My reviews of Swift I and II, Bravo and NasalaireII

Ok, so I was adjusting to life on cpap. I tried tons of full face masks, none of which suited my facial structure (except the recently discovered hans rudolph, but I reviewed that on another thread). So, I decided to try nasal-only interfaces. By trading (see mask roulette thread) the masks that didn't work for me, I have been able to try a lot of masks lately. I thought I would tell you my thoughts about them.

I was using Optilife and I liked the pillows system, once I got used to it (nares need some adjusting, you see--the first few days/weeks you should consider using ayr nasal saline gel and lansinoh lanolin). The problem with Optilife is I have to sleep on my back, and the hose goes down the front. No big deal, except my left arm kept wrangling with the hose. I wanted something I could route over my head. I was also having intermittent probs with leaks.

In comes Swift I. I bought at a discounted price from a forum member. I immediately liked it better than optilife. I felt it was far more comfy. I could route the hose up one side of my head to the back and it was out of my way. I thought the pillows fit better, even, than the optilife. The noise level seemed about the same as optilife. I liked the headgear better than optilife, less intrusive. Less stuff on my face. No middle of the night wakeups from leaks.

Then I found out you can buy a swift II conversion kit. I bought one for $25 and I was even more pleased. Now, it was even quieter! I was in heaven. I was sleeping like a log. No leaks. No wakeups til morning. Ahhhh!

Then the Bravo arrived. The bravo is similar in some ways to the swift. (It is made by the same manufacturer as the hybrid and the pillows are very similar to the hybrid mask. ) Bravo is similar to swift in that there is a tube/cannula under your nose and the headgear is similar. The tube/cannula is far smaller in the bravo as compared to the swift, however, and it has less structure than the swift. This part is soft in the bravo. The swift has some hard parts to give it structure, the bravo does not. I didn't like this lack of structure. When adjusting the mask, there wasn't anything to hang onto and it kept coming apart which I found frustrating.

It seemed fairly quiet. Average. A little louder than the swift II, but not outrageous. The "Y shaped" tubes are rubbery and have "grab" which means they pulled at my hair, which I didn't like. The nasal pillows didn't work for me either, but I also had the same problem with the hybrid--not all noses are the same! It seemed like they were spaced farther apart or something. My nose is narrow, but long. So, this one couldn't hold a candle to the swift, in my book. Your book might read differently, depending on your facial features and preferences.


Then came Nasalaire II which I used last night. This one is also made by the same manufacturer as bravo and hybrid and some of its parts are interchangeable with bravo. However, this one has prongs that go up your nose as opposed to pillows that rest against your nares. First thing I noticed was that the Y shaped tubes on this model did not have the same "grab" that the bravo had. No hair pulling issue, good. I hooked it up to my tiara topaz chinstrap (velcro one-wrap) which I have to use anyway, so cutting down on headgear was a major plus! Especially for summer time. it was very easy to fit with the provided sizing star. Luckily my size was in the kit. It fit very well, no problems there.

This time, the lack of structure in the cannula didn't bother me. I had no problems with the parts separating like I did with bravo.

However, I didn't like three things. First, it was not good for my self esteem that I had to use size large prongs for my huge schnoz . Second, I didn't like the exhaust sound--i kept telling myself it was white noise and soothing--but I wasn't buying it. It is a very loud hissing sound. There were no leaks from my nose, however--it fit very well. You can test it by squeezing the "nipples" on the exhalation ports and all I could hear was my machine--nothing was leaking from my nose. Third, I woke up at 3 am thinking an alien had crawled into my nose and set up camp including a small campfire. My nose was burning from the foreign object situated there.

That said, I know I could get used to it, if I chose to. I had the same problem when I started with pillows. The schnoz has to toughen up with a new system, for sure. But I didn't like the exhaust sound. If they improve the exhaust I will revisit this mask for sure!

I could get used to it and learn to like it if it were my only option and things were limited, but I can't imagine using it again right now, knowing the swift is sitting right there. . .

So, the best nasal interface for me so far: the Swift II.

Not going to stop me from trying other masks, though,

Hope this compare and contrast helps others make informed decisions. Jen

Thanks for these wonderful reviews, Jen!

I will be trying a bravo (traded for it this weekend), a NAII (traded for as well), and perhaps a swift I. I might go ahead and try swap for he swift I since it can be converted to the swift II. Yes, a mask junkie I am and keep going back to my favorite - Ultra Mirage nasal.

