Humidifier failure, Respironics System One

Unit looks more or less like this one:

It's about a year-and-a-half old. Provider's robocall suggested replacing the reservoir. Despite gentle cleaning, the graduation markings are partly gone, and the plastic looks very slightly hazy instead of crystal clear, so I said OK. New one seemed like an exact replacement and seemed to fit.

Two nights ago, I noticed that the reservoir was almost full in the morning and the humidifier warning light was blinking silently. Unplugged everything, separated main unit and humidifier, reassembled everything, same thing last night. Interior of humidifier compartment, and the heater and reservoir metal pads, all seem clean. Reservoir has never been allowed to run dry. (I fill it to the 3/4 mark and it's usually above the 1/4 mark in the morning).

But I suspect it's not coincidence that it happened just after I replaced the reservoir, though, and wondered if anyone had any experiences or tips to share?

Will be bringing unit into the sleep therapy center on Monday, I'm sure all will be dealt with, but as I say wondered if anyone's had a similar experience.

Medicare and most insurance companies will pay for a new reservoir tank every six months. So I imagine a lot of people change theirs out and never have a problem. I ordered a new reservoir tank at the six month mark just to have a back up spare, but I've never needed to change it out in 2 years plus of continuous use. I clean weekly (most of the time ).

Was their a problem with the old tank other than it was old? If no, did you try putting the old tank back in and using that one?

I have a Respironics One with A-Flex and it woke me up the other night because it had shut down and the alarm was going off. I started it up again and it ran for a few moments (with the humidifier light blinking) and then it shut down again. I disconnected the humidifier unit and the CPAP worked fine for the rest of the night so I left the humidifier unattached. Ordered a new humidifier and when I connected that one, the exact same think happened, blinking heat light and shut down after a slight period of time. Luckily I found a unit on Craig's list ($250, what a bargain!) that was identical and the guy had only used it for 2 hours before deciding he couldn't tolerate it. So, back up and running and hopefully things will be back to normal tonight. Now I have 3 humidifiers, plenty of backup.

The flashing light indicates and issue with the motherboard/connections inside. Typically when it is flashing, and you take it apart, the connection into the motherboard is melted to some degree. That is my understanding so far.

This happens to be the EXACT problem I am having, and the reason I will be upgrading shortly.

I'm guessing Respironics somewhat under-sized either the connector itself or the traces on the PCB so that the current flowing through them causes too much heat. It's a shame because otherwise I really like this device.

I know the two top manufacturers are ResMed and Respironics (more accurately, Philips Respironics). Aside from this issue (which took 3+ years to happen) I am partial to Respironics products, but I wonder if ResMed or Respironics tends to be more reliable?

For instance, my first machine was a Remstar Plus CPAP machine (https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machine/respi ... -cpap.html). That got replaced with the series M and at the same time I joined the APAP crowd. That machine got replaced with my current system (a Series 1). If I could remember when I was first diagnosed that might help ... but I remember the first machine was a tank ... I still have it and it still works. The remainder have had various levels of success between 1 and 3 years. I don't think I am especially hard on them, either. The Series M unit was the worst. I don't think it lasted much more than a year. It was replaced free of charge by Respironics with the current Series 1 (which impressed me to stay with them).

There are youtube videos going through the machine, you can turn it on without the reservoir in place and see if the plate gets warm, mine just failed, I hear it is a common problem, if I can get everyone on the same page and get a new one, I will take my old one apart ( three years old)

one thing I did hear was not to run the humidifier on 5, it burns it out..