Rainout question

I'm very confused about what to do to stop rainout from occuring.

I live in Seattle, so we have little to no humidity. I'm using a Mirage Micro nasal mask. I've been going to bed with my bedroom window open about 6". My CPAP machine has a humidifier, and during the fall/winter I had it set to a level 3. I don't know what to do now that it's warmer - I don't turn on any heat in the bedroom. My DME says to turn up the humidifier but that advice seems to contradict what I've read. I do have a hose cover but it is a little heavy and tends to pull my mask to the side.

What do I do - turn the humidifier up or down?

No humidity in Seattle? That doesn't sound right.

In general, lowering the humidifier setting will reduce rainout. You have to see how the lower setting affects you, however.

No humidity in Seattle? That doesn't sound right.

From USA Today:

"No place has "no" humidity, but Seattle comes as close as any place to having low humidity that's not going to bother you in the summer. The average is well below the level that makes people begin to feel the humidity, but there's a chance you would find a rare day now and then that will feel a little humid. But you don't have to worry about the kind of summer humidity you find around the Gulf of Mexico."

Sorry.

My mental picture of the Emerald City is rainy and damp all the time. (Except for the one that Dorothy walked to.)

Ah, that's okay. We have the 3rd worst traffic in the nation so we prefer that people think it rains here all the time so they won't move here. I recently heard about a study (don't know scientific it was) but it listed the 10 "saddest" cities in the U.S, with "sad" meaning dreary, rainy, cold, etc., and I don't remember all of the cities, but St. Louis was #2, and Portland, OR, was #1. Seattle wasn't wven on the list.

Rainout happens because to level of the humidity in the air in the hose cannot be supported by the decreasing temperature of the hose as it leaves the machine and gets closer to your mask. So, you can lower the amount of humidity put into the air or prevent the temperature of the air from falling low enough to cause the condensation to happen. Warmer weather in the summer should be a cause for less rainout, but maybe the opening of the window allows the over night outside temperature to make the bedroom cooler than you normally maintain it in the winter. But, back to basics choose between lowering the humidifier setting (I run without heat now, passover mode, I used to use #3 until rainout happened in spite of my heated hose) or keeping the hose warmer.

Good Luck,
TerryB

I had all kinds of problems with rainout. I tried turning my humidifier up and down. I tried a hose cover. Nothing worked. I live in a valley in south central Texas and it's pretty humid here.

I finally read a post about the Aussie heated hose and bought one. http://www.sleepzone.com.au/. I ordered it online from the company in Australia and it took a little over two weeks to get to me. It has solved the rainout problem for me.

Lisa

The best machines to eliminate "rain out" are from Fisher & Pykal. They have the patent on heated tubing. No one in the industry can mimick natural humidity like they can. Makes the tubing socks from other co's look like childs play.

Only down side is that they do not offer bi-level machines. Thats about a year out.

Thanks, LoneStar. I splurged today and ordered a heated Aussie hose.

Another thing you can try is lowering your machine to where it is slightly lower than your bed, gravity helps keep the rainout from making up to your mask. Also,hink of your humidifier as being a pot of water on the stove, they higher the temp on the stove the more its going to steam so turning your humidifer down instead of up is what you should do. Laura RRT