Sleepyred, I will be curious to hear your opinions on these masks. Please post them when you have a chance. It can only help newbies!

Calling all other mask-crack-whores (sorry, inside joke, I'm laughin my ass off now) give us the dirt--we want to hear your reviews too!

Jen

I'm only a week and a half into cpap myself, and so far have only the Swift II mask in my experience. I like it though, if it starts to leak I can usually readjust it to not leak anymore. And that doesn't even happen very often. My nose was starting to get sore from it but not anymore I think I'm getting used to it now.

I'm getting a Comfort Classic mask with headgear for cheap from ebay just to try something different and get an opportunity to try different masks.

I also bought more nasal pillows for the Swift II brand new from ebay so I don't plan on giving up the Swift II -- just want to try others out too.

[quote="socknitster"]Ok, so I was adjusting to life on cpap. I tried tons of full face masks, none of which suited my facial structure (except the recently discovered hans rudolph, but I reviewed that on another thread). So, I decided to try nasal-only interfaces. By trading (see mask roulette thread) the masks that didn't work for me, I have been able to try a lot of masks lately. I thought I would tell you my thoughts about them.

I was using Optilife and I liked the pillows system, once I got used to it (nares need some adjusting, you see--the first few days/weeks you should consider using ayr nasal saline gel and lansinoh lanolin). The problem with Optilife is I have to sleep on my back, and the hose goes down the front. No big deal, except my left arm kept wrangling with the hose. I wanted something I could route over my head. I was also having intermittent probs with leaks.

In comes Swift I. I bought at a discounted price from a forum member. I immediately liked it better than optilife. I felt it was far more comfy. I could route the hose up one side of my head to the back and it was out of my way. I thought the pillows fit better, even, than the optilife. The noise level seemed about the same as optilife. I liked the headgear better than optilife, less intrusive. Less stuff on my face. No middle of the night wakeups from leaks.

Then I found out you can buy a swift II conversion kit. I bought one for $25 and I was even more pleased. Now, it was even quieter! I was in heaven. I was sleeping like a log. No leaks. No wakeups til morning. Ahhhh!

Then the Bravo arrived. The bravo is similar in some ways to the swift. (It is made by the same manufacturer as the hybrid and the pillows are very similar to the hybrid mask. ) Bravo is similar to swift in that there is a tube/cannula under your nose and the headgear is similar. The tube/cannula is far smaller in the bravo as compared to the swift, however, and it has less structure than the swift. This part is soft in the bravo. The swift has some hard parts to give it structure, the bravo does not. I didn't like this lack of structure. When adjusting the mask, there wasn't anything to hang onto and it kept coming apart which I found frustrating.

It seemed fairly quiet. Average. A little louder than the swift II, but not outrageous. The "Y shaped" tubes are rubbery and have "grab" which means they pulled at my hair, which I didn't like. The nasal pillows didn't work for me either, but I also had the same problem with the hybrid--not all noses are the same! It seemed like they were spaced farther apart or something. My nose is narrow, but long. So, this one couldn't hold a candle to the swift, in my book. Your book might read differently, depending on your facial features and preferences.


Then came Nasalaire II which I used last night. This one is also made by the same manufacturer as bravo and hybrid and some of its parts are interchangeable with bravo. However, this one has prongs that go up your nose as opposed to pillows that rest against your nares. First thing I noticed was that the Y shaped tubes on this model did not have the same "grab" that the bravo had. No hair pulling issue, good. I hooked it up to my tiara topaz chinstrap (velcro one-wrap) which I have to use anyway, so cutting down on headgear was a major plus! Especially for summer time. it was very easy to fit with the provided sizing star. Luckily my size was in the kit. It fit very well, no problems there.

This time, the lack of structure in the cannula didn't bother me. I had no problems with the parts separating like I did with bravo.

However, I didn't like three things. First, it was not good for my self esteem that I had to use size large prongs for my huge schnoz . Second, I didn't like the exhaust sound--i kept telling myself it was white noise and soothing--but I wasn't buying it. It is a very loud hissing sound. There were no leaks from my nose, however--it fit very well. You can test it by squeezing the "nipples" on the exhalation ports and all I could hear was my machine--nothing was leaking from my nose. Third, I woke up at 3 am thinking an alien had crawled into my nose and set up camp including a small campfire. My nose was burning from the foreign object situated there.

