Big Hose

Can any one tell me why we just cant use a small clear 1/4 hose for our c-paps? that big hose is a real pain in the a@@. It seems the air flow would flow just as well and could rest much easier than this huge hose!!

The reason is that the diameter of the hose is carefully selected to allow the right amount of air to reach us well enough to do the job, but if the hose were only 1/4" wide, your pressure would have to be set at a much, much higher number to be effective, but not with good results - the mask would probably blow up into smithereens as would the hose itself. Either that, or you would just feel hugely deprived of air.

doitinmysleep wrote:Can any one tell me why we just cant use a small clear 1/4 hose for our c-paps? that big hose is a real pain in the a@@. It seems the air flow would flow just as well and could rest much easier than this huge hose!!

My husband is a flow specialist -- piping design engineer. His comment is that with the smaller diameter hose, you would have to have significantly higher pressure in order to get the volume that you need.

The pressure at the mask would end up being the same, but you would have to have greater pressure at the machine to achieve this. This will require a bigger motor for more power and, among other things, it would create more noise from the motor, from the compressor, and from the air flow in the hose, because you have to have a higher velocity to obtain the same flow.

This would also mean that the machine would probably need to be both larger and heavier, since the motor and compressor would both be larger and heavier. Find a picture of the original SUllivan CPAP... I sure wouldn't want that in MY bedroom! <g>

Guess that solves that mystery...lol...just would be way more comfortable with out the big hose pulling at the mask all the time. Thanks for the comments,never thought it would take a much larger machine.

The hose doesn't have to pull the mask around (and maybe create leaks you don't want). There are various ways of keeping the hose out of the way, such as a hook up thingy that looks a bit like an IV stand, and/or you could attach a sling to the wall over your bed, etc. If you click on "hose management" in the blue box at the top of the forum page you can get the name of the IV stand idea and other ideas people have used.

You might consider switching to a cuffless hose, thereby eliminating those heavy/bulky cuffs.