Heated vs passive humidifiers

djv1255 · Post by **djv1255** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:26 am

For traveling, I was going with a PB420E with the passive or no humdifier.

What is the difference between passive and heated humidifiers?

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:13 am

For traveling, if you're debating between passive or none, you might as well go with none...no humidifier. Passive humidifiers can't give you much humidification at all.

Heated humidifier:
Air from the cpap gets warmed as it comes inside the warm water chamber. The inside of the water chamber itself is warmed by the heated water, so the air itself gets warmed the instant it enters the chamber. Warm air can pick up and carry more moisture as it leaves the heated chamber and starts the long trek up the 6 foot air hose to your snout.

Air passing over cool (or room temp water) can't pick up much moisture. Feels about the same as "none". I've read that the DeVilbiss passive humidifiers are a bit more effective than other passives because they have a bigger flat surface area of water. But nonetheless, it would be nowhere near as effective as heated. So, I'd just go with "no humidifier" for traveling, if I weren't going to take a heated one along.

mrhyak · Post by **mrhyak** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:13 pm

I hate to disagree with Rested Gal, but under some conditions the passive was way better (for me at least) than nothing at all. I went on a 4 day fishing/ rafting trip over Memorial Day. The altitude was about 1500ft and it was very dry, 10-15% humidity - It rained a couple of times, but everything was so dry that you couldn't tell it had rained 10 minutes later. The first night I went without passive humidity it about killed my sinuses. I had a severe headache and it to a couple of hours in the morning to rehydrate. My sinuses felt much better when using the passive (vs nothing). I am building my own 12volt powered heated humidifier, however, because there is no doubt of their superiority over passive. If you will have access to electrical power, think about lugging along the heater. If I had more time, I'd wait and see how the new battery AEIOmed unit works out. Good Luck, Jim

UKnowWhatInSeattle · Post by **UKnowWhatInSeattle** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:23 pm

Personally, I don't give a rat about the humidity, but I find that on my Remstar Pro and my PB420e, the only reason I use the humidifier is for its sound baffling. I don't know how you folks can sleep with the hose connected directly to the mouth of the beast! I sure can't.

I may need to turn the heater on occasionally this summer (dry air up here in the summer, and summer can last a whole weekend), but I nearly never flip the switch to On.

I've been hoping someone would come up with a non-air-restrictive-but-sound-baffling device that would go between the machine and the hose. I have been using the Respironics in-line filters which work great to filter out bugs, but don't provide much sound baffling.

chrisp · Post by **chrisp** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:23 pm

Yes a passover humidifier works somewhat . Especially if you are in a very dry place as mrhyak was. The very dry air passing over the water picks up some moisture. Wouldn't be the same if the humidity was 50%. Remember it all Relative. Try putting 1 of those bubble rocks in the passover unit. It wouldn't take much air to run. A fishtank air pump or a line off of a spare tire if you were without power would work. You could then fill the tire in the morning.

:twis ted:

ahujudybear · Post by **ahujudybear** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:51 pm

djv?

You might want to read through the posts in this thread:::

Choosing a Heated Humidifier ...

Have fun deciding!

For myself, i would still travel with the heated version. The passive ones aren't any smaller, (are they?) and the heated ones can be used as passive OR as heated, depending on the situation in which you find yourself (like stuffy hotel rooms.)

- JB