the point where the heated hose seemed to be enough to keep things rain free. i'd forgotten how much that hose cozy helped in my early days with it.

tl:dr-use something to wrap that tube. pretty sure it'll help.

good luck!

I have noticed that Resmed is opposed to using any hose cozy on their
Climateline hose--except THEIRS.
This is obviously nothing more than self-serving BS, and should be ignored.

Thanks for all the pointers- I raised tube temp to max 30, added covers for the p10 hose, humidity at 4, but man the air last night felt so warm almost like I was in an oven (slight exaggeration). IT would appear the most direct way to reduce heat is to dial humidity back to 3? Conflict of interest here, want air to be moist and cool at the same time!

ronragus wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 06, 2022 6:17 pm

Conflict of interest here, want air to be moist and cool at the same time!

Don't we all.

I want...
1...very cool bedroom ambient temp
2...maximum humidity
3...more of that cool air coming in through my mask

equals...major rain out in the mask and often in the hose as well in which I get a cold shower from the vents holes and noise in the hose that would wake the dead.

I am not real crazy about the warm air coming in to the mask but I am even less crazy about the cold shower and noise so I use the warm air and tell myself that I will get used to it and it allows me to use the maximum humidity that my nose needs to stay happy.

Always a trade off....which problem annoys you the least????

The other option is increase the bedroom ambient temperature....but if you are like me and like a cooler bedroom...it's not a good option either.

Another option...the barrel cozy. They do help keep the air in the pillows from cooling down and that might be enough to help prevent the condensation and let you use the humidity setting that is most comfortable for you and keep your nasal mucosa happy.

Currently I have humidity set at 4 with tube temp at 28C... While I havnt had rain out issues recently I noticed that when I woke up I had a lot of liquidy clear mucus that I needed to blow out of my nose in the morning, and after that I have no more nasal discharge for the rest of the day (which tells me this is not an allergy/seasonal pollen issue)... So if I woke up from CPAP with lots of nasal discharge, is that an indication that my humidity is set too high and I should be dialing lower?

It might be.

It also might be an indicator of not enough humidity. Sometimes our nasal mucosa does funny things.

Turn your humidifier down a notch, test for a few days and see how things are too dry? Remember to account for the potential of changing environment, meaning if you turn it down a notch, but the relative humidity in your local environment happens to go up a lot, you still might be reciving more net humidity.

I don't have an air conditioner, so my room is fairly warm in the summer, but I have a fan blowing a breeze directly on me to keep me cool. Perhaps it will help to let your room be a little warmer, have a fan on to keep you cool, and then you can humidify the CPAP as desired without rainout (if your sleeping partner can stand to sleep in a warm room).

Another option is to hydrate your body well (drink plenty of fluids early in the day), and use something like Ayr gel to keep your nasal passages from drying out so you can turn the humidifier down. The humidifier crapped out on my first CPAP machine about 3 years in (a known defect in Philips System One machines) so I got used to doing only passover humidity and then none at all. I occasionally get some sores in my nose from dryness, so I use a little bit of coconut oil on a Q-tip to protect and heal them (and they heal quickly!)

I was recently put on oxygen. The tubing is routed from the oxygen concentrator to humidifier to water trap to bleed in connector to CPAP. The water trap works well and can be emptied as needed. Is it possible to connect a water trap between the CPAP and the mask tubing to catch the droplets while allowing humid air to pass similar to this? You can google water trap for oxygen concentrator to see several brands.

I have started putting the concentrator in the bathroom with the door closed so I don't have to hear it all night. It warms up the bathroom and since I've moved it I find more water in the trap than when it was next to my bed. I do put water in the CPAP humidifier but I don't turn on the heat. I couldn't stand breathing in the warm air. When I started using oxygen I complained to my doctor that I kept having a runny nose. She said to add the humidifier as my body was compensating for the dry air I was breathing by producing more mucous. Makes sense and it helped.