When it rains, it pours...

ww wrote:The best thing to coat the gasket with is a silicone grease (used to be called DC4) and now available as a plumbing grease. It will not affect any gasket material adversely and ensures an adequate seal.

That's exactly what I would recommend if he were to keep using that O-ring indefinitely.

But if that O-ring is soon-to-be-discarded... Well, most people happen to stock Vaseline but not silicone grease. And Vaseline will take a lot longer to deteriorate that O-ring material than he plans on keeping it. So I personally wouldn't waste the money on silicone grease unless the solution were to be permanent. Just my opinion...

rooster wrote:His machine will get lipoid pneumonia! $%@&%&#@&!

I hate when that happens!

... or get a Resmed and then you don't have to worry about it! Sorry I just could NOT resist. I tried, I really did. Made it all the way to the second page before I caved in.

Chris......

I had the same problem with one of my "M" series tanks.....and I found the problem. It was leaking in the area of the o-ring seal.

Carefully look at both plastic parts of the tank.....in the groove where the o-ring fits. Use your fingernail or some sort of stylus to "run" the groove.......and you'll probably find a tiny little imperfection in the plastic......a protrusion that causes the o-ring not to seal just right.

When you find the little imperfection, use a magnifier to look at it closely........then, use an X-Acto knife....or some other sharp, but controllable tool......to scrape down the plastic imperfection. Put it all back together....test with a full tank of water.........and that's all there is to it.

Gerald

. or get a Resmed and then you don't have to worry about it!

Unless of course you have an H4i, I've pulled mine apart once and have decided that I won't be doing it very often.

Y'all crack me up.

Gerald wrote:...I had the same problem with one of my "M" series tanks.....and I found the problem. It was leaking in the area of the o-ring seal....

Gerald - it's good to know it's likely the blue ring. Thanks.

ww wrote:The best thing to coat the gasket with is a silicone grease (used to be called DC4) and now available as a plumbing grease...

Yeah - I figured that, but Home Depot isn't open on Easter.

-SWS wrote: But if that O-ring is soon-to-be-discarded...

Vaseline - we actually didn't have any in the house. I haven't used that since I was a baby, I think. But I was able to get some at the Kroger in the baby section.

Slinky wrote:... or get a Resmed and then you don't have to worry about it! Sorry I just could NOT resist. I tried, I really did. Made it all the way to the second page before I caved in.

Thanks, Slinky. I really want to get a new machine, but I can't afford one right now. I've got SAE - "Sandman Auto Envy". Surely one day, "THEY" will come up with a cure for SAE.

DreamDiver wrote: Vaseline - we actually didn't have any in the house. I haven't used that since I was a baby, I think. But I was able to get some at the Kroger in the baby section.

Well, if you're going to start throwing money around like a drunken sailor....

Then you should have just purchased the silicone grease that ww very wisely suggested. Don't EVER listen to -SWS when someone more sensible walks into a thread. That would be any thread that is not exclusively an -SWS soliloquy. What were you thinking??? Besides, whenever I say "Vaseline", that's always slang for maple syrup, silicone grease, or KY Jelly (and what a fine Kentucky import!). Those three are pretty much the same in my book. But I never meant to say Vaseline of all things...

Vaseline?? How on earth did you come to THAT conclusion?


j/k

Hey, DreamDiver, I don't know that I've "caught" SAE - yet - but - I sure would like the opportunity to at least TRY one!!! Ahhh, money the root of all evil. I should have been born rich - well, I'd most likely have gone thru all the money too early on. Maybe I should have married rich. You know, some old geezer w/gobs of money, one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, no kids, no family and no pre-nup agreement!!!!!

Chris.....

It isn't the o-ring....it's an imperfection (mold error or defect) in the o-ring track....that causes the problem.

The o-ring is pushed aside by the injection mold imperfection.....and leaks.

Put the tank back together....fill it with water......tilt in various positions....and note where the water drips out. If it drips from the o-ring area, the problem is as I've described.

If the leak is from the metal base area, I suspect the only solution is to replace the tank.

Gerald

Gerald wrote:It isn't the o-ring....it's an imperfection (mold error or defect) in the o-ring track....that causes the problem.

I'll have to politely disagree with that universalism----as if it were an inescapable conclusion in this situation. Track residue and its remediation is clearly not "the" universal cause and solution:

So why do we think hardware stores sell replacement O-rings in prolific quantities of all sizes? Because they tend to lose elasticity and fail to provide an adequate compression seal.

But you can probably tell from the comment in my first post that I agree the channel may have deposits or residue. Anyway, Vaseline or better yet silicone grease (for improved material longevity) is usually a suitable solution for a distorted O-ring problem that Dreamdiver described...

Slinky wrote:Hey, DreamDiver, I don't know that I've "caught" SAE - yet - but - I sure would like the opportunity to at least TRY one!!! Ahhh, money the root of all evil. I should have been born rich - well, I'd most likely have gone thru all the money too early on. Maybe I should have married rich. You know, some old geezer w/gobs of money, one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, no kids, no family and no pre-nup agreement!!!!!

Yeah, I know what you mean... As for me, I keep specifying to the grocery store cashier to give me the winning lottery number. Why won't they listen to me?!?!?!

Hi Gerald -

I suspect that if the tank were new, it might be a molding flaw. But it hasn't started leaking until recently, and I've had this tank for maybe two years? Perhaps continued scraping from opening and closing the tank has worn some surface, emulating the same problem as a molding flaw. However, water doesn't seem to drip out from anywhere when I'm filling it. The leak is certainly not from the metal plate on the tank, as no water is visible or felt when I take the tank out and feel the warming plate that touches the tank after the end of the night. Yet water drips from the bottom of the humidifier housing that ensconces the chamber. Go figure. Looking at the interior of the housing, I'm lost as to how it could leak in the first place from anywhere except where the silicone frame abuts the humidifier housing. Yet I'm not getting enough rainout to cause hose backwash to fall back into the tank - I think - so I don't know how it could be leaking from there either.

I've bought a new tank and will just vaseline this one for now, until the new one comes in. No leaks last night, at any rate.

Gerald wrote:It isn't the o-ring....it's an imperfection (mold error or defect) in the o-ring track....that causes the problem.

The o-ring is pushed aside by the injection mold imperfection.....and leaks.

Put the tank back together....fill it with water......tilt in various positions....and note where the water drips out. If it drips from the o-ring area, the problem is as I've described.

If the leak is from the metal base area, I suspect the only solution is to replace the tank.

Gerald

Actually, the Respironics integrated humidifier should be RED, not black - at the embarrassment of such poor design. We all know Respironics is capable of better design than that so you gotta wonder how this integrated humidifier design slipped thru Quality Control.

Chris.....

One thing to think about when trying to find the leak.....is that when the CPAP machine is running, the water in the humidifier tank....is under pressure......the same pressure we need to keep our airway open.

It's possible that it might not leak at atmospheric pressure....but will leak when in operation.....when it's under "boost pressure" (so to speak).

Gerald

. . . better design . . . quality control . . .

In light of the findings of the Rogers Commission and the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology, I am glad we are entertaining all assessments of mission-critical o-ring problems.

Jnk.....

Even though I'm a great fan of Richard Feynman, I didn't think to suggest that Chris check the o-ring pliability by placing it in a glass of ice-water.

Gerald