DMEs charge more for all that support service! NOT!

My 420E started doing weird things last night. Surging of the motor with no real pressure increase. Then would get an Error Message. Turn it off, start it again, two or three times before it would work right. Downloaded my data for the last few weeks and found out that when I went to Northern CA last week, it obviously didn't know how to compensate for high altitude (3400 ft) and left me on a pressure of 3-4 all night long, and showed I had no apneas, CA, Hypops, Vibrtions, nothing, Everything Zeros. No wonder I was so tired every morning. The last night in CA I was in San Jose and the readings were all over the place. And showed I had many more events than usual.

I have never dropped this unit, EVER. So that's no excuse for its behavior.
Called my DME this morning when they opened. No RT there until this afternoon. At least not one I wanted to deal with. But I called the assistant anyway and her phone was busy. I called twice more, emphasizing the emergency nature and that I lived 45 minutes away and I needed a machine TONIGHT and needed one I could take with me out of town Sat .am. Still no answer by this p.m. so I called the head RTs cell phone. Got his voice mail, which I didn't realize until I had burbled my heart out and got cut off. Called again, left my number, again expressed the urgency of the situation. That was 2 p.m. It is now 5:11 p.m. and I have received ABSOLUTAMENTE NADA!!! (That's Spanish for absolute nothing).Nothing on the answering machine, no calls, nothing!

So, at 3 p.m. after getting nowhere, I called CPAP.com (the Magnificent) asking if I could get an order in this afternoon if they could get it to me tomorrow since I only live like 4 hours away. They said, sure, you've got an hour. Got my RX faxed, went online and ordered another unit, same kind, figure at least I'll have a backup now. And I should have it tomorrow.

(CPAP.Com rep said they usually can get stuff anywhere in Texas the next day by Ground Service -- Good to know).

So, I ask you, what good are our extra $$$ spent at the DME for service when this is what you get. I seriously doubt I'll get a call tomorrow either or at least too late to go into town and pick up something. Will they deliver? What do you think?? Probably not.

Oh, and I've only had this unit for THREE MONTHS!!

5:32, heard from the RT. he has taken back 15 of these machines in the last few months for the same problem and is no longer recommending or selling them. I am to print out the whole 3 months of use, along with an account of what happened and get that to them tomorrow.

Janelle,
Here's what I'd do (realize that I am a laid back kind of guy)
I would make a personal visit to your DME. I would ask the secretary if I could see "the most important person" in the building. The one person everyone calls , "Boss"............after explaining my problem I would ask him/her to give me the name of their Boss. If my problem was not attended to "pronto", I would call the next Boss up the line.
I did this with a "Lemon" car that I purchased.

Six months ago I went to my "friendly DME" to get a new mask. They tried to push me in the direction of the Nasalaire II. They measured my nares then "hooked me up". Everything was fine (sitting in a chair)
I got home ....and all heck broke loose when I tried to go to sleep. LEAK CITY !!! I went back...they smiled and said..........."Sorry ..no returns"
I used the approach mentioned above. "The Boss is out to lunch...won't be back for an hour...." I said ...I'll wait"
To make a long story shorter........I got another mask

Good Luck
Rich

YIKES! I'm starting on my 3rd month of 420E! Now you've got me kind of worried.....but, I bought through cpap.com and I'm SURE that Johnny and co. will take care of me. (Right??????)

I'm sorry to hear of your bad luck.....and the return of all the other 420Es. The darn thing seems to work sooooooo good! I'm a regular poster here and will be darn sure to keep the board informed.

This therapy WORKS!!

Well, it's not just the 420E, its the 420S the 420G and whatever other models it come in. All with the same problem and all within about 3 months of beginning use. Definitely a bug in the unit production.

My RT was also not aware I was having Central Apneas and said, I probably need a different machine altogether and is going to take my data from the 420 E and discuss them with the Physicians Assistant at the Sleep Dr's office. He says if I'm having any centrals at all, I need a machine with a back pressure (says I, "yeah, I know".)

So plans are now, after talking with CPAP.com to refuse shipment on my brandnew 420E so I don't have to pay a restocking fee. (called and explained I might not even be able to use the machine).

I'm to take my machine in tomorrow, with readouts of all nightly charts from the entire time I've used the machine, along with a written letter explaining what has happened which will go to Puritan Bennett from the DME. this also might be a reason, I'm thinking, for me having gained 15 pounds during CPAP treatment instead of losing.

In the meantime, I'm using my 420E tonight as a CPAP with my titrated pressure of 8. Have no idea what they will fix me up with as a loaner until we get this figured out.

Ain't life grand?

Hi Janelle,

Sorry to hear about your difficulties with the PB420e. I have one too, and hope it won't go bad. I like the machine, the size and the portability of the 420e. I especially like the software.

Best of luck and try to sleep well!

