Mask Quest: MedRes Swift II Review

I'm getting a new APAP setup. Thanks to my lenient DME, I have the opportunity to try out a couple of new masks. First one in the series is the ResMed Swift II. Before I know it, I got tangled in a whirlwind love-hate relationship with this perplexing mask.

Pro's:

(1) Top-notch quality--No expense was spared in the material used in making this mask.

(2) First-class workmanship--Every stich is straight and neat, every piece is refined and fits like Swiss watches.

(3) Headgear is light and airy. glasses wearing possible. Exhaust noise low. Comfort factor is great.

(4) When it comes to masks, however, most important thing is the seal. And the seal of Swift II is way up there with the best. This is by courtesy of the ingenious design of the rotating nasal piece which is made of silicon that's thick, soft and supple, carefully sculpted for an excellent fit to further enhance seal. Your nose will never rest on more refined pillow and/or know better nasal seal.

Con's:

(1) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

(2) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

(3) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

Conclusion:

At first sighting, your eyes tell you that you're looking at the Roll-Royce of nasal-pillows. But, the moment you settle down in the much anticipated luxurious Connelly leather driver seat, you find yourself, alas, thunking down onto a dilapidated lawn chair! Imagine everything around steep in voluptuous luxury, and here you are, wallowing in rickety misery. Yeah, it's that frustrating not being able to sleep on your side with this dream of a nasal pillow. ResMed is a bunch of evil sadists coming up with something that can be, at once, fabulously good and annoyingly bad like the Swift II mask.

The take-away: If you're a back-sleeper, by all means, quest no more, you've finally found the ultimate mother of all nasal-pillows. If your're a side-sleeper, pack your bag, the Swift II ain't it.

On to my next quest, the sight is on this much-discussed, son-of-an-alien-looking Respironics ComfortLite 2 mask.

Thank you khvn for you excellent review. I look forward to your post on the Respironics ComfortLite 2 mask. High quality reviews are helpful to clinincians, manufacturers,and cpapers. Hopefully more will be encouraged by your example and post their experience.

Yes, it could be annoying if you sleep on both sides, but if you are one that can limit yourself to sleeping on your back or just one side (my father is one of these) you can assemble the Swift II hose on either the left or right side. You also have a choice of not strapping the hose to the side of your head, so if you have a CPAP pillow (with the cutouts) your hose could dangle off the side of the pillow and possibly not be a problem.

It IS a very comfortable mask and does have nice pillows. I wish the headstraps had sliders to keep the extra strap length from curling up. The silicone body is very supple and is a neat design, but I have not priced the replacements yet, so I hope it does not add to much to the price.

I mostly sleep on my back and have no trouble with this mask.

Actually one can sleep either side with the Swift. You just need to route it out and up to the top of your head using a piece of velcro to attach it to the buckle

I used the Swift that way until I found the more effective (FOR ME) NA II

Sleepdeprived


[quote="khvn"]I'm getting a new APAP setup. Thanks to my lenient DME, I have the opportunity to try out a couple of new masks. First one in the series is the ResMed Swift II. Before I know it, I got tangled in a whirlwind love-hate relationship with this perplexing mask.

Pro's:

(1) Top-notch quality--No expense was spared in the material used in making this mask.

(2) First-class workmanship--Every stich is straight and neat, every piece is refined and fits like Swiss watches.

(3) Headgear is light and airy. glasses wearing possible. Exhaust noise low. Comfort factor is great.

(4) When it comes to masks, however, most important thing is the seal. And the seal of Swift II is way up there with the best. This is by courtesy of the ingenious design of the rotating nasal piece which is made of silicon that's thick, soft and supple, carefully sculpted for an excellent fit to further enhance seal. Your nose will never rest on more refined pillow and/or know better nasal seal.

Con's:

(1) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

(2) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

(3) Cannot sleep on the side where the hose is

Conclusion:

At first sighting, your eyes tell you that you're looking at the Roll-Royce of nasal-pillows. But, the moment you settle down in the much anticipated luxurious Connelly leather driver seat, you find yourself, alas, thunking down onto a dilapidated lawn chair! Imagine everything around steep in voluptuous luxury, and here you are, wallowing in rickety misery. Yeah, it's that frustrating not being able to sleep on your side with this dream of a nasal pillow. ResMed is a bunch of evil sadists coming up with something that can be, at once, fabulously good and annoyingly bad like the Swift II mask.

The take-away: If you're a back-sleeper, by all means, quest no more, you've finally found the ultimate mother of all nasal-pillows. If your're a side-sleeper, pack your bag, the Swift II ain't it.

On to my next quest, the sight is on this much-discussed, son-of-an-alien-looking Respironics ComfortLite 2 mask.

I used Swift II first couple of months and am glad I did. I'm now using FF which I like better but it took a lot more getting used to and tweaks. I'm not sure I could have done it in the beginning.

The other issue I have with Swift II (which I will use again come spring) is that after a month or two it starts leaking at the joints where the headgear and reservoir attach. Teflon plumber's tape does mostly fix that problem but it was unnerving, to say the least, to have it suddenly start leaking in a major way.

So, I'd give the Swift II a passing grade but it still has a ways to go. I agree that the quality is very good but it's how it works that ultimately matters.

Mindy

I have been using the swift 2 for a couple of weeks now. It has brought my leak rate down to a much better rate. I have the hose going up my right side of my head and have no problem sleep on my side. I usually like my left side, but have found myself sleep more on the right side (go figure).

So far so good.

Wes

Cpap masks and mousetraps, are in the same situation, the best one of either one has not been invented yet, keep trying inventors, its an inventors bonanza.

Hurricane wrote:Cpap masks and mousetraps, are in the same situation, the best one of either one has not been invented yet, keep trying inventors, its an inventors bonanza.

Yep - I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a good, marketable solution .... I'd probably end up making a fortune! No luck so far

Mindy

I thought Dcon just built the better mousetrap?

http://www.amazon.com/RECKITT-BENCKISER ... B000LO07I0

I sleep on both sides during the night with my swift. By attaching the hose to the top strap buckle as Sleepdeprived said works wonders. See the discussion at this link below. It also has pictures on what Sleepdeprived is talking about.

viewtopic.php?t=4290&highlight=swift+ho ... g+daughter

As for the Swift leaking as it ages, others have experienced this, I have not in the two Swifts I've owned (1 & 2). My Swift 2 is over 4 months old and no changes in it's leak rate, at least so far. My Swift 1 was the same, I used it for just over 6 months before replacing it with the II. So I think there are leaking Swifts, but they seem to be in small numbers.

If the link does not work, search using: swift AND hose AND routing AND daughter

This will fine the right topic.

Good Luck, Sleep Well!

---gary