That said, I know I could get used to it, if I chose to. I had the same problem when I started with pillows. The schnoz has to toughen up with a new system, for sure. But I didn't like the exhaust sound. If they improve the exhaust I will revisit this mask for sure!

I could get used to it and learn to like it if it were my only option and things were limited, but I can't imagine using it again right now, knowing the swift is sitting right there. . .

So, the best nasal interface for me so far: the Swift II.

Not going to stop me from trying other masks, though,

Hope this compare and contrast helps others make informed decisions. Jen

Nice review.

I love the OptiLife and the Swift II. Disliked ComfortLite and hated the Opus!

I have no problems with hose management now after 6 months. You have to train yourself to get used to the hose... and with a hose-snuggie-warmer-cover-thingy I don't really know it's there.

I have the cpap very close to the bed and tuck the hose under the pillow a bit using the velcro-strap and clip (from the OptiLife), clipping the hose to the sheet. The hose goes down my side on the outside edge of bed and then curls back up to my nose. There is enough hose to roll over.

When on my stomach the hose is sort of trapped under my arm.

socknitster - I've tried all those masks (except the original Swift) and have a lot of the same opinions as you. I agree with you on the Nasal Aire 2 - that thing is noisy! I never could get over the noise, even once I got it adjusted somewhat comfortably. The Bravo didn't work at all for me - I never could get it adjusted to where there weren't major leaks.

I agree with you that the Swift 2 is the best of that bunch, and that's my fallback mask when others aren't working out. My biggest problem with the Swift 2 is that I wake up with really bad backaches when I use it. That's the whole reason I started trying other masks in the first place.

Another one that is working well for me is the Comfort Lite 2. I'm trying to make that my main mask because it's comfortable and I don't get backaches when I wear it. The problem is that it's hard to get it adjusted so it doesn't leak, but I'm getting better at it. I had 3-4 days in a row where I had it adjusted perfectly and got some great sleep with no backaches, then last night for some reason I just couldn't get it right and it kept leaking, so I had to switch back to the Swift (and woke up with a backache).

The other mask I'm going to try is a Breeze, which I actually have here from a trade but haven't tried yet. I need something with as little obstruction to the sides as possible, and the Breeze looks like it might do the trick.

Mikester, I have used the Breeze for 14 months and love it. Here's a link to some tips for adjusting for fit:

viewtopic.php?t=4102

Be sure and read WillSucceed's post towards the bottom of the thread

Good Luvk!

You crack me up jen...in a mask/ACV crack whore kind of way. ROTFLMAO You are great.

I was thinking of trying the NAII and the optilife. I think I will skip the optilife after this review. I coulnt handle the tubing down the front. I toss and turn too much. Do you find it hard to switch sides sleeping with the swift? I have heard that could be a problem.

socknitster wrote:.... Then I found out you can buy a swift II conversion kit. I bought one for $25 and I was even more pleased. Now, it was even quieter! I was in heaven. I was sleeping like a log. No leaks. No wakeups til morning. Ahhhh!

Pretty please, tell me where you got it : ) It would be great to quiet it down and by conversion do you mean able to wear it up the middle versus over to one side?

I bought the same upgrade from http://cpapplus.com/ for $25

cpapernewbie wrote:I bought the same upgrade from http://cpapplus.com/ for $25

Hi

That kit does not include the frame with the vents on it does it ?

Sleepdeprived

For those who find the nasal pillows too far apart on some masks, I find I can successfully use the Opus now by putting something around the pillows to draw them closer together. I started with dental floss, which worked fine, but can stretch wider over time. I next went to the hardware store and bought a 1 1/16" o-ring--small, thin rubber--and am now using that. It is, fyi, a #33 o-ring. This makes the pillows closer together so they fit my nose much better. I got nothing but leaks before I started this method!

[quote="jennmary"]You crack me up jen...in a mask/ACV crack whore kind of way. ROTFLMAO You are great.

I was thinking of trying the NAII and the optilife. I think I will skip the optilife after this review. I coulnt handle the tubing down the front. I toss and turn too much. Do you find it hard to switch sides sleeping with the swift? I have heard that could be a problem.

I like the o-ring idea and will try it; however, some time back (26 April) DreamStalker described the use of a narrow strip of velcro around the base of the Opus nose pieces and I tried it on my OptiLife, with great success!

By the way, several have mentioned having problems with the front tube location of the OptiLife; however, I am a back sleeper and found that I can support the hose in such a way as to actually help with the stability issue..

By the way, thanks for all the good advice on this site..

Fred..