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NightHawkeye:
During testing of the BiPAP-auto I found the following:
1) Heated Humidifier shuts down on mouth breathing if alarm is enabled. Although machine turns back on automatically when mouth breathing stops (except that doesn't work with some masks), the HH does not automatically turn back on, rather it stays OFF. However, I also found that HH stays ON if alarm is not enabled. Go figure . . .

Hmmm, I have NEVER turned on my alarm. When I have time, I will try this experiment also.

Moogy

I always turn on my HH to preheat the water....and if I don't mask up and start the machine within about 10 minutes, the HH shuts off. But once the machine is going I have never had the humidifier shut off during the night.

I had the feeling my HH was turning off in the night also. But I've been paying attention closely for the last couple of days and my experience is exactly the same as Gidgie's above.

I paid closer attentio to it last night - the first really bad night I've had.

The HH stayed on until I powered down at about 0300 because my nosed was stopped and I needed to get vertical for a few minutes to clear ir. I left the HH off when I went back to bed, taking the opportunity to see if cooler air would decrease stuffiness. (It seemed to, but I was on my back for most of the rest of the night, which gives me mouth leaks bigtime.

I do have my alarm enabled, but it never came on, even though I had multiple mouth leak episodes - the episodes themselvwes woke me. I tested that alarm, though, when I forst got the unit, and it takes a while to be triggered - more than a minute, maybe 2. I can check, though, to see if the alarm affects the HH on my unit, and will let you know. I agree - the HH should not go off until the user chops the airflow manually.

Just a comment about pre-heating....

I've stopped pre-heating my hh after reading some of the posts in other threads on this forum which speculated about moisture getting into the machine while the hh is on with out the blower running. I happen to agree this could be a real possibility, so I now just turn my hh on when I start the blower.

And, if I don't have time to rinse the tank, hose and mask when I first wake up, I slide the tank forward a bit to disconnect the hh from the blower. I don't really see any difference in the moisturing effect if I pre-heat or don't pre-heat. I know the unit is "designed" to be pre-heated, and that the baffle in the tank is "supposed" to eliminate moisture back-up, but I personally don't trust the design (can you tell I'm an engineer??)

This is probably overkill, but I had to shell out the cost for my equipment out of pocket. I don't have the luxury of having a dme replace it if something goes wrong, so I need it to last as long as possible.


Bob

[quote="Gidgie"]I always turn on my HH to preheat the water....and if I don't mask up and start the machine within about 10 minutes, the HH shuts off. But once the machine is going I have never had the humidifier shut off during the night.

[quote="snoozalot"]Just a comment about pre-heating....

I've stopped pre-heating my hh after reading some of the posts in other threads on this forum which speculated about moisture getting into the machine while the hh is on with out the blower running. I happen to agree this could be a real possibility, so I now just turn my hh on when I start the blower.

And, if I don't have time to rinse the tank, hose and mask when I first wake up, I slide the tank forward a bit to disconnect the hh from the blower. I don't really see any difference in the moisturing effect if I pre-heat or don't pre-heat. I know the unit is "designed" to be pre-heated, and that the baffle in the tank is "supposed" to eliminate moisture back-up, but I personally don't trust the design (can you tell I'm an engineer??)

This is probably overkill, but I had to shell out the cost for my equipment out of pocket. I don't have the luxury of having a dme replace it if something goes wrong, so I need it to last as long as possible.


Bob

Well I did not preheat my water last night. I turned my cpap on at the same time as the H&H and they were both still on this morning. So I think it's safe to say that it (the H&H) shuts off if you don't turn on the cpap right away.

I will retest tonight to double check and make sure.

I have not been able to get it to fail agian. Maybe I dremed it before.

I too have stopped "pre-heating." I like to start out with a cooler stream, in the hopes that I will be asleep before it gets too warm. But I have to warm it or it does not carry enough moisture to keep my nose from internal dessication.

Cool vs. warm does not seem to affect my stuffiness all that much, either. It's a perpetual crap shoot, or so it seems.

robin

NightHawkeye wrote:

NightHawkeye wrote:If I have time this evening I'll run just a few tests to see if I can figure anything out.

During testing of the BiPAP-auto I found the following:
1) Heated Humidifier shuts down on mouth breathing if alarm is enabled. Although machine turns back on automatically when mouth breathing stops (except that doesn't work with some masks), the HH does not automatically turn back on, rather it stays OFF. However, I also found that HH stays ON if alarm is not enabled. Go figure . . .

Regards,
Bill

ding ding ding!

That's what I was going to suggest as a possible cause.