22mm "Y" Adapter?

rooster wrote:

falvesjr wrote:LOL!

I want to try to use an Oracle and an Opus 360 at the same time!

I am glad you said that. On reading the original post, I thought you might be trying to control aerophagia.

Or one line for CPAP, and the other for the nitrous oxide.

Wouldn't need anything for that, Gary. Most masks already have an "oxygen" port... I'm sure nitrous could just as easily go there too!

falvesjr wrote:I want to try to use an Oracle and an Opus 360 at the same time!

Have you considered just blocking up the Oracle and using it as a plug or stopper? Might be far easier and cheaper to do? If you can get used to sleeping with something in your mouth.

I know the air flow just dried out the back of my throat when I tried it before and at 17cm made me feel like I was hyperventilating.

Gumby, I'll have to try it first, but that might be an idea... We'll have to wait and see.

I would suggest taking one of your hoses to a hardware of plumbing supply and checking out the plastic fitting available. I am almost certain that I have seen Y's in my neighborhood hardware. And if such a place has it, the cost would certainly be a bunch better than from a medical supply house.

TheDuke

http://www.amazon.com/Connector-Airlife ... B002MBV29S




http://www.medicalsupplyassistant.com/p ... age=6&js=y




http://www.qosina.com/catalog/part.asp? ... l&store=13

bearded_two, thanks for the links!

falvesjr wrote: I want to try to use an Oracle and an Opus 360 at the same time! It might be a solution for my mouth breathing as neither the Liberty or the Hybrid work for me (tried them both). Thoughts anyone?

Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. You say the Liberty and Hybrid did not work for you. They don't work for anyone. You have to do the work to make them useful. If you want to make a commitment see viewtopic.php?t=14422&highlight=

2. You "tried" the masks. Most people who "try" a mask fail. The ones who are successful commit to a mask.

3. Both of the full face masks you tried are of the "hybrid" type. Before going off on a crazy wild goose chase, why not work on using a traditional full face mask?

4. K.I.S.S.

But by all means, suit yourself, not me.

falvesjr,

By adding a second mask you are also doubling the mask venting. I am not sure how that would impact the cpap. It might cause the cpap to think you are in a large leak.

Jeeper

Rooster, I did more than "try", but admit I did not commit... I used both the Liberty and Hybrid for several nights each, but could not get the leaks under control. As for traditional FF masks, I have also used, without success, a ComfortGel, and a Quattro (which I own). I've had some success, and occasionally use, a full face FitLife, but it's not a mask I want to use everyday. I have also only tried, for a few minutes each, an FP431 and an Ultra Mirage -- neither worked well at all. I know that there are a lot more FF masks out there, but it will be difficult to try them all!

My experiment will be just that, an experiment. If it doesn't work, fine. If it does, then I can stop worrying about masks for a while! Mostly, I don't want to have to force myself to use a particular mask. I want to try to find what will work best for me and go from there. I guess I'm lucky that I have the luxury of trying all of these things and don't have to force an unsuitable mask to work for me... The bottom line is that I want to get the best sleep I can with the "best" numbers that will make feel good when I wake up. And finally, I want to make my xPAP therapy work for me, and not make myself a slave to the therapy!

Jeeper, I'm no airflow engineer, but I don't think that's true -- we're talking about a closed circuit here. It's still just one airflow from the machine and the pressure will not be doubled. As for leaks, yes, I probably will have to seal off one of the masks' vents -- I'm thinking of capping the vent on the Oracle -- so there isn't an excessive amount of leakage from having two venting systems in the circuit. Think of it this way: If you only had one mask on -- the 360, let's say, going into your nose -- and your mouth was perfectly sealed so there's no chance of leakage, that closed circuit will have X pressure, flow rate, etc. Now, since your nose and mouth are connected, if your mouth becomes open to the outside (of the circuit), you are venting the incoming air out of the circuit and the pressure and flow rate drop, so the machine has to increase the amount of air to compensate for this loss. But since your mouth is a pretty big leak, it really can't compensate enough and the therapy loses effectiveness. However, if I now add a route in my circuit that transfers the lost air from your mouth leaking back into the circuit, nothing is lost (and nothing is gained), it's still a closed circuit. So don't think of having two masks on as "having two masks on", instead, think of it as a circuit that remains closed, even when there's a "large leak", because in essence, that leak is now capped.

Does that make sense to anyone?

falvesjr wrote: As for leaks, yes, I probably will have to seal off one of the masks' vents -- I'm thinking of capping the vent on the Oracle -- so there isn't an excessive amount of leakage from having two venting systems in the circuit.

While we are way out on a limb hypothesizing, think about this. You say you will seal off one of the mask's vents. Now maybe you will be breathing through one or the other orifice almost exclusively due to your anatomy or whatever. If you happen to be breathing through the orifice with the "non-vented" mask, you would be rebreathing and could get a high CO2 buildup. Not good.

How about one of these? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47065&p=423997#p423997

falvesjr wrote:Does anyone know of a source for a "Y" adapter for xPAP tubing? I have a crazy idea I want to try, but would need to split the airstream in two.

hi,
I have a catalog from an online site that has just about any tubing you can want. Including food grade if you want. It also has many adapters...maybe you can see something there.

http://www.usplastic.com

I am interested to see what you are making. You sound like my son. He is always making something.

rooster wrote:While we are way out on a limb hypothesizing, think about this. You say you will seal off one of the mask's vents. Now maybe you will be breathing through one or the other orifice almost exclusively due to your anatomy or whatever. If you happen to be breathing through the orifice with the "non-vented" mask, you would be rebreathing and could get a high CO2 buildup. Not good.

Re-breathing CO2 is definitely not good! I'm not sure that would happen given human physiology if the vent is at the nose mask, but I suppose it could. Maybe a half-half split on the vents would work, but this warrants more investigation...

rooster wrote:How about one of these? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=47065&p=423997#p423997

I saw that the other day but didn't pay much attention to it then. It might be helpful in conjunction with tape, but I doubt it would work (for me) on its own. My mouth is very leaky!

littleredtree, thanks for the encouragement and interest! I'm a tinkerer too and want to see where this leads. It may not work or may not be safe, but I think it's worth a try. Are there any fluid dynamicists out there who want to weigh in on the venting issue?