Jane

Janelle,
Sorry to hear of your problem with the 420e. I imagine that this is a relatively new production problem with Puritan Bennett, as I haven's heard of this previously. I have a 420g I bought in June of 2003 and used until January of 2005, when I bought a RemStar Auto. The 420 g still worked perfectly, but I wanted an auto, and liked the c-flex option. I have a friend who bought the 420e back in 2003 when he saw how light and portable mine was and he has had no problems with his. Hopefully PB will get this problem fixed quickly and replace any machines that had this problem.
Debbie

Howdy,

I have spoken to our repair tech and my father concerning this issue.

Here are the facts:

1. The 420 Series comes with a 2 year warranty. If you purchased from us and suspect a problem contact us - if it sounds like trouble we'll issue you an RMA number and you can send it in. We will inspect the unit and if it has indeed failed, we will work with PB to make it right. This doesn't happen often but when it has PB has sent us a brand new replacement unit which we have expedited back to our customer.

PB can do this because they have a failure rate low enough to eat the replacement cost.

2. We have sold thousands and thousands of these units. Most likely, your local DME and that specific rep have not. This is significant because our volume allows us to get a very good picture of the true failure rate of various machines. The rest of my comments are based on this volume and experience.

3. The failure rate on all major CPAP brands is very low. Look at the prices we offer for CPAP machines, if we were taking returns all the time we could not support these kinds of prices.

4. PB is a major brand and does not have a higher of a failure rate other CPAP manufacturers.


So, you are covered and they don't fail frequently. That DME rep is either quite a story teller or got the worlds most fluke batch of 420s.

Johnny

Johnny, I just KNEW you'd come through for us! Thanks.

And, BTW, something else has been on my mind regarding you. You run cpap.com, right? And started cpaptalk.com, too, huh? Well, how about letting us get to know you a bit??? A kinda "brag" thing for you.....info thing for us. I don't know about the rest of the folks here, but I like knowing who I'm doing business with........especially if they don't give me the "business", if ya know what I mean!! LOLOL Also, the thread of folks telling about themselves was very interesting and informative. So how about telling us about yourself??

Thanks.

This therapy WORKS!!!

Kajun

Kajun,

Until Johnny gets around to posting his life story, here is a link to his "about me" page at the cpap.com site.

Johnny Goodman

Well, since I mentioned all the central apneas that were showing up on the Silverlining software data, my RT is now going to talk to my dr about switching me to a Bi-Pap or something with a back pressure (I think that's the right term). he's going to look at my readouts and then talk to the Dr. Hope they resolve this soon.

I think the common denominator in this 420 problem is your DME ! He's doing something wrong or telling stories. I'm with Johnny These units are well built and lots have been sold. Why the big problem in Austin ?

Chris

My 420E was absolutely a reliable little workhorse for me for a long time. It still works, as far as I know, even though I now use a Remstar Auto in order to get C-flex. If the 420E had pressure relief on exhalation, I'd be right back buying a 420E without any hesitation.

Johnny,

I purchased an Remstar Autopap with Cflex from you and it produced a chemical smell. No one should have to smell chemicals. It took a long time to get the smell out. When I posted this fact on the board, the only replies I got was from Chrisp who suggested that I should run it in a new car and Linda Dyer who egged him on. Crisp, where is the new car you suggested I run it in? You have not sent it to me yet. By the way I have never had a new car with chemical smells and I have been around a while. Johnny, perhaps you need to test some of the machines and make sure you are not sending them out with chemical smells. If so, you should get on the horn with Respironics. Autopap purchasers should not have to put up with this.

The previous machine I rented from a DME was a Remstar w/cflex. About 2 months after I rented it, the machine started blasting away and had to be returned.

Guest wrote:Johnny,

I purchased an Remstar Autopap with Cflex from you and it produced a chemical smell. No one should have to smell chemicals. It took a long time to get the smell out. When I posted this fact on the board, the only replies I got was from Chrisp who suggested that I should run it in a new car and Linda Dyer who egged him on. Crisp, where is the new car you suggested I run it in? You have not sent it to me yet. By the way I have never had a new car with chemical smells and I have been around a while. Johnny, perhaps you need to test some of the machines and make sure you are not sending them out with chemical smells. If so, you should get on the horn with Respironics. Autopap purchasers should not have to put up with this.

The previous machine I rented from a DME was a Remstar w/cflex. About 2 months after I rented it, the machine started blasting away and had to be returned.

Actually your problem has been discussed a few times. All the new Respironics machines have a "smell" that takes a few days to wear off. If you want to speed up the process, you can leave the blower on for a few hours. I have the Remstar Auto with Cflex, and a Remstar Pro with Cflex, both machines exhibited this.

As to CPAP.COM testing each machine in that manner. Ummm I think that isn't really something they need to do.

All new plastic will offgas a bit, if it is really offensive you might email Respironics.

Additionally, can you provide a link to your post? I did a search and could not